Local, national media descend on Syracuse to cover Fine allegations

UPDATED: Nov. 21, 2011, 3:22 p.m.

Almost every major national news outlet reported on the investigation and at least a dozen news organizations sent reporters to Syracuse, where some are staked outside Fine's house, after ESPN broke the story on Thursday.

The coverage now, according to sports journalists and media ethics experts, is driven by several factors: The new police investigation adds newsworthiness and legitimacy to the allegations against Fine; an additional accuser – Mike Lang, stepbrother of Bobby Davis – came forward; and the recent sexual abuse scandal at Penn State put competitive pressures on news organizations to avoid charges of covering up sexual abuse allegations.

The Syracuse Police Department is now investigating the allegations that date back to the 1980s. The Post-Standard and ESPN looked into the allegations when the initial accuser, Davis, first made them to each news organization in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The news organizations did not publish the accusations then, they said, because of a lack of confirmation.

But the current factors for coverage also mean the media is at risk of sensationalizing the story, experts and sports journalists say. The key to evaluating the coverage depends on how aggressively reporters work to find the truth about the allegations.

"You don't want to be accused of covering up wrongdoing," said Ed Wasserman, the Knight Chair in Journalism Ethics and a professor at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. In the wake of the Jerry Sandusky news at Penn State, Wasserman said, allegations such as this are hot news items and the pressure is on news outlets to react and report quickly. Not reporting quickly could result in backlash.

"It's obviously a very dangerous and very volatile environment for the media," Wasserman said, "and the pressure is on to be far more aggressive, even to the point of recklessness."

ESPN first reported the investigation and had both accusers, Davis and Lang, on air Thursday detailing the alleged molestation. Both ESPN and The Post-Standard say they looked into the claims Davis made in the early 2000s, but could not find enough evidence to corroborate the allegations and chose not to publish the information. When the claims were brought to Syracuse police at that time, no investigation was completed because the statute of limitations was expired.

Questions on The Post-Standard's reporting were directed to executive editor Mike Connor. As of 1:30 p.m. on Saturday Connor was not available for comment.

On Saturday evening, Connor published an article detailing why The Post-Standard did not publish a story in 2003. The article also said that The Post-Standard interviewed Lang at that time, and he did not confirm Davis' claims. Just as in 2003, there are many steps to undergo to continue assessing the validity of the allegations, Connor wrote. "This time, we still have some distance to travel before we discover what's patently true and false."

Syracuse police have not responded to The Daily Orange as of 3 p.m. on Saturday for comment on how an investigation can be opened now.

ESPN chose to publish now largely because a second alleged victim came forth, said David Scott, director of communications for ESPN. It is the only news organization that published an interview with Lang.

"Having someone that had also been in a similar situation, that's what kind of changed things for us," Scott said. The reporter who broke the news, Mark Schwarz, "has been explaining in his reporting and that's the reason he's gone on air with it now," Scott said.

Since the news of the allegations hit, media outlets reported on vehement denials from Fine, men's basketball head coach Jim Boeheim and a number of other people associated with the basketball program. Coverage also focused on the 2005 investigation by Syracuse University and the investigation now underway.

Dara McBride, editor in chief of The Daily Orange, said four editors on the paper's sports staff in addition to several writers and some news reporters are working on various angles of the story.  The reporters have been "contacting people they thought might have leads and might have interesting opinions on the development and reaction to the Fine allegations." The reporters have had trouble reaching Syracuse police, and SU's Department of Public Safety is directing all calls to SU's administration and the Syracuse police, McBride said.

The new police investigation is one of the forces driving the allegations into reportable territory that was not there in 2003, said Wasserman, Knight Chair in Journalism Ethics. Beyond reporting the investigation, he said, it is important for news outlets to analyze how credible the witnesses are.

Fine, Wasserman said, "is a person in a position of public trust, and I think the charges are serious and I think the charges are reportable."

He added, "What you do with it, how aggressively you go with it, how zealously you go about reporting it and how much prominence you give this, these are all very important matters."

David Rubin, a professor of media law at SU, disagrees the police investigation is enough to report on and said he thinks ESPN acted unethically in running the story on Thursday. He said nothing in ESPN's reporting so far has indicated enough of a change from what it knew in 2003 to justify running the story now, aside from the recent Penn State scandal. The Penn State scandal is not enough reason for the media to relax its ethical standards, he said.