Why weren’t more people talking about the Larry Nassar trial?
Jan 20, 2018, 8:31 AM | Updated: Jan 23, 2018, 2:04 pm
More than 100 women have come forward to testify against Dr. Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State physician facing a sentencing hearing this week after he plead guilty to numerous criminal sexual conduct charges.
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USA Gymanstics national team members Alexandra Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, and Gabby Douglas are among the almost 130 women who have accused Nassar of sexual abuse. Still, three of the biggest cable news networks – FOX, CNN and MSNBC – spent less than 20 minutes combined covering Nassar’s abuse and sentencing hearing.
Mike Salk explained why he was especially disappointed with the lack of coverage during 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock and Salk, but said he hopes a change in tone is coming — not just for the amount of coverage given to Nassar’s abuse, but also, a change in the culture that allows institutions to keep abuse hidden.
“I think people are starting to wake up to just how awful this story is,” Salk said.
“There are so many different parts to this story, but I just wanted to focus on one, and that is the culture of keeping things hidden. It is becoming to me more and more clear what a disaster that is, and whether it is what happened here, what happened at Penn State, what happened in the Catholic church, what has happened at times in the Me Too movement and everything we’ve seen in hollywood or in politics, the idea of covering for people has to be one of the paths forward for us as a society that has to end.
“The idea of covering for people or, similarly, allowing them to go from job to job … we have to find a path forward and not allow people who are serial abusers in any fashion to continue to go from one job to the next.”