I am definitely pulled into Sandusky/Penn St Scandal. While I am fan of shows like Law & Order and Criminal Minds, I normally not too interested in the real life crime dramas that are featured on shows like Nancy Grace on Headline News.  I could give some highfalutin academic basis for my interest in the case.  There are a few.  But there is also the mere spectacle of the media frenzy that involves a legendary coach, a respected big-time university, and host of other facets, like a defense attorney who lets his client do a phone interview on national television.

The Costas-Sandusky interview is one of the creepiest train wrecks in television history.  It is hard to think of something that would compete with it for the top spot. 

And to know the victims have to watch the whole spectacle, listen to it, read about it, in many cases causing more trauma.

And not to be able to look away from the whole spectacle.

One of the side paths of muck has to be the message boards on articles on this scandal. 

I have been known to go to ESPN from time to time to check on the latest significant news regarding such significant topics like college football.  And as this scandal unfolded in its early days of national attention, one of the places that I followed the latest developments (like rioting students angered over the firing of Paterno) was ESPN.  And once the article was read, I would click on the comment section.

Now I was in no way expecting a highly academic discussion on the topic, having experienced the ESPN message boards before.  Before Sandusky, the biggest thing for people was writing the incredibly unwitty '[insert anything under the blue moon] > Tebow' joke.  An example would be someone writing 'Dagblog comments>Tebow' and then someone following that with 'censored Dagblog comments > Tebow.'  And then it would go downhill from there.

At times, however, the conversation on the boards regarding Sandusky related stories maintained a certain level of seriousness, with a just a few inappropriate comment thrown in (such as using the whole story as example why homosexuals should be kept away from kids).  But as time has gone on the competition among those who can make the best crude joke about Sandusky, Penn State, Joe Paterno, and right now McQueary has taken over the boards.

And I find myself reading them with some distorted fascination as they pop up.  Spend enough time and you see one person fixated on one unfunny joke about using the acronym of PSU, and another using the number of times he has had to create a new account because the others have been banned for inappropriate comments as some kind of badge of honor.  It is a nation of Beavis' going "Uh huh huh huh...he said horseplay." (and then someone commenting 'Beavis going Uh huh huh huh > Tebow)

There is the reflex of not being able to turn away as one passes a car wreck on the highway.  We don't want to look, but we do.  Most of the time we don't see much at all.  Some mangled wreckage, broken glasss, first responders and tow truck drivers.  But sometimes we see something we really don't want to see.  Or do we?  And then there we are in the muck of our fascinations.