The Athletic’s internal Dianna Russini investigation still ongoing beyond stated timeline

Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images, The New York Times, The Athletic

Two months ago, The Athletic executive editor Steven Ginsberg reportedly told staff that it was “ going to take a few more weeks” before they released the results of their internal investigation regarding Dianna Russini’s reporting in the wake of the Mike Vrabel scandal that led to her resignation.

Two months later, everyone’s still waiting.

As noted by Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk on Friday , it’s been four months to the day since the New York Post dropped the bombshell photos of Russini and the New England Patriots head coach getting cozy at an Arizona adults-only resort. While Ginsberg initially offered a public defense of his NFL insider, more photos and details soon emerged that undercut the duo’s claim that nothing unprofessional was at play. Soon after the New York Times-owned outlet opened an internal investigation into her work , Russini resigned and has mostly disappeared from public view.

While The Athletic’s internal report has yet to see the light of day, the NYT offered a report of its own that revealed a few new insights and, more than anything, underscored the angst between the two outlets and the perceived lack of standards at The Athletic from the perspective of some at the Times.

Florio has his theories for why there’s been a delay. It’s entirely possible the outlet discovered information that will leave egg on their face, and they want to be as buttoned-up as possible before it’s released. Or maybe they did complete the investigation and decided to keep it internal.

Or perhaps they simply underestimated how long it would take to account for everything Russini reported on and to determine whether it was compromised in some way. Ginsberg did tell his staff that the investigation would be led by New York Times standards editor Mike Semel and that it was expected to be lengthy.

There’s also the wild card factor of Russini herself. While Vrabel has attempted to put his head down and power through , the former reporter holds a lot of cards in the form of a potential tell-all . Perhaps The Athletic is thinking about how something like that might come back on them as well.

Who knows, but for now, the information vacuum only gets bigger with each passing week. And in the meantime, it’s going to be filled with speculation.

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