Dianna Russini Was ‘Noncompliant’ With The Athletic’s Standards — But What Does That Really Mean?

You are reading a special free preview of Mediaite's daily newsletter — the Mediaite One Sheet: a fast, five-minute briefing that curates the best of the media newsletters. Subscribe today at a special new (lower) price to get the One Sheet delivered direct to your inbox five days a week!

TOP STORY

DIANA RUSSINI'S ETHICS

The Athletic  found that former NFL insider  Dianna Russini "was noncompliant" with the organization's standards this week, the conclusion of a months-long investigation into her undisclosed relationship with New England Patriots head coach  Mike Vrabel. Russini resigned in April after photos of her and Vrabel were published by  Page Six .

The investigation was led by  Mike Semel,who looked at 903 stories and 77 videos Russini contributed as a reporter. Semel also spoke to staffers who worked with Russini.

The resulting report caught the eye of several of our authors today, and that's where we will begin.

THREE TAKES

Awful Announcing's The A Block  — Many in the industry were bracing for a version of this report that contained "an actual smoking gun buried somewhere inside nine months of  Scoop City  transcripts, evidence of a story deliberately killed or conspicuously softened because of who Russini happened to be involved with," Awful Announcing noted today. Instead, they got "a confirmation, exhaustively documented but fundamentally unsurprising, of what most of the industry already suspected back in April: Russini's relationship with Vrabel clearly violated The Athletic's editorial standards." Russini's "conduct here was genuinely unethical, and by the report's own account, she was less than forthright with her own employer in the immediate aftermath of the story breaking," they continued, a result that is important but is also "a materially different offense than the premeditated journalistic corruption everyone was bracing to uncover." Vrabel, of course, has "returned to coaching without incident" despite being married to someone else.

The Poynter Report , Ren LaForme — "The top-line finding will surprise no one with even a passing familiarity with journalism ethics," LaForme wrote, because it's clear that Russini was unethical. "An undisclosed close personal relationship with someone you cover is about as clear a conflict as they come," he continued. But for LaForme, "Perhaps the more interesting finding came from what the investigation did not uncover." That is, the fact that the outlet "found little evidence that her relationship with Vrabel influenced her reporting about him or his teams." He also noted, "Of the work Semel reviewed, 46 pieces — about 5% — concerned Vrabel or his teams. Yet Semel found little evidence that the relationship affected that coverage." But despite all of that, "the review wasn't a complete exoneration of the journalism."

LaForme concluded, "The findings present an awkward juxtaposition. The Athletic found little evidence that Russini's relationship with Vrabel affected her work. But because readers — and apparently her editors — didn't know about the relationship at the time, they're now left to reconsider that work with information they didn't have when it was published."

The Washington Times , Rob Maadi — Via the  Associated Press , the  Times  also pointed out the "report drew no conclusions about the nature of Russini's relationship with Vrabel," and the football coach "said he took accountability for his actions without addressing photos released of the coach and the reporter at a resort in Arizona." Vrabel "stepped away from the team on the third day of the  NFL  draft to begin counseling and returned soon afterward." The NFL did not launch an investigation into Vrabel or the relationship.

TAKEAWAY: The real story here is that there isn't really much of a story, other than perhaps a closer look at how differently Russini and Vrabel were treated as a result of the same relationship. It could certainly be argued Russini's job held her to a higher ethical standard than Vrabel's does, which appears to have been proven true by how their respective organizations have responded to the story.

TOP SCOOPS & ANALYSIS

SCOOP

Punchbowl News AM , Brendan Pedersen, Max Cohen and Laura Weiss —Rep.  Sean Casten (D-IL) may be launching a campaign against Rep.  Maxine Waters (D-CA) to be named "the next top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, according to four Democratic sources familiar with the discussion," Punchbowl reported today after scooping the update Thursday night. This would "would be a massive jolt to the House Financial Services Committee, where Waters has led Democrats on the panel since 2012." Casten told Punchbowl in a statement, "I have great respect for Ranking Member Waters, who has made the Financial Services Committee my home in Congress. My focus is on working to ensure we take back the majority."

SCOOP

POLITICO Playbook , Adam Wren, Will Steakin, Dasha Burns — President  Donald Trump's"too big to rig" coalition "appears frayed beyond repair," Playbook's authors wrote today. "There are two millstones around MAGA's neck right now … a simmering war in the Middle East he promised to end and the breakup of the MAHA coalition that he promised to tend," they continued. This means that members of the GOP face a choice: "Lash themselves to the MAGA mast, or go it alone." That's a complicated decision to make for a few reasons. One is that "The threat of a Trump drag is so dire that some at-risk Republicans have relayed to Trump's political team that they don't want him to visit their districts ahead of November," and other "concerns center on the political and economic ramifications from Trump's unpopular war with Iran."

ANALYSIS

TheWrap's WaxWord , Sharon Waxman —The deaths of  Gloria Steinem (this week) and  Dolly Parton (last week) underscore a truth that is impossible to ignore, Waxman wrote today: "A generation is passing on." Steinem and Parton's deaths have also "unleashed national outpourings of shared memory and experience as we collectively remember what we liked better about the era that produced them than the world we have right now." And it's true that the era both women came of age and launched their careers in "produced a stunning set of changes that resonate today." There's a temptation to "sit in the sadness" of these losses, but Waxman prefers "to look at the abundance of gifts these women leave us."

