The Atlanta Journal-Constitution issued a series of corrections to its investigation into Georgia football’s handling of sexual misconduct and violent incidents, according to an article posted on the paper’s website Wednesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also fired investigative reporter Alan Judd — who wrote the article — for “violating the organization's journalistic standards.”
The corrections and termination come after the University of Georgia Athletic Association sent a nine-page letter to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on July 11 alleging that the article, which was published on June 27, took quotes out of context and lacked sufficient evidence to back up key claims. The paper reviewed each of UGA Athletics’ claims with a team of editors and attorneys, according to a statement from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s editor-in-chief, Leroy Chapman, but did not retract the article as the letter demanded.
Among the corrections was adjusting one of the article’s chief claims that 11 Georgia players were accused of sexual assault or violence against women. The original article only named two players accused of violence and described an incident involving an unnamed third player.
The letter sent by UGA Athletics took issue with the claim. It said that when the organization contacted Judd about who the other eight players were, he did not produce names or records.
The paper reviewed the claim and found that while the accounts of the two named players were “accurate and newsworthy,” the count of 11 players remaining on the team after violent encounters couldn’t be substantiated.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution corrected and removed several paragraphs of the article that relied on the assertion. They also changed the headline — which originally read “UGA football program rallies when players accused of abusing women” — to “UGA football program rallied in two incidents when players were accused of abusing women.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also acknowledged a second error that occurred when Judd improperly joined two quotes from an interview tape between one of the named players — Jamaal Jarrett — and the Athens-Clarke County Police Department. The quotes, which happened several minutes apart, were presented as if they were said together. UGA Athletics’ letter also took issue with the quotes’ presentations.
“Our editorial integrity and the trust our community has in us is at the core of who we are,” Chapman said. “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.”
Judd, who has worked as a leading reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for almost 25 years, was terminated over the article. However, it wasn’t the first time Judd has been under fire for inaccurate reporting. UGASports.com reported Sunday that Judd resigned from the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1988 after editors found serious inaccuracies in an investigative piece examining the lack of educational opportunities offered to elite high school athletes.
“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,” Judd said in a statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
UGA Athletics said they have no further comments at this time.