There’s A New Loser In The Russini-Vrabel Scandal

We can officially stick a fork in the fallout stage of former Athletic reporter Dianna Russini's long and handholdy relationship with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel. Russini resigned in disgrace and remains unemployed, while Vrabel suffered absolutely no professional consequences. And now The Athletic has completed its five-month review to determine whether her work was up to the company's ethical standards. Spoiler alert: It was mostly fine. The review was published Thursday morning and conducted by Mike Semel, editorial director for standards and quality at The Athletic. There are few revelations in the details of Russini's relationship with Vrabel, but she was found "noncompliant" with the outlet's standard of conduct for employees for not disclosing the relationship to her editors. Most of her reporting was found to be sound and ethical. However, two of Russini's pieces have now had editors' notes attached: a video in which she speaks glowingly of Vrabel breaking up a fight in training camp, and an item in a notebook column that contained an unattributed but highly detailed description of Vrabel's thinking and also dinner order. How did Semel determine all this?

Read it at Defector ↗

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