SIAP: Freep Article (Sorry) on MSU "Culture of Silence"
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/01/28/michigan-sta…
Sure seems that this goes way beyond Nasser, or even just athletes. A student waiting 117 days for a ruling on her accusation of sexual assault against an instructor? Students unable to even get appointments with rape crisis counselors, or getting turned away from a rape hotline? This is jiust really ugly stuff. Wrap together Nasser, the Izzo (Walton, Paine + Appling), Dantonio (4 rapes last year alone, plus the other stories coming out), and what appears to be a similar attitude about sexual violence across the entire campus, and this is just really bad.
January 28th, 2018 at 11:39 AM ^
Have similar institutional failings but just haven’t hit the media spotlight as of yet. I suspect there are probably more than a few out there.
January 28th, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^
The thing is there have been signs this has been happening for a while at MSU. We’ve kind of expected things were being swept under the rug. We just had no idea how deep and disturbing it was.
January 28th, 2018 at 12:39 PM ^
Prosecutors-Cops-Campus Cops-Administrators-Coaches-Local Media
The community was protecting the golden goose and everyone lost their moral compass.
January 28th, 2018 at 1:11 PM ^
I have a close friend whose brother-in-law is a cop there. Supposedly there are lots of issues over the years that aren't known with MSU basketball players, but that the girls will back off their claims once the police arrive.
January 28th, 2018 at 1:25 PM ^
and burn it to the ground.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:15 PM ^
I forget now, but wasn't Mateen Cleaves accused of some pretty serious crime, only for it to seemingly disappear from public notice?
January 28th, 2018 at 3:06 PM ^
A 1998 story I wrote for The State News about how MSU tried to convince East Lansing not to make public a police report on an alleged assault committed by baskeball star Mateen Cleaves. pic.twitter.com/ydz5uQco6o
— Zach Gorchow (@ZachGorchow) January 27, 2018
January 28th, 2018 at 1:58 PM ^
is one of those local guys that has buried stories for awhile. Now he comes out with an article defending Izzo and Dantonio, Couch is part of the problem too.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:27 PM ^
He should also be held accountable for the cover up.
January 28th, 2018 at 5:37 PM ^
when the people who tell him what to do are in trouble.
January 28th, 2018 at 10:58 PM ^
Deserves to burn
January 28th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^
I think there are very few on the scale of what we are seeing at MSU right now. All the evidence points toward a culture of protecting the reputation of athletes accused of crimes AND the institution overall - at the expense of victims. It's hard to fathom how all this came to be, since we should presume that the vast majority of people who attend and graduate from MSU don't support this kind of philosophy. But sometimes within the leadership of any organization, a mindset starts to develop that is perpetuated from department to department, or from mentor to successor.
However it happened, what is clear here is that a global RESET button needs to be pushed within the MSU community, at least on the topic of sexual abuse.
January 28th, 2018 at 7:35 PM ^
was common knowledge, talked about here, on MSU message boards, going back a decade. Where were the News and Free Press all this time? Doing a big expose of Michigan that involved stretching. Glad they are jumping on the bandwagon now, after the Indy Star and ESPN uncover these stories, but. . . they could have helped shut this down, too.
January 28th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
That most big schools have similar skeletons in the closet. MSU isn't the first to attempt to hide this ugliness and they sure as hell won't be the last.
January 28th, 2018 at 12:20 PM ^
The first one is the kind of make believe that people spout when they get caught.
Most of these things weren't deeply buried. MSU has had a particularly bad reputation for tolerating sexual assaults and other crimes by athletes against their students for years.
January 28th, 2018 at 1:21 PM ^
"SpilledMilk" seems to be a concern troll so I guess it's not surprising he's engaging in whataboutism.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:31 PM ^
He's an absolute trash poster. Always with some bullshit.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:11 PM ^
upvote for using “whataboutiam”!
January 28th, 2018 at 4:32 PM ^
That's the biggest pile of crap. "everyone else does it" just doesn't fly when you are talking about covering up rape and sexual assualt.
January 28th, 2018 at 6:35 PM ^
If "most big schools have similar skeletons in the closet" then it is all the more reason to hammer MSU basketball and football into oblivion with NCAA sanctions so that other schools will not accept rape culture.
Rape is an evil and violent crime. The NCAA should err on the side of going too extreme rather than soft if MSU coaches and AD officials helped sweep rapes under the rug for wins.
Schools need to feel that it isn't worth the risk of post season bans and scholarship losses to help a rapist get off and win them games.
January 28th, 2018 at 11:56 AM ^
The pervasive nature of this cover up and enabling is just staggering.
What was it the MSU board of trustee said," People are lining up to get in MSU?"
The dismissive arrogance toward these last 10 plus years of a cultural blight just makes me think MSU's trangressions are widespread on an unprecednted level. Time will tell, but it appears that this was a singular focused machine of winning sports events and games. No shame. No stone unturned, if it meant winning.
MSU's story has so much smoke now though that they will be made an example. There is no way this story gets buried. It will get even uglier.
I think the narrative has to focus on the victims and their families. Get those stories out and there's little the MSU slappies can say to stop the reckoning. Truth will hurt but it will be brought to light. Break the silence!
January 28th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
Moment, similar to Harvey Weinstein for Hollywood.
