A Stanford student paper’s excellent work leads to a major resignation

Top-notch reporting by the student newspaper at Stanford University has led to the resignation of the university’s president.

Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne is stepping down after an independent review found significant flaws and uncorrected mistakes in studies he supervised going back decades. In addition, he will retract or add corrections to five papers in which he was the main author because the investigation found “manipulation of research data.”

However, the investigation determined that Tessier-Lavigne did not falsify data or commit fraud.

Still, Tessier-Lavigne is stepping down as president, a post he has held for seven years. And his departure from the office all tracks back to stories written by Theo Baker in The Stanford Daily last December. At the time, Baker talked to my colleague, Barbara Allen, saying, “As a student, I would prefer not to have any of this sort of thing going on. But as a journalist, I think it’s really important to talk about this sort of stuff.”

The New York Times’ Stephanie Saul wrote on Wednesday, “The accusations had first surfaced years ago on PubPeer, an online crowdsourcing site for publishing and discussing scientific work. But they resurfaced after the student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, published a series of articles questioning the accuracy and honesty of work produced in laboratories overseen by Dr. Tessier-Lavigne.”

Tessier-Lavigne will no longer be president but will remain at Stanford as a professor of biology.

In a statement, Tessier-Lavigne said, “Although the report clearly refutes the allegations of fraud and misconduct that were made against me, for the good of the University, I have made the decision to step down as President effective August 31.”

The university review said some of the papers had “serious flaws” and that Tessier-Lavigne failed to “decisively and forthrightly correct mistakes” when concerns about the papers were brought to his attention.

The Stanford Daily won a 2022 George Polk Award for its work on this story. It was the first time an independent, student-run newspaper won that highly regarded award. Baker was honored with a “Special Award.”

Baker is the son of New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, a staff writer at The New Yorker.

This, again, shows impressive and important work done by student journalists.

Earlier this month, Northwestern University football coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired after the student paper there — The Daily Northwestern — published a story about hazing within the football program.

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AJC fires reporter and issues corrections over Georgia football investigation

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has fired a reporter and issued corrections on a recent investigation about how the University of Georgia handled sexual abuse allegations made against its players and recruits.

The article, published in June, said the university rallied behind players accused of sexual assault and domestic violence against women. It also suggested a pattern of the football program keeping other players accused of sexual misconduct on the team.

After a university lawyer sent the AJC a nine-page letter pushing back against the story, the AJC investigated and found two elements that did not meet the news organization’s journalistic standards, according to a statement from editor-in-chief Leroy Chapman.

In a statement, Chapman said, “Our editorial integrity and the trust our community has in us is at the core of who we are. After receiving the university’s letter, we assigned our team of editors and lawyers to carefully review each claim in the nine-page document we received, along with some additional source material that supported the original story. We identified errors that fell short of our standards, and we corrected them.”

In a story for the AJC, reporter Brian Eason details the corrections. The original story said 11 players remained with the team after women reported violent encounters with those players. But the AJC now says it cannot substantiate, under its standards, that the number of players is correct.

Eason wrote, “As a result of the corrections, the AJC removed or adjusted several paragraphs of the story that depended on that count, and edited the headline.”

The other correction, according to the AJC, is that two statements made by a detective minutes apart were joined into a single quotation.

Eason noted that the paper’s review found no instances of fabrications.

In addition, the AJC announced that the reporter on the story, Alan Judd, has been fired.

Eason wrote, “Judd has been a leading reporter at the AJC for nearly 25 years, writing many of the newsroom’s most significant investigations and breaking news stories. His work has exposed slumlords profiting from dangerous apartment complexes in metro Atlanta; linked suspicious deaths in state psychiatric hospitals to neglect and abuse; and helped uncover a teacher cheating scandal in Atlanta Public Schools.”

In a statement to AJC, Judd said, “I am proud of the work I have done for the AJC for the last 24 years and I am grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to serve the community.”

