And honestly, THAT was a watershed moment in American history, because many people who were old enough to remember that day can tell you exactly what they were doing when they first heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot. I can only do so vicariously -- my mother was taking me home from the pediatrician's office (I had German measles) when she heard the announcement on the radio, and instead drove directly to her sister's house one block over. But that's her memory, not mine.

Can most people say the same thing about O.J.'s acquittal, i.e., what they were doing the moment they heard the news? Unless they were hopeless junkies whose lives revolved around watching every live moment of that fiasco of a trial and were tuned in that day, I don't think so.

That O.J.'s acquittal is being touted in this silly poll as a more memorable television moment than President Kennedy's assassination goes a long way toward explaining why American news media has lost its way over the last half-century.

In my defense, I would offer that the Detroit Tigers were simply awesome over the course of the 1984 season, and were the overwhelming odds-on favorites against the San Diego Padres in the 1984 World Series. Therefore, their ultimate triumph in five games, as satisfying as it might have been in a Tiger fan's eye, was hardly unexpected.

Whereas in 1988, the Los Angeles Dodgers were the definitive underdog against a very powerful Oakland A's ball club. Kirk Gibson's walk-off home run in Game 1 changed the entire trajectory of the World Series, and ultimately inspired the Dodgers to a most improbable world championship. And truthfully, this was a Dodger team that had clearly played over its collective heads that entire season and post-season, and was really not all that good.

But then, that's why they play the game on the field and not on paper, isn't it?

While Paterno didn't quite lie, he certainly never made any real effort to be thoroughly truthful, either. Whether it was his personal squeamishness over the subject matter of pedophilia, or his own embarrassment and guilt that he could have been so grievously misled by someone he trusted and with whom he had worked so closely, or ultimately his concern over his own reputation, or all of the above, he did nothing at all to distinguish himself in this terribly sorry matter.

To mix my sports metaphors, at a time when he needed to step up to the plate and swing for the fences, Joe Paterno had the take sign on for all pitches. It was a feckless and pathetic performance on his part, and one which richly deserves censure.

Now, why would he say something like that, if he knew he had just put a hurting on Liston..? I ask you..