In the last two-plus years, we’ve spilled a lot of ink, recorded a lot of video, and chewed up a lot of bytes about the outrages we’ve seen from Donald Trump and those acting in his name. But one prominent right-wing talker is engaging in some pretty outrageous behavior that isn’t getting nearly as much press. Specifically, harassing and stalking sexual assault victims.
Right-wing radio host and documentary filmmaker John Ziegler has spent the last few years trying to prove that former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was framed for molesting dozens of children from 1994 to 2009. It started out as an effort to clear the name of legendary football coach Joe Paterno, but Ziegler now claims that Sandusky is innocent.
On March 16, he dropped by Glenn Beck’s show to discuss his campaign. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Ziegler claims that all of Sandusky’s victims lied on the stand, and that everyone in Happy Valley knows the whole thing was “fake news.” He initially believed Sandusky was guilty. However, that changed after he spent some time some time “doing the math” on “the Jerry Sandusky element” of the scandal. After interviewing Sandusky in prison and doing some more research, he believes “Jerry Sandusky is innocent, and it’s not even close.” Beck was initially skeptical. But by the end of the show, he was wondering if Sandusky had indeed been framed.
Okay, John and Glenn. I’ll play. For those who don’t remember, at least 10 now-grown men were victimized by Sandusky over a 15-year period. You mean to tell me that they got together and conspired to frame Sandusky? That’s what you’d have to believe in order to argue that Sandusky is serving 30 to 60 years in prison–effectively a life sentence–on the basis of perjured testimony.
Moreover, just days before Ziegler went on the air, two of the Penn State officials who failed to protect those kids, former athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president Gary Schultz, pleaded guilty to charges that they failed to report Sandusky’s abuse. A third, former president Graham Spanier, was convicted of child endangerment a few days later.
It would be easy to file this away as just another case of alternative facting by a talk radio wingnut. But it’s far worse than that. Apparently his idea of “doing the math” involves what any fair-minded person would consider to be harassment and stalking.
I showed Right Wing Watch’s coverage of Ziegler’s appearance to Dawn Daniels Hennessy, the mother of Aaron Fisher–better known as Victim 1. Aaron, for those who don’t remember, was molested by Sandusky from the time he was 12 until early in his senior year–on some occasions, showing up at school without permission and taking him off campus. He came forward in 2008, starting the investigation that ultimately brought down Sandusky.
Hennessy hit the ceiling. She told me that over the years, Ziegler has repeatedly trespassed on both her property, even going as far as taking pictures “inside my garage and my yard and my house.” She also says that Ziegler done the same to Aaron as well. For a time, he’d posted a number of those pictures to his Website, “Framing Paterno,” but was forced to turn it down after Hennessy called in a lawyer.
The fact that Ziegler finds it acceptable to stalk even one of the people who brought down this monster is horrifying enough. But Hennessy revealed that Ziegler has stalked other victims as well. I was able to confirm this when I spoke with Pennsylvania’s victim advocate, Jennifer Storm. Storm told me that Ziegler has been stalking victims since at least 2012. He has posted their pictures, addresses, and telephone numbers to his Website, “Framing Paterno.” You’ll have to take my word for it. I’m not linking to anything on that site because I will not aid and abet a cyberstalker. By 2013, it had gotten so bad that when she got word Ziegler was due to appear on “Anderson Cooper 360,” she felt compelled to call Cooper’s producers to alert them about what he was doing. They canceled him within minutes.
Now here’s where this really gets hideous. Even though there is no doubt that Ziegler’s actions are criminal, he has yet to be prosecuted for harassing these victims. According to Storm, this is due to an industrial-size loophole in Pennsylvania’s rape shield law. In order to press charges of harassment and stalking against Ziegler, the victims whose names haven’t been made public would have to agree to drop their anonymity. Never mind that, by any real-world standard, these men are being targeted solely because they spoke out against Sandusky. As Storm put it, this amounts to “re-victimization.”
Storm told me that none of the victims stalked by Ziegler are nearly healed enough emotionally to go through a trial without assurances that their anonymity will be protected. The Pennsylvania legislature tried to close this loophole with a law that passed with bipartisan support–but it was tossed out as unconstitutional. However, Storm says that she is actively working to find a way to close this loophole. Ziegler knows this–and is thus essentially able to stalk with impunity.
Ziegler has only faced charges once for his stalkerish behavior. Last year, he loudly proclaimed that he intended to cause a scene at an event in Lewisburg, at which Sandusky’s son, Matt, was slated to speak. Matt came forward soon after his father’s case went to the jury and claimed that his father had molested him for years. When Ziegler made good on his vow to act like an idiot, he was forcibly removed and arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest–but not before loudly calling Matt a liar. Rather than face nine years in jail, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
There was already enough even without Ziegler’s stalkerish behavior to prove that he has no credibility whatsoever. Ziegler first gained notice for producing documentaries that accuse Bill Clinton of causing the September 11 attacks, and for suggesting that Obama only won in 2008 because the big, bad librul media ganged up on Sarah Palin. In 2013, he appeared on the “Today Show” to air clips of a jailhouse interview with Sandusky. This prompted the Paterno family to not only disavow Ziegler’s work, but condemn it as an insult to the victims. But Ziegler’s stalking of sexual assault victims takes this to another level–one of right and wrong.
While it is currently prohibitively impossible to put Ziegler in jail where he belongs, there is something that can be done here and now. Ziegler ended his over-the-air weekend show in January; it is now a weekly podcast. However, he is currently writing for Mediaite. It’s hard to believe that Mediaite’s owner, Dan Abrams, would allow Ziegler to write another column if he knew about Ziegler’s outrageously criminal behavior. Drop Abrams a line on his contact page, on Facebook, or on Twitter and tell him that Ziegler must be fired.
(featured image courtesy Ziegler’s Twitter)
