The day CNN went dark at Penn State

Did you hear about the shocking moment last week, when everyone was waiting for the investigative report on the Penn State child abuse cover-up and televisions at the Penn State student center suddenly switched to some reporter talking about the state budget on a public affairs show?

Stories appeared all over on places like Deadpsin, and speculation raged that another cover-up was underway, to keep the truth from students on campus.

There was no conspiracy, but the big switch did happen, and the guy explaining the state budget was my buddy John Micek, state capitol correspondent for the Allentown Morning Call, and writer of the must-read blog on doings in Harrisburg, Capitol Ideas.

Micek explains what happens in this post, and it turns out the sets had been programmed to go to Pennsylvania Cable Network, which had committed to carrying the Louis Freeh news conference live. Before it started, PCN was carrying the informative review of the state budget featuring Micek and others. If the sets had stayed on CNN, a Penn State alternative web site noted, “the audience would have been delighted to an hour of jumped conclusions from the same network that informed us that Healthcare Reform had been fully repealed.”

I’ll add that I’m a regular watcher of PCN, whose seasoned crew of reporters and videographers cover important events involving state politics and government, as well as lots of stuff about Pennsylvania life and culture. Find their schedule here.