The social media takes on Paterno's death

The death of Joe Paterno was two events in one.

The first was the close of a life of heroic peaks and a tragic denouement.

The second was the gigantic Internet shadow of the event: the tweets, blogs, posts, and retweets, reposts, and comments, from thousands, perhaps millions, of people across the Web. All major news events now cast this immense shadow. And it can affect the very news itself, as it did in this case.

Sadness and snark. The Internet lets thousands of individuals post their reactions instantly - to anything, an index of immediate emotion.

NFL.com posted several Penn State graduates, now NFL players, tweeting their thoughts on Paterno. The Eagles' DeSean Jackson tweeted: "R.I.P Joe Paterno many years at high success.. Legacy leads on!! Sendin my prayers to all friends an fam of the Paterno's." New York Jets linebacker Aaron Maybin tweeted: "Thank You Joe 4 taking a chance on me & helping to make me into the man I am today. i will never forget the lessons i learned from u." Similar mourning and sadness reverberated throughout the social-media world.

But Paterno's final chapter, overshadowed by his troubling connection to the Jerry Sandusky scandal, also was reflected in the social-media reaction to his death. Beyond mourning and sadness, it continued the furious debate over sexual abuse of minors and the proper responsibilities of onlookers, colleagues, and superiors who suspect it is happening.

It was the same furious debate that has raged on radio, Twitter, cable TV, and the blogosphere since early November, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Sandusky was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges of child molestation from 1994 to 2009. Paterno was soon fired by Penn State's board of trustees, who believed he had not done enough when he learned of the allegations from an assistant coach.

Lines were drawn immediately, between those outraged at the trustees' action and sensing a media attack on Paterno and those who felt that Paterno, if treated harshly, had indeed not done enough. And those lines were still much in evidence around the Web.