ANALYSIS

The Bulwark's Morning Shots , Bill Kristol and Andrew Egger — What's a little war talk  without a reference  to  Avatar: The Last Airbender ? As Egger began today, "There is No War in Bang Sing Se." But in this case, there's actually no war with Iran… or so the Trump administration would want you to believe, he continued. That's despite the fact that the "six-months-and-counting conflict has been one of the central stories of Donald Trump'ssecond term, and is very much an ongoing crisis." But per  JD Vance, who  hosted a White House briefing  yesterday, rumors of the war we are definitely in "have been greatly exaggerated." Vance told reporters, "The phrase 'an end to the war' — I want to push back on that. Because major combat operations are currently not ongoing, and they haven't been ongoing in a very long time." There's a clear semantic silliness there, but also, "it seems Trump is mulling in strategy." As Egger put it, "Trump, it seems, has grown tired of making repeated demands that Iran never deigns to meet. That's not a very alpha way to conduct business!"

ANALYSIS

The Free Press , Nellie Bowles — Not everyone is consumed by  Lindsay Clancy's trial in Massachusetts , Bowles wrote, "but in my circles (moms) it is The Only Conversation, so bear with me." As of this writing, the case appears headed for a mistrial as the jury remained deadlocked. Bowles noticed reports that some female jurors were spotted wearing pink, a color that's become associated with Clancy's supporters. But for Bowles, there's something else to worry about. "The deeper idea being proposed here seems to be that moms should kind of be able to kill their kids. Like, if they're really, really stressed," she wrote. "In Canada, that's the law already. If a parent kills a kid under the age of 1, it's a maximum five-year sentence. We're now going to see a movement to bring that to the U.S., and also to expand it to older kids. Death cults will death cult."

BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Simon Owens's Media Newsletter , Simon Owens — Using an anonymous Instagram account called Sh*thead Steve since 2015, co-founder  Reid Hailey has built Doing Things into a social-first entertainment giant with 75 employees and a 95-million-follower network. In this day and age, that's  the  blueprint for success. The company acts as an incubator for original creator talent, behind hits like  Recess Therapy  and  Bob Does Sports . Hailey's team leverages real-time analytics to refine formats and splits profits directly with talent to keep creators invested. Doing Things has even turned  Bob Does Sports into a standalone golf apparel lifestyle brand, Breezy Golf, which is sold at Dick's Sporting Goods.  QUOTE

"The biggest change was learning that an audience alone wasn't much of a moat. A repeatable format, a compelling personality, or ideally both could create something much more durable."

The Poynter Report , Tom Jones and Ron LaForme —  USA Today  is preparing to cut staff and dissolve its existing audience team as search-referral traffic faces extreme pressure. Senior vice president  Monica Richardson explained in a staff memo that the old approach of ramping up content volume is no longer effective in an era of zero-click search and algorithm adjustments designed to keep users on-platform. USA Today Co. will transition to a tighter audience and digital production team focused heavily on off-platform conversion and key coverage areas.  QUOTE

"The company will replace its current audience team with a new audience and digital production team that focuses on three areas: coordinating daily output and publishing workflows, growing audiences within 'key coverage areas' and building off-platform audiences and managing platform relationships."

The Poynter Report , Tom Jones — Finally ending a four-year labor dispute that included two separate work stoppages, unionized journalists at  Forbes  have ratified their first-ever contract. The three-year collective bargaining agreement establishes a $68,500 salary floor, guarantees salary raises totaling 10% over the life of the contract, secures "just cause" job protections, and cements a strict editorial firewall to protect reporting integrity from corporate business influence.

ADWEEK Daily , Kendra Barnett — After a year of commercial struggle and a disappointing second-quarter performance, leading ad-tech demand-side platform The Trade Desk is cutting its global workforce by 15%. CEO  Jeff Green delivered the news in a memo to staff on Thursday, with the reduction in force affecting approximately 585 of the company's 3,900 employees.

OTHER COOL STUFF

Morning Brew  — She's just being Miley! Pop star  Miley Cyrus is officially dropping her last name and will henceforth go professionally by her mononym.

The Free Press' TGIF —  There's "a lot of drama" around — wait for it — a Canadian island that seemed to disappear. It actually just drifted 30 kilometers (or, we suppose, 19 miles) over 15 days.

Feed Me — Two sides of the same coin-toss in Feed Me: The U.S. Open is providing a massive economic boom to New York City because of how many people it brings in… but as a result, it's also the loudest it's ever been, a big no-no in tennis.

WHAT GOT MISSED?

Awful Announcing's The A Block  — Indiana Fever guard  Sophie Cunningham hasn't posted a new episode of her podcast since July 21, around the same time she ignited a media firestorm over her comments about trans girls and women in sports. Also of note: "Co-host  West Wilson broke with her on TikTok, calling the issue "borderline nonexistent," while also getting axed from Bravo's  Summer House  over an entanglement with his ex-girlfriend's best friend."

NEWSLETTER OF THE DAY

Poynter's Open Tabs , Ren LaForme — LaForme had big praise for the youth in journalism today. Poynter's  Mark Simon "spent some time chatting with  Santiago Campos, an 18-year-old aspiring journalist best known for winning the  Mike Wallace Scholarship," this week, and the resulting conversation and interactions were illuminating. While Campos' mother was "on the lookout for ABC News anchor  David Muir" at the subsequent awards show, he was "excited to meet independent journalist  Johnny Harris, who has nearly 8 million followers on YouTube." And though that could be interpreted as something negative, LaForme didn't see it that way. Today's newsletter is a reminder that the future of journalism is here, and it's still worth engaging with even if its principal actors approach the job a little differently.

This newsletter was produced by Lindsey Ellefson.

The post Dianna Russini Was 'Noncompliant' With The Athletic's Standards — But What Does That Really Mean? first appeared on Mediaite .