Media sources prematurely announce Paterno’s death

The managing editor of a student newspaper in the Penn State system has resigned due to a tweet he posted saying that former coach Joe Paterno had passed away.  

Devon Edwards, Managing Editor of Onward State, had posted early Saturday on Twitter that Paterno had passed away; however, Paterno’s sons responded on Twitter by stating that the tweet was not true.  Onward State immediately recanted the tweet. 

The tweet was heavily dispersed by media organizations across the country, it was retweeted thousands of times and it became several thousands of peoples’ facebook status.  The Associated Press did not publish the report.  

Edwards apologized for the mistake in a statement on the newspaper’s website saying he never thought Onward State would ever be cited by national news organizations and he wished it hadn’t been.  

“To all those who read and passed along our reports, I sincerely apologize for having mislead you,” Edwards said. “To the Penn State community and to the Paterno family, most of all, I could not be more sorry for the emotional anguish I am sure we at Onward State caused. There are no excuses for what we did.”

Onward State was not the only news organization that reported Paterno’s death prematurely.  CBSSports.com, People.com and the Huffington Post all reported his death after the post by Edwards and before Paterno actually passed away.

Edwards did not say in his statement why or how the error occurred.  The only explanation he gave was to hint at pressure to be the first to report the story.

“In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm,” Edwards said.

Edwards also apologized to the Paterno family as well as the Penn State community for any distress he may have caused.  He resigned immediately and promised that the organization will “exercise caution, restraint and humility.”