Sudeck Also Fighting Back: Claims Quotes Obtained Unethically

Ryan Sudeck, a Stanford rower who was quoted in “The List” article in yesterday’s issue of The Daily, has now posted responses to his quote. He has done so via comment sections on major media and campus news outlets.

News outlets–such as The Stanford Daily, The San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Huffington Post–ran “The List” article in its original form. Others–such as ESPN, Fox News, and USA Today–ran articles about about the article. Local and national outlets continue to pick up the story.

In The Daily’s article (written by about a dozen Daily writers and editors through a project called California Watch), Sudeck’s quote appeared in the following here. Sudeck wants his quote removed from *all *versions of the story.

Sudeck’s response (as it appears in the comment section of The Unofficial Stanford Blog’s post that includes Prof Donald Barr’s claims that he too was misrepresented in The Daily Article) reads,

As you may or not be aware, I was also quoted in the article entitled “Stanford athletes had access to list of ‘easy’ courses”. My reason for writing to you is in regards to this aforementioned direct quote.

Not only is the quote misused and taken out of context BUT it was also obtained by recording a conversation without my consent. I will not address the relevancy or use of the quote in terms of context at this time as the methods by which it was obtained bear much more swift attention.

Neither prior, during nor after my conversation with a friend of mine who was a contributor to the article was I informed that my quotes or name would be used. I was under the reasonable understanding that our face-to-face conversation was to be confined to the two of us. I had no knowledge of a recording device present, nor was knowledge given to me by the interviewer.

Such journalistic conduct is unethical. I have requested that my remarks are immediately removed from the story online and from ALL versions of the story that appear elsewhere and am in contact with multiple organizations within the university.

Stanford athletes are the best both on the field and in the classroom and I apologize if this article has seemingly done anything to diminish that. Know that I love this university, respect every one of my fellow athletes and was wrongfully used in the production of this article.

I will continue to directly address those who feel the need to contact me in regards to the article.

-Ryan Sudeck

Sudeck has *not *gone on the record with us, but as he has published his letter. We held off on publishing it, but we now feel comfortable reprinting it. Sudeck has not yet responded to our request for a separate comment.