January 28th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^
I'm sure there are a lot. I'm still kinda wondering how it happened twice at Notre Dame so far under Kelly and nothing really happened.
January 28th, 2018 at 3:51 PM ^
murders people, steals from you, steals from me, whatever.
January 29th, 2018 at 1:23 AM ^
Don't try to normalize the Culture of Sexual Assault at Michgan State University by insinuating that it "happens at other schools."
While some other schools may indeed do this, it is not "business as usual," nor is it commonplace. What happened at MSU is very, very wrong and is the biggest sexual abuse scandal in the history of sports.
Nothing of this scope is happening anywhere else or there would be some obvious signs that something was going on. You know: like the signs the media and the MSU administration ignored during the reigns of Nassar, Izzo and Dantonio...
January 28th, 2018 at 11:41 AM ^
While this is fun because it's happening at MSU, this happens at a lot of schools. Journalists are just seizing the opportunity to piggyback off the ESPN report
January 28th, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
This has nothing to do with the rivalry. This is about rapes and assaults and cover-ups and putting the institution and athletes and coaches/administrators way above the victims, including children.
Nothing further from "fun" than what's been going on.
January 28th, 2018 at 12:25 PM ^
Yes I agree. Poor choice of words. Don't kill me.
For the record, I find the Nassar shit magnitudes worse than this. I'm just annoyed that the Dantonio/Izzo issues are getting more attention now just because they are bigger names
January 28th, 2018 at 12:34 PM ^
because they are still in their positions and they are powerful people within an organization with a systemic issue. Nassar is in jail for life - not much “reckoning” left for the media there.
Either of them could change the narrative instantly by taking a leave of absence, admitting issues were mishandled in the past and offering to cooperate. Instead, they’re trying to wall off their programs from the larger issue. There will dozens or hundreds of incidents for people to reopen just based on the number of years and number of players.
The only way for MSU to move past this situation is those two must exit. The media and PR narrative won’t go away because there are too many skeletons in their closets with players escaping punishment.
January 28th, 2018 at 1:26 PM ^
You're "annoyed" that dozens of rapes and sexual assaults are "getting more attention now?"
"Annoyed?"
Is there some sort of bizarre, fucked-up contest in your brain over which is the worst form of sexual assault, and you're getting "annoyed" because the one you think is less horrible is now getting attention?
January 28th, 2018 at 1:28 PM ^
Not all press is good press. Izzo and Dantonio are not enjoying this attention.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:08 PM ^
yea pretty much
January 28th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
He undoubtedly RCMB
January 28th, 2018 at 2:21 PM ^
He undoubtedly RCMB
January 28th, 2018 at 1:34 PM ^
You are starting to talk like a troll, either you are one or a troll hacked your account. When we were under the spotlight for stretchgate and ed martin, I am sure that you and your friends at rcmb were also jumping up and down for glee. In this case there are REAL victims here.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:10 PM ^
Ok, well I have my opinions. I'm just morally infererior to you fine gentlemen
January 28th, 2018 at 3:16 PM ^
Saying that you’re annoyed that Izzo and Dantonio are correctly having their feet held to the fire after enabling a rape culture for years does make you morally inferior to us. We are on the correct side of this scandal and you are not. Your opinion is trash.
January 28th, 2018 at 3:30 PM ^
I'm not on anyone's side here and your assessment of what I said is flawed
January 28th, 2018 at 4:37 PM ^
Nope, just a dickhead.
January 28th, 2018 at 2:17 PM ^
I don't think anyone is minimizing the Nassar fallout with the revelations against Izzo and Dantonio. The larger point here is that there is a culture at MSU which for years fostered predatory behavior, squashed complaints and hid everything from scrutiny as best that it could. It's a systemic problem, and while the net has reached into the revenue programs, I don't think anyone will forget what was revealed first.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:35 PM ^
Sure the girls that were assualted by BBall players don't deserve justice like Nassar's victims.
January 29th, 2018 at 6:18 AM ^
Nassar has been convicted and sentenced to what will be life in jail.
The investigation continues into how MSU let Nassar get away with it and if MSU was letting players rape girls and stay on the basketball and football teams.
The ongoing investigations will get more attention than a concluded one.
January 28th, 2018 at 11:46 AM ^
*stares
January 28th, 2018 at 11:47 AM ^
Any nieces you’d never let your lips say that &$)!
January 28th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^
Nah, if you had the capability of basic human empathy
January 28th, 2018 at 11:54 AM ^
Well you win. Not sure where your point differs! But ok.
January 28th, 2018 at 1:47 PM ^
BecUse we don’t need to frame these things with “If you had a daughter/wife/female relative of any kind.” It’s wrong and people should feel that way regardless of whether you have affiliation with females. Goes for all situations with an oppressor and victim. You don’t need association to feel a certain way about it.
January 28th, 2018 at 4:50 PM ^
A LOT of people out there show a surprising lack of empathy. They can't connect to an experience on a right/wrong level unless they have a personal stake in the matter. It's REALLY concerning when the thought process goes like:
"Well I'm not sure how I feel, I mean I like [insert school or person] so I don't see how it's a big deal..wait I have a sister THIS IS A FUCKING TRAVESTY"
January 28th, 2018 at 11:49 AM ^
Fun? Go fuck yourself, man.