Is the Penn State controversy a public relations crisis or a moral one? While all relevant parties have made public efforts to carry out public relations campaigns to salvage their individual reputations, efforts to address the moral aspects of their actions are lacking. A proper pragmatic and post-pragmatic effort to regain public esteem demands an institutional commitment to transparency; to look to the truth for aid and then tell the truth. A true pragmatic approach demands ethical agents look beyond temporary benefits in order to properly calibrate human aims and purposes. More contemporary forms of pragmatism grounded in critical and radical inquiry demand an even stronger commitment to social justice and truth-telling as appropriate moral interventions in times of crisis.