Here's what The Athletic found in its Dianna Russini-Mike Vrabel investigation
On Thursday, The Athletic released its findings from an internal investigation into Russini's reporting and relationship with Vrabel.
The Athletic published the results of its internal investigation into former reporter Dianna Russini's relationship with Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, which allegedly violated the company's standards. The investigation, conducted over five months, examined 903 stories, 77 videos, 204 podcast episodes, and 25 off-platform appearances by Russini.
The Athletic found that Russini's relationship with Vrabel was in clear violation of The Athletic's standards, but it did not find any clear bias in her reporting due to that relationship. The company stated that Russini should have disclosed her relationship with Vrabel to allow editors to assess the stories she should work on.
The investigation also found that Russini wrote glowingly of Vrabel, which was awkward or uncomfortable in hindsight. However, there was no clear link found to suggest that Russini used her platform to promote Vrabel or his teams. The Athletic suggested adding a meeting with the standards editor to the onboarding process, clarifying conflict of interest guidelines, and enforcing sourcing standards.
Russini resigned from The Athletic on April 14 after photos of her and Vrabel were published by Page Six and TMZ, depicting a potential romantic relationship.
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