Northwestern madness

Following the whole question on ethical decision making, I had some questions about the Northwestern journalism "scandal". Professor Hinchey told me to facebook message David Spett, the senior who did the investigative work and first questioned the Dean's credidibility. After a few messages back and forth, here is what I came up with:

1) When you questioned Dean Lavine's sources, did you first talk to Lavine or did you automatically contact the 29 students and THEN talk to Lavine?
- I talked to the students in the class first, then Lavine.

2) What in particular jumped out at you that made you question the authenticity of Lavine's sources?
- I would say it was a combination of the fact that I saw no reason for the quotes to be anonymous and I thought the wording of the quotes was strange. "Sure felt good" and "truth telling in journalism" are not phrases used by people I know.

3) How did you feel about Levine before hand? Did you feel he was pretty credible?
- Lavine's been a controversial dean, no question, but that's a separate issue from the one here: Whether he fabricated three quotes in the alumni magazine, whether that's OK, and whether it was appropriate to use the anonymous quotes in the first place. I see my role as presenting the facts; I make no judgment on these issues.

4) Have you had any personal repercussions as a result of this?
- A lot of media coverage. NPR (x3), the Chicago Tribune (a front-page story, editorial, columns and continuing coverage), the Chicago Sun-Times (two stories and an editorial), Chicago Reader, Washington Post, Associated Press, Chronicle of Higher Ed., US News & World Report, Newsweek, Editor & Publisher, WIND-AM, Gawker. Coming soon: the American Journalism Review.


In response to the new information (http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13167) acquitting Levine from the charges, I only have one question. From what I gathered, the committee released him on 2 accounts:
1) This particular publication was from Spring 2007, so it was a year old. Thus, they don't expect him to have saved all of his notes.
2) Levine could have gotten this quote, or something like it, from course evaluations.
This is all OKAY, but it still does not answer the question "why doesn't any student recall saying this quote?" I'm sure the student would have remembered saying it, even if it was in a course evaluation and the student was not specifically being interviewed by the Dean.

Any weigh-in on the matter??