Two months since it was “a few weeks away,” The Athletic hasn’t finished its Dianna Russini investigation
Four months to the day since the controversy first emerged, The Athletic has not yet finalized its internal investigation of its former NFL Insider, Dianna Russini.
The first wave of photos showing Russini with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel at a resort in Arizona was published on Tuesday, April 7. After seeing the full collection of photos, executives at The Athletic (who strongly defended her in a statement issued to the New York Post) began to view the situation differently. Within days, the internal investigation regarding her reporting began.
Two months ago today, the New York Post reported that Steven Ginsberg, executive editor of The Athletic, had recently updated staff as to the status of the probe.
“It’s going to take a few more weeks,” Ginsberg reportedly said at an all-hands meeting. “There’s just a lot to go through, and we obviously want to take our time and be careful doing that. We will update everybody when we get to the end of that. We’ve also said that if we find anything that needs to be corrected, we will correct it along the way.”
In the interim, the New York Times (which owns The Athletic) published a lengthy article regarding Russini, opening with a tale of a FaceTime with a head coach who helped her get out of a ticket for texting while driving. (The bodycam footage contradicted that story.) The Times report seemed to be the appetizer to the official report of the investigation.
So what happened? There are three possible explanations. First, the investigation unexpectedly required more time than Ginsberg expected two months ago. Two, The Athletic is deliberately slow-playing the situation. Three, The Athletic agreed to pull the plug on the investigation as some sort of negotiated compromise with Russini.
Whatever the reason(s), “a few weeks” doesn’t mean “a few months.” As of today, it’s two months since it was reported that it would be only a few more weeks.
And while The Athletic owes no duty to the public to finish and to disclose the outcome of the investigation, the internal consternation regarding the situation surely hasn’t subsided.