Dan Kane, the reporter who broke the UNC academic scandal for the (Raleigh) News & Observer, won the Frank MuCulloch Award for Courage in Journalism last week.
This editorial board would like to congratulate Kane on his recent accomplishment and to his dedication to upholding journalistic integrity despite reactionary outrage directed toward him including threats.
He did the University a service by holding us accountable to our mission statement to educate everyone enrolled here.
Kane first wrote about the UNC scandal in 2011, and continues to follow the story to this day. Beside doing the difficult work of examining the scandal’s paper trail in detail, he also allowed for the humanity of those involved to come through in his storytelling. He interviewed former students and athletes that took part in the classes and brought unique perspectives to the conversations.
Despite having death threats made against him and having his family’s personal information published online, he did not relent from chasing the story. He has also been vilified on social media by a multitude of people who question his journalistic integrity. The attacks on him are unmerited.
Kane is a journalist who did his job of informing the public and did it well — he is not to blame for the University’s shortcomings and should be thanked for forcing the UNC community to have difficult but necessary conversations.
