Bob Costas Sounds Off About Jerry Sandusky Interview on The Daily Show
Sportscaster and NBC correspondent Bob Costas discussed his controversial interview with former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Costas said he was originally set to interview Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, about the charges being brought against the former football coach for child sexual abuse spanning a 15-year period. However, shortly before the interview started, Amendola offered to have his client speak.
"Less than half an hour before we were to sit down he said, 'What if we can get Sandusky on the phone?" Costas said. "And I'm thinking, perhaps that isn't the best idea from your standpoint, but yes, yes we'll do that."
Jon Stewart responded, "did he ever, like, as he was leaving, lean in and go, 'Oh, by the way, I'm a terrible lawyer?'"
Stewart said he was most struck by Sandusky's answer to the question of whether or not he was sexually attracted to boys, as he said that Sandusky danced around the question much like a guilty person would.
"He said I enjoy being around young people…and then he eventually got to, 'But am I sexually attracted to them, no'," said Costas. "It took 17 seconds before the word 'no' came out."
However, when Costas asked Sandusky if he was a pedophile, he immediately said no.
"I wonder if in his deluded, poisoned head he thinks there's a difference between being a pedophile and being attracted," said Stewart.
Amidst the child abuse scandals that have been making headlines across the nation, first at Penn State and followed by Syracuse when allegations were brought against assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, Costas said something good will come out of the media spotlight on the issue on child sex abuse.
"If anything good is going to come out of this, there's going to be an awareness of, if you see something or if you have reason to suspect something that involves children being taken advantage of, it's certainly not enough to turn away or say, 'I passed it on to my immediate superior'," said Costas. "You have to follow through, and institutions have to have procedures. I think you're going to find more and more that they're going to do background checks on coaches, assistant coaches, anyone who works with these kids."
