EDITORIAL : COVER-UP EXPOSED DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN BRINGS DISGRACE TO CSUN.

IN a brief news item published on Aug. 16, the Daily News reported that Shayne Blakey, a football player at California State University Northridge, was sidelined as a result of surgery to remove his appendix.

At least, that was the official story from Cal State Northridge athletic officials including football coach Dave Baldwin.

But, to Daily News reporter Kevin Acee, things just didn't add up. Blakey himself was unable to say which day the surgery was performed, and a testy CSUN sports spokesman turned away Acee's queries with a brusque: ``He had his appendix taken out. That's it. Drop it.''

To his credit, Acee doggedly pursued the matter even as CSUN officials were continuing to peddle the phony appendicitis story. As a result of his persistence, CSUN officials broke down and told the truth. Their earlier false statements were designed to deceive the public and protect their efforts to build CSUN athletic programs.

In fact, police said Blakey suffered a gunshot wound in an altercation at a party attended by other football players. The District Attorney's Office declined to file criminal charges against the gunman due to evidence that the shooter acted in self-defense. Some witnesses said they saw Blakey holding a gun before he was shot (which he denies doing).

After the official cover-up was exposed, the coach tried to justify his false statements, claiming that Blakey is ``a victim'' and ``if someone is a victim of a crime, what we stated to the public doesn't have to be truthful. . . .I'm trying to protect the image of one young man.''

Regrettably, those arguments are not convincing. First, investigators found no credible evidence that Blakey was a crime victim. Second, only in cases of juveniles or sex crimes do newspapers withhold a victim's name, and - to our knowledge - authorities never knowingly issue false information to protect a victim. Withholding information is acceptable; lying is not.

Finally, what kind of twisted logic would make officials of a public institution of higher education think they have a duty to lie in the role of press agent or publicist for an athlete?

It's not the first time Cal State Northridge has gone to questionable lengths to protect an athlete. Officials allowed Jonathan Beauregard to finish out the 1994 football season after learning that he had been charged with two counts of attempted murder in the shootings of his ex-girlfriend and a man. (Beauregard was put on trial twice, and both ended with deadlocked juries.)

These events reflect a troubling tendency on the part of some individuals to see how much they can get away with, instead of a commitment to the highest standards of conduct. And that is a terrible disappointment to many members of the public who had much higher expectations of Cal State Northridge, its student-athletes, coaches and other personnel.

CSUN President Blenda J. Wilson was correct to order an investigation into the athletic department's actions, and a separate inquiry into the shooting. Although the San Fernando Valley has been proud to be the site of CSUN, we feel certain that the public now expects the university to issue a frank and comprehensive report on exactly what happened and why, including suggestions for corrective actions so these errors never are repeated.