Good morning and Happy Wednesday. Thanks for reading.

News came yesterday afternoon that NFL “Insider” Diana Russini resigned from her role at The Athletic, less than a month after photos of her and Patriots’ head coach Mike Vrabel emerged. Both Russini and Vrabel have denied that anything extra-curricular occurred, and Russini said that she was with six other people who, remarkably, weren’t captured in any other shots.

Here are the pics. You can decide for yourselves what you see.

And look, I don’t think people’s personal lives are anyone’s business. I don’t care who cheats on their spouse or whose marriage is in trouble. But Russini’s resignation has sparked a broader conversation about journalists and boundaries, and I’d like to talk about it. Let me clarify before we start that I have no idea what, if anything, happened between Diana Russini and Mike Vrabel. I don’t know Diana personally, though we have some “work friends” in common.

I’ve resisted commenting much on this story, as there’s a code amongst women in sports media that I was leery of violating, even though I don’t consider myself a sports journalist these days. Then there’s the constant fear that, in criticizing another woman, I’d be accused of being jealous or petty. Finally, I know how hard it is to be a woman in this industry, especially at the level Diana is at, and how much shit gets flung your way on a daily basis. I certainly don’t want to pile on during what I’m sure is a tough time for her right now.

All that said, I’ve grown increasingly uneasy with the rise of access journalism in the last few decades, both in sports and outside of it. It wasn’t anything we learned about in journalism school, and it’s always felt … inappropriate. Borderline sleazy. I never wanted to hang out with the people I covered, with the exception of two or three athletes I thought were unusually cool. I never angled for invitations to private parties or showed up at bars or restaurants owned by celebrities, hoping to get some face time. I definitely never intertwined my fingers or sat in a hot tub with anyone I was reporting on.

Part of that is why I’m no longer working in sports media. When it comes to men’s professional sports, appearing to be part of “the club” is in the job description — think Jay Glazer and Aaron Rodgers. I was always more interested in sports from a socio-political point of view, and I mostly wrote columns and hosted my radio show. I didn’t need the guys I covered to be my friends. I pissed off teams and players with what I said about them, and that was fine. My job was to report and share my opinion, and I tried to be as fair as possible. If the Cubs didn’t like what I had to say about their clown car “press conference” for a player accused of beating his wife, that was their problem. My loyalty was to my audience, not to pro sports teams.

Sports radio, unlike newspapers, doesn’t have many people (or anyone) with editorial backgrounds working in it. In other words, no one really cared about journalistic integrity or conflicts of interest. Certain people always got the “big” interviews that the rest of us could only dream of, but they also had to carry water for those teams. If a GM or owner wanted to come on their show and deny something that everyone in the media knew was true, they had to shut up and let them. That never sat right with me, but that’s the business. I saw it happen over and over.

With the rise of league “insiders” like Adam Schefter, Ian Rapoport, and Shams Charania, ethical lines get blurred. Pro sports leagues (the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL) have their own reporters, making things even murkier, because they are mouthpieces for the leagues. I’ll never forget having one of my favorite Chicago sports reporters on my show one Friday night. While this guy was often openly critical of the moves the team he covered was making, he spent this entire appearance arguing with me on the team’s behalf and making excuses for management. I was completely befuddled by the 180. The following Monday morning, this same reporter announced he had taken a job with the team’s new TV network. Mystery solved.

The sad fact is that while many, many reporters do their work in an ethical and professional way, there is never any shortage of people willing to step over the line to get the scoop. There is big money in “insider” access, and not just in sports. Take a look at the White House Press Corps or the credentialed media at the Pentagon. Not all, but many of those reporters are there because they exchanged favors or positive coverage for access. While in radio, I was told more than once, “You can’t say that about X team. We’re their flagship station!” That’s access journalism, and it’s not normal. Or at least it didn’t used to be normal.

ESPN’s Buster Olney, who definitely falls into the category of sports “insider,” said something similar on a recent podcast.

“Okay,” you might say, “but this is sports. It’s not like these people are covering the White House.”

The problem is that access journalism has become normalized and rewarded in a culture where posting a scoop first on X is how your outlet “wins.” There are people, not necessarily reporters, who have built careers on posting things “first.” This is true whether we’re talking about those covering the NHL or those covering Donald Trump. More and more, getting access to the people you want to talk to for a story is predicated on what you can give that person in return. That’s detrimental to all of us.

I’m not talking about having relationships with people who feed you info about your beat. That’s always been important in journalism, as have celebrities and politicians not liking reporters who covered them critically. But the difference is that outlets used to stand up for those reporters and push back against the suggestion that all coverage should be positive. That seems to happen much less these days. How many media outlets have stood up for reporters that Trump has denigrated in the Oval Office? Hell, how many of their colleagues have stood up for them?

