The CNN report is using Bernie McCue to corroborate his story. The 11 year old claims to have told his 35 year old friend McCue the story a year after it happens. Why didn't McCue report it to the police? He is a grown man. So essentially one of the biggest Paterno protesters actually helped keep Sandusky silent. The story also left out that McCue has a criminal history of harrassing people at the university even prior to the Sandusky scandal. This is the source they are using to confirm this story along with a trooper he told in 2011 after the story went national.
I don't know anything about McCue, but if what you say is true then I grant that it may greatly affect the man's credibility.
But the problem is that with every new allegation, one needs to continually give Paterno the benefit of the doubt in order to maintain his innocence in all of this. At this point, the narrative that Joe really didn't know what was going on requires one to:
- Assume that McQuery (sp?) didn't convey clearly enough exactly what Sandusky was doing with the underage boy in the shower.
- Conclude that the Freeh report in general - which concludes that the higher-ups at Penn State, including Paterno, materially knew about Sandusky's behavior - was biased and intended to implicate the administration and Paterno, or in some other way materially flawed.
- More specifically, accept or believe that the "Joe/Coach" in the email cited in the Freeh report was someone other than Joe Paterno.
- Assume that the recent claim coming from the insurance company is fabricated.
- Discount the story from the victim who recently claimed to have spoken with Joe Paterno (as well as the story from the corroborating witness).
This is by no means a complete list..
Now if one believes that Paterno was such a good guy that he could never turn a blind eye to what Sandusky was doing, then that person can explain away all of the above... Like anything else, at the end of the day, people are going to believe what they want to believe. But to a casual, unbiased observer, it's difficult to reconcile all of the claims without coming to some very negative conclusions about Paterno.