Editors at the Vox Media sports site SB Nation have finished a review process that traced the mistakes leading up to a flawed profile of Daniel Holtzclaw, a convicted rapist and former police officer who played football in college.
The story, which SB Nation has chalked up to a “complete breakdown of a part of the editorial process,” was 12,000 words long and cast Holtzclaw in a sympathetic light. After it ran, the story met with backlash from journalists and readers who wondered why editors at SB Nation hadn’t intervened before it was published.
SB Nation Editorial Director Spencer Hall and Editorial Vice President Kevin Lockland described three factors that led to the publication of the story in an editor’s note Thursday:
“In the next few weeks, we will be rolling out some changes to our editorial planning and publishing process for all longer lead and planned pieces, ensuring that each piece is properly resourced for scope and complexity and to improve overall communication and collaboration across SBNation.com.”
SB Nation replaced the story, “Who is Daniel Holtzclaw?” with an editor’s note, but a cached version remains online.
