Renaissance Dinner blackout

Adam Smeltz's CentreSquawker has done a fine job in continuing to report the controversy over last week's Renaissance Dinner honoring Lady Lions' Coach Rene Portland.

I just have to add my perspective here, after hearing from three readers upset over photos that we ran last week of protesters outside the dinner.

"Why not run photos from the dinner?" they asked. "Why cover the protesters, they're probably only students anyway," one reader said.

I placed a call Friday morning to the Penn State office that just two days earlier had told our photo editor that we could indeed take photos at the dinner. Our photographer had been denied access and instead just took photos of the protesters, which accompanied our story on the complaint filed against Portland and the university by a former player. 

I am still waiting for a call back from that Penn State office, so I have nothing further to report on why there was a blackout at the event.

I do have answers to other questions posed: The complaint and continuing coverage of the case is important news, and we'll report any and all outcomes.

As for the comment that "they're probably only students anyway," I'd like to suggest that students are pretty important people at Penn State. If not for them, you could argue, there would be no university.

That's all I can report, until I hear back about why we couldn't take photos.