Penn State student editor resigns after report about Joe Paterno's death

The managing editor of Onward State at Penn State University resigned suddenly Saturday evening.  The resignation came hours after the online student news outlet mistakenly reported that former PSU head football coach Joe Paterno had died from lung cancer.  While it is now sadly true that Paterno has in fact passed on, it was not accurate when Onward State first confirmed it.

In a pair of tweets at around 9 p.m. Saturday, the student site offered the following news: "Our sources can now confirm: Joseph Vincent Paterno has passed away tonight at the age of 85.  Football players received an email minutes ago informing them of Paterno's passing."

CBS Sports and The Huffington Post very quickly piggybacked on the Onward State scoop, followed by other media worldwide and an explosion of personal texts and tweets.  Yet, soon after, statements from a family spokesman and Paterno’s sons indicated that the legendary coach was still alive, leading to an awkward series of retractions by Onward State and other media reporting his passing.  In a tweet to readers, the outlet noted, "We were confident when we ran with it, and are still trying to figure out where our process failed. We apologize sincerely for error."

The grievous error also compelled Onward State's managing editor Devon Edwards to resign.  In a letter posted on Facebook and the outlet’s site Saturday night, Edwards wrote, "To all those who read and passed along our reports, I sincerely apologize for misleading you. To the Penn State community and to the Paterno family most of all, I could not be more sorry for the emotional anguish I am sure we caused. There are no excuses for what we did. We all make mistakes, but it’s impossible to brush off one of this magnitude. Right now, we deserve all of the criticism headed our way."

As Edwards predicted, the site has been receiving a nonstop digital drubbing from Happy Valley faithful, the general public, and the press.  As one online commenter asked, "Who needs accuracy, sourcing or facts? . . . We're in a new era of speed, rumor and innuendo!"

Yet, interestingly, along with the criticisms, many are praising Edwards's candor in addressing the difficult situation and his fortitude in stepping down.  "Can’t express how proud I am of the way you handled your mistake," one sports journalist wrote him in a public tweet later picked up by a popular media blog.  "You have the integrity to be an awesome journalist."  A Virginia preacher similarly tweeted, "You made a mistake.  It happens.  You owned up to it.  That almost never happens.  That’s OK in my book.”

Similarly, at the start of a Business Insider story headlined "Hey CEOs, THIS is the Right Way to Apologize for a Mistake," reporter Kim Bhasin confirmed, "Companies screw up all the time, and have to write up statements to apologize for their mistakes. But all too frequently, the apologies are weak, conditional and completely insincere.  Saturday night, a kid from a little student-run website at Penn State showed everybody how you're supposed to apologize for a terrible mistake."

Meanwhile, Onward State founder and general manager Davis Shaver has promised to investigate how the erroneous reporting occurred.  "Our readers have every right to hold us accountable for making such a mistake," Shaver told The Altoona Mirror.  "But I know that I speak for everyone with the organization when I say that reader trust is paramount for us.  It is, in everything that we do, our goal."

In a post this morning, Shaver added, "Last night was one of the worst moments of my entire life."

Dan Reimold, Ph.D., is a college journalism scholar who has written and presented about the student press throughout the U.S. and in Southeast Asia. He is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Tampa, where he also advises The Minaret student newspaper. He maintains the student journalism industry blog College Media Matters. A complete list of Campus Beat articles is here.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.