CBS Sports writer Adam Jacobi told The Washington Post Friday that he has been fired for erroneously reporting the death of Joe Paterno hours before the coach passed away.
Jacobi reported Paterno’s death Saturday night based on a Twitter post by the independent Penn State website Onward State. However, his report did not explicitly cite Onward State until it became clear later in the night that the Twitter post was erroneous.
It is with no small amount of irony that several organizations — including Poynter, USA Today and The Patriot-News — reported on Jacobi’s firing based on comments he posted to his unverified Twitter account.
By phone, Jacobi did confirm his firing to The Washington Post.
While Onward State was the source of the erroneous news surrounding Paterno’s death, the story spread largely because of CBS. Several organizations that would not have cited a tweet by the generally unknown Onward State ran with the story once the presumably reliable CBS Sports reported the story.
(Friday’s news from The Washington Post; additional information from Poynter, The Patriot-News, USA Today)
