Why is it that none of the former Ohio State University wrestlers are claiming to have told Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, they were “sexually abused,” but the media keep saying they did?
And it’s striking how “sexual abuse” is a phrase only used by news reports describing what happened at the school, while none of the school’s former wrestlers who were coached by Jordan are quoted recalling it that way at the time.
Rather than horrific accounts of being physically violated, most of the ex-wrestlers actually describe remembering their experience with the creepy Dr. Richard Strauss as something more like fraternity hazing.
Here are quotes from several of the former wrestlers:
”It was always the joke;” “If someone said, ‘Oh, I’ve got to go see Doc Strauss,’ it would be like, ‘Oh, prepare to drop your pants.’”— Michael Alf to USA Today.
“It was a common uncomfortable joke that Doc was a serial groper.”— Michael DiSabato to CNN.
“Everybody joked about it and talked about it all the time.”— David Range to the Washington Post.
“I have no doubt that Russ and Jim knew, but I never heard it presented in a way that made it need to be addressed in any large sense.”— Reid Delman to the Post.
“Doc used to take showers with the team even though he didn’t do any workouts, and everybody used to snicker about how you go into his office for a sore shoulder and he tells you to take your pants down.”— Unidentified former wrestler to NBC News.
Each of them, and some others, say they believe Jordan, who worked as an assistant coach at the school from 1986-1994, knew about Strauss, the wrestling team’s physician, making them uncomfortable — but none of them have said they directly complained to him about “sexual abuse.”
Only the national media cast it that way.
NBC News first reported on July 3 that some former wrestlers were claiming that Jordan knew of Strauss’s behavior, which included ogling of the wrestlers in the shared school fitness facility; seemingly unnecessary touching of male athletes on their genitals; and asking them to remove all of their clothes when they would visit for minor injuries.
The words “abuse” or “abused” are used five times by the author of the report, Corky Siemaszko, and not a single time by any of the former wrestlers quoted in the story.
The closest any of them comes to saying that he alerted Jordan of any sexual misconduct is when ex-wrestler Dunyasha Yetts says he once went to Strauss (who killed himself in 2005) with just a thumb injury only to have Strauss begin pulling down Yetts’ pants.
Yetts said he left the doctor’s office and told Jordan and the head coach, Russ Hellickson, what happened and that they both went in to address Strauss.
Hellickson, however, has since contradicted that version of events.
In an interview Wednesday with CNN, he said he never spoke about Strauss’s behavior with Jordan and that for all he knew, Jordan was never aware of it.
Hellickson also said he only discussed the issue once with Strauss, and merely told him to “speed it up” when using the communal showers with the wrestlers.
But the media keep repeating the idea that Jordan may have turned a blind eye to complaints about “sexual abuse” by Strauss.
A CNN report on Tuesday said, “Several former wrestlers have alleged that Jordan knew of the sexual abuse allegations.”
Matthew Fleischer, an opinion editor for the Los Angeles Times, wrote Tuesday on the alleged “sexual abuses” and said that, “even if you believe Jordan — and, to be clear, I don’t — there’s no scenario in this mess where he’s a good person.”
A Washington Post blog post on Monday asked, “Just how much trouble is Rep. Jim Jordan in over alleged Ohio State sexual abuse?”
An article Friday in Politico reported that “new allegations in the Ohio State University sexual abuse scandal are threatening to intensify the political firestorm facing” Jordan.
Jordan himself has indicated that there may have been “locker room” talk regarding Strauss’ conduct but that he did not receive any complaints about actual abuse.
“Conversations in a locker room are a lot different than people coming up and talking about abuse,” he said in a July 6 interview on Fox News. “No one ever reported any abuse to me.”
It’s also worth emphasizing that Jordan was the assistant coach.
The head coach, Russ Hellickson, has said he told school administrators about Strauss, asked that the wrestling team be allowed to move to a new training facility, and that he directly told Strauss to mind his behavior around the wrestlers.
If the head coach was unsuccessful in resolving the issue, what was Jordan supposed to do? Put Strauss in a chokehold?
At least 15 wrestlers have now come out in support of Jordan, House Republicans are supporting him and, perhaps because they also know this isn’t a real controversy for him, even Democrats aren’t saying anything about it.
What appears to have happened at Ohio State is a scandal and the school is under an independent investigation.
The media are trying to make it Jim Jordan’s problem. It isn’t.
