Russini-gate: Are we making too much of how journalism is done?

I think we’re reading too much into the Dianna Russini kerfuffle that led to the longtime ESPN and The Athletic star journo’s abrupt resignation on Tuesday.

Like it or not, this is the way journalism is done.

And let me clarify: I don’t mean, it’s done via whatever element of inappropriate romance might be involved in the Russini-Mike Vrabel relationship, using that term in the broadest sense.

I made light of it last week in a column, pointing out that, yeah, it would seem weird to me to be in a place where I’d be holding hands, hugging, getting into a hot tub with, a coach or athlete that I cover.

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ICYMI

• Leave Dianna Russini alone: Sportswriters, coaches, happen to like hot tubs

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Outside of those lines, though, what about, playing golf with, having lunch with, dropping by the office for off-the-record how ya doins with?

Not casting aspersions, but this has been going on for as long as there have been news outlets.

Now, in my case, I’m not the most likable person, so, nobody ever asks me to lunch or to the golf club for 18.

I’d like to say that it’s because I’m above reproach; it’s probably more the case that I’m beneath contempt.

Either way, I still get my fair share of hot news tips – you don’t break stories on Tony Bennett considering early retirement, the increased investment in NIL for UVA Football, the drama surrounding an assistant UVA Swimming coach on probation for emotional abuse of athletes, without somebody pointing you in a direction.

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The first thing I do when I get an apparent hot news tip is: consider the source.

With UVA Basketball, for example, we were way ahead of the curve in telling you that the powers-that-be were zoning in on Ryan Odom; what I had to do was make sure that I couched this in the context of, there were several people involved in the decision-making process there.

I went to decent lengths to ensure that I wasn’t being used to advance the interests of one faction against another there.

With the UVA Football money stories, I’m acutely aware that I’m at least in part carrying water for UVA Athletics in being the one guy reporting the ridiculous numbers that the money people behind the scenes are throwing at the football program.

I still can’t figure out, for the life of me, why Bert Ellis, when he was on the UVA Board of Visitors, decided to lay everything in terms of the plot of the MAGAs on the BOV to get rid of Jim Ryan as president, but he did, and the insight I was able to provide because he did helped make what happened last summer when Ryan stepped down at the point of a political bayonet make more sense than it would have otherwise.

None of this gets me invited to lunch or to the golf club.

There aren’t going to be any photos of me hanging out with a UVA coach or big-money alum being offered to Page Six.

I’d like to be able to tell you that’s because I’m unassailable; I think it’s more because I’m just undesirable.