The Athletic has finally released its long-awaited review of Dianna Russini’s work and found that she was “in clear violation” of standards because of her relationship with New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel.
The investigation, made public on Thursday, did not determine the full scope of the relationship between Dianna Russini and Mike Vrabel. However, it concluded that although Russini maintained editorial standards, her refusal to declare a conflict of interest with Vrabel tarnished some of her work.
For the investigation, The Athletic’s editorial director for standards and editorial quality Mike Semel reviewed 903 stories and 77 videos that carried Dianna Russini’s byline, co-byline, a contributor line or a mention of her reporting, as well as 204 episodes of the Scoop City podcast. He also reviewed about 25 off-platform appearances or interviews in which she was representing The Athletic and interviewed about 14 staffers who had worked most closely with Russini. He also examined roughly 75 stories in order to compare The Athletic’s coverage of specific occurrences involving Vrabel or his teams with that of other publications.
He determined that “specifically, when it comes to The Athletic’s standards, Russini was noncompliant.”
“When reporting and writing stories we do not have an agenda and it is important that our readers understand that,” he wrote. “If our readers question our adherence to that basic tenet of journalism, our credibility will be at stake. To maintain the highest form of authority we should avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest and reveal those sources or affiliations that may put into question our ability to be credible.”
Dianna Russini ‘should have disclosed’ her relationship with Mike Vrabel
He went on to say that the images released by Page Six on April 7 and April 23, as well as by TMZ on April 23, show a relationship that appears to be a conflict of interest and jeopardized The Athletic’s credibility.
Furthermore, he stated that Russini waited two days after the New York Post initially showed her the images of her with
before she informed her management and editors. Then, in an effort to explain the pictures, she told a story that did not match the facts, raising questions about trust.
“Russini should have disclosed to The Athletic the nature of her relationship with Vrabel to allow editors to assess the kinds of stories on which she should have been working, if any,” Semel concluded. “She did not.”
Interestingly, Dianna Russini’s former podcast, Scoop City, posted on X for the first time since March 6, following the release of The Athletic’s report.
In both tweets, the podcast wrote, “Subsequent to the publication of this video, an Athletic inquiry into Dianna Russini’s journalism determined that Russini should have disclosed the nature of her relationship with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel to her editors. She did not. It’s now unclear whether The Athletic would have had the access to Vrabel for this interview had she disclosed their relationship.”
Semel suggested several ‘safeguards’ to avoid a repeat of what happened with Russini
Mike Semel concluded his report with several suggestions to “safeguard the confidence” of The Athletic’s audience.
They included adding a review with the Standards Editor to the onboarding process for newsroom employees, clarifying The Athletic’s conflict of interest guidelines, and clarifying and strongly enforcing The Athletic’s sourcing standards.
“Editors should stay vigilant about their reporters’ sourcing and be wary if the same sources are used too habitually,” he wrote. “Recurring use of the same sources should spark additional conversation between reporter and editor about the nature of the source relationship.”