Jerry Sandusky To Appear On NBC’s ‘Today’ On Monday As Part Of An Exclusive Interview

According to the blog post announcing the interview, Sandusky will “describe what he says happened on the campus, and what he thinks of whistleblower Mike McQueary and late head coach Joe Paterno.”

The Sandusky interview was taped from jail by a documentary filmmaker, John Ziegler, who was making a film defending Joe Paterno, reports the Associated Press. Norris Gelman, Sandusky’s lawyer, said the interview excerpts that will air on “Today” were taken over the last few weeks by Ziegler, who interviewed Sandusky over the phone as well as in person at the prison, notes AP.

Sandusky was found guilty of 45 out of 48 child sex abuse charges stemming from the abuse of 10 boys over the course of several years. The 10 boys were a part of The Second Mile, a charity organization founded by Sandusky, and the attacks occurred at his home as well as at athletic facilities on the Penn State campus. In a 2011 interview with Bob Costas, Sandusky maintained his innocence, claiming he was not a pedophile and said, “I enjoy young people. I love to be around them, but no, I'm not sexually attracted to young boys.” Sandusky is currently serving a 30- to 60-year prison term in a Pennsylvania prison.

When asked for a comment about the Sandusky interview, the spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania prison system, Sue McNaughton, said, “Rather than focusing on him, we wish the media would focus more on the victims and their recovery from the deeds of this individual.”

On the website The Framing of Joe Paterno, Ziegler describes his efforts as “dedicated to compiling and analyzing the evidence that an out of control news media created a false narrative in the Jerry Sandusky scandal, which effectively framed Joe Paterno for crimes he obviously didn't commit and of which he may have had very limited knowledge.”  

In preparation for the possible backlash stemming from the Sandusky interview excerpts that will air on “Today, Ziegler, who will appear on the show, published a blog post on the site entitled, “An Open Letter to the News Media: How to Do a Hit Piece on John Ziegler.”