Increasingly, the incestuous relationship between media outlets and those they cover is blatantly obvious. Remember when Adam Schefter was caught sending a story he was about to file to the GM of the Washington Commanders for approval? It didn’t affect his career one iota. We could talk about why Donald Trump calls in to Maria Bartiromo or Fox & Friends when he has something he wants to say, or why Bush administration officials went to the NYT’s Judith Miller with their cheerleading for the War in Iraq. As Olney said, there is far too much of a quid pro quo going on in journalism these days. It makes the truth harder to tease out.

To circle back to Russini and Vrabel, I have no idea what the NYT’s internal investigation into her reporting of the Patriots will reveal. But in one sense, it doesn’t matter. The pictures snapped of her and Vrabel at an adults-only hotel known for its “romantic getaways” have done damage enough. Once there are questions about a reporter’s integrity, it’s sort of all down from there.

One last thing I find interesting is the number of men going out on a limb to defend Russini. I’ve seen several guys in sports media suggest that Russini did nothing wrong or that the criticism of her is somehow sexist. I can tell you that some women in sports media have been much more critical of Russini in private. USA Today’s Nancy Armor and former Monday Night Football reporter Lisa Guerrero are two of the few women who have spoken about the incident publicly.

Armour wrote:

And Guerrero (full disclosure: I consider Lisa a friend) said that if pictures of her at a romantic resort with an NFL coach had surfaced during her sports career, she’d have been fired on the spot.

It’s a weird story for women in sports media to weigh in on, because on the one hand, yes, there is absolutely a double standard for Russini. She is, for reasons we can all guess, the face of this story. While Russini wound up resigning, Vrabel has seemingly gone about his life and business as usual. That tracks in a society where women are viewed as Jezebels and home wreckers, and men as our unwitting victims. We also empathize with Russini because we know how hard she worked to get to the top of her field.

At the same time, there’s also a professional/moral distinction. Russini is subject to a journalistic code of ethics that we’re all taught in J-school, and that goes back decades (centuries?). At the top of that list is “don’t lie or make shit up,” but second to that is “don’t get caught in compromising situations with your sources.” Vrabel, sadly, is not held to the same code. I have a lot of thoughts on what kind of ethical standards NFL coaches should be held to, but given that the owner of the team Vrabel works for was caught in a sex trafficking sting, I don’t have a lot of hope.

As I said, I don’t care who sleeps with whom on a personal level. I care very much if someone is exchanging sex for scoops. Much of the criticism leveled at Russini, at least from other women in the field, stems from the belief that she may have violated an ethical code we all agree to abide by.

Yet I can’t help but notice how many men have rushed to Russini’s defense while remaining silent about all the other issues affecting women in sports media. Sexual harassment, online harassment, glass ceilings, and institutional sexism? Crickets. Woman accused of having an affair with a source? It’s all hands on deck to protect her. That doesn’t sit right with me. Where were all these guys when exposés about the misogyny at ESPN were being written?

It’s almost like men reward the women they perceive as being part of “the club.”

In other news: Another woman comes forward with SA claims about Eric Swalwell; Todd Blanche continues to lead the field of “GOP men I’d like to kick in the balls;” Door Dash’s PR guy crashes out; and The High Note.

Off we go.

This makes five women who have now accused former Rep. Eric Swalwell of sexual misconduct. Swalwell officially resigned from Congress yesterday.

In addition to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, the LA County Sheriff's Office is now also investigating the allegations against Swalwell. There’s also a lively discussion happening around Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-TX), Swalwell’s close buddy, for sticking up for Swalwell and claiming ignorance of his alleged crimes.

I promise you, Ruben, there were signs.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is right at the top of my list of “GOP Men I’d like to kick in the balls.” I have a visceral hatred for most of them, but something about Blanche’s smarmy bootlicking really gets under my skin.

You don’t need to read the piece. The headline says it all. I am making it my personal mission to get Blanche disbarred once this administration is out of office.

By now, you’ve probably seen the reports that the “Door Dash Grandma” who delivered Trump his meal at the Oval Office earlier this week looks a lot like a GOP plant, given that the same woman was spouting GOP talking points in Nevada before this latest stunt.

(Side note: No tax on tips is the same kind of scam as unlimited PTO. It sounds great, but it’s actually a step backward for workers’ rights.)

This revelation led to DoorDash’s PR guy losing his mind on social media.

“No one is claiming it was a real delivery!”

I sort of feel like the whole thing was set up as claiming it was a real delivery? Trump tipped her, for crying out loud.

Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.

I’m not sure it hits the same without Meg White on drums, but here’s Jack White doing Seven Nation Army at Coachella.

And because I can never think of Jack White without thinking of his fantastic duet with Loretta Lynn, here’s Portland, Oregon.

Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Follow Julie on Bluesky and Instagram so she can get another book contract.