Chicago Tribune's Zorn: DEAN MUST PROVE HE DIDN'T FABRICATE QUOTATIONS

The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn today provided evidence confirming the veracity of David Spett's reporting and concluded the Dean must now prove he did not fabricate the quotes he wrote in an article for the Medill Magazine.

In his article, Zorn publishes the reporting of Medill Professor David Protess who conducted a taped interview with the dean, and contacted the five possible juniors in the class who could have said the quotates the Dean attribute a junior as saying. Protess confirmed "All the students denied saying the quote, even when I promised not to print their names." Protess provided Zorn with emails and notes as proof of his reporting. Zorn said he independently confirmed Protess' reports that the five juniors denied ever saying the quotes.

It seems to me that this puts the ball squarely back in Dean John Lavine's court; that a great preponderance of evidence now suggests that "a Medill junior" did not speak or write or otherwise communicate those words to him, and the burden's on him to prove otherwise.

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