Local TV news is growing

For this item, I turn it over to Poynter media business analyst Rick Edmonds.

The space allotted to TV local news and news staffing are both increasing in 2023, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Radio and Television News Directors Association.

Nonelection years are often times to pinch news expenditures. Not this year. The average increase in aired local news was 78 minutes a week.

The news directors said they expect more growth in the balance of this year and in 2024, a presidential year with additional ad revenue from numerous U.S. senate and governors' races.

The growth is concentrated in weekday news; Saturdays and Sundays actually experienced declines. Commercial radio news also showed gains. Surprisingly the noncommercial sector recorded declines.

No comparable survey numbers are available for local newspaper organizations. Staffing and volume have been declining substantially for years. My impression has been that the comparatively prosperous local TV sector has not picked up much of the slack, but the survey suggests a brighter picture.

The survey is one of several done for many years by Bob Papper, research professor of broadcast and digital journalism at Syracuse University.

SVP to MNF

ESPN’s recent major layoffs included Suzy Kolber, who had been with the network for 27 years and was quite respected for her work hosting “Monday Night Countdown” — the lengthy pregame show for “Monday Night Football.” She had been hosting that show, as well as halftimes and postgames for “MNF,” since 2017.

Earlier this week, New York Post sports media columnist Andrew Marchand reported that ESPN was considering one of two well-known ESPN names to replace Kolber: either Laura Rutledge or Scott Van Pelt.

On Wednesday, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch reported that the job was going to Van Pelt. He tweeted, “Scott Van Pelt will be getting the Monday Night Football Countdown job, via multiple sources. As @AndrewMarchand reported: It was he and Laura Rutledge who were up for it but I'm told that decision has been made and all parties know. It's Van Pelt.”

Van Pelt, one of ESPN’s best talents, hosts his unique version of late-night “SportsCenter.” That often included postgame interviews on “Monday Night Football,” so this feels like a natural fit.

Media tidbits

• My Poynter colleague, Amaris Castillo, with “Politics reporters in Florida share the wild intensity in the lead-up to 2024.”
• The New York Times Opinion has launched a TikTok account. The Times said, “The account is a visual representation of Times Opinion’s mission to highlight different voices and promote informed debate, and will feature the section’s signature voices and guest essayists, incorporate graphics, video and audio journalism, and more.”
• CNN’s Oliver Darcy with “Fox News’ new prime time lineup shows Rupert Murdoch can’t quit Trump.”
• He didn’t make it a big special announcement or anything, but radio/TV sports host Dan Patrick said he would do the show for four and a half more years and hang up his microphone by December of 2027. “You have my word,” he told his Danettes (his crew). Here’s the clip.

Hot type

• For ProPublica, ​​Nicole Carr and Lucas Waldron with “How School Board Meetings Became Flashpoints for Anger and Chaos Across the Country.”
• A song by country music’s Jason Aldean called “Try That in a Small Town” is embroiled in controversy. The best piece I’ve read about it is this one in Variety from Chris Willman: “Jason Aldean Already Had the Most Contemptible Country Song of the Decade. The Video Is Worse.”
• This piece is neatly designed, well-conceived, and completely entertaining: The New York Times with “50 Rappers, 50 Stories.” (The remarkable piece is co-bylined by the Times’ Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, but the artists are responsible for their sections. Just a tremendous undertaking.)

More resources for journalists

• Time for a new job? Your future employer is looking for you on The Media Job Board — Powered by Poynter, Editor & Publisher and America’s Newspapers. Search now!
• Strength in Numbers: How to Use CDC Data to Upgrade Your Mental Health Reporting (Aug. 30) (Webinar) — Enroll Now.
• Executive Leadership Summit (Oct. 2023) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 14.
• Level Up: Critical Skills for Local Reporters (Oct. 3-Nov. 14) (Seminar) — Apply by Aug. 31.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].