CBS Interactive has fired college football blogger Adam Jacobi, who erroneously reported former Penn State coach Joe Paterno’s death before it occurred.
Jacobi posted a story (since amended) around 8 p.m. on Jan. 27 saying that that an ailing Paterno died from complications from lung cancer treatment. The dispatch was widely cited in social media but counter-reports followed from the New York Times and others and Paterno’s family released a statement via the McGinn Group that night saying Paterno was still alive.
Paterno died the next morning at 85.
“In the end, CBS had to let me go for the Paterno story going out the way it did, and I understand completely,” Jacobi wrote on Twitter Jan. 27. “Thanks, everyone, for reading.”
Jacobi’s report prompted an apology and retraction from CBSSports.com managing editor Mark Swanson hours after it appeared. Swanson said the original report was never verified and noted “CBSSports.com holds itself to high journalistic standards, and in this circumstance tonight, we fell well short of those expectations.” He apologized to the Paterno family and Penn State community.