Journalist Fired After Reportedly Saying Mel Tucker Accuser Brenda Tracy Lied, Covering Claims Made By Tucker's Attorneys

A reporter for a Michigan TV station has been fired after tweeting information that supported former Michigan State Spartans head coach Mel Tucker's version of the sexual harassment allegations that led to his ousting.

Audrey Dahlgren, formerly the sports director at Lansing, Mich., TV station WLNS, was reportedly fired late last week.

Dahlgren, a veteran reporter, tweeted information released by Tucker and his attorneys. This comes as the former Spartans head coach is in a legal battle over whether or he still owed $80 million left on his contract.

Michigan State claims to have terminated Tucker's employment for cause.

This info included a tweet that featured an email from Tucker's legal team. It included an allegation that Tracy was engaged in simultaneous consensual relationships with Tucker and at least one other coach.

This caught YouTube host Justin Spiro's attention. He quote-tweeted Dahlgren's report. He noted that the relationship with another coach is secondary to the bigger issue of whether or not Tracy lied to investigators.

While Spiro appeared to be doing some kind of hypothetical thought exercise, Dahlgren responded with a since-deleted tweet that said Tracy had lied and highlighted the part about her telling investigators about being single, which contradicts the claim from Tucker's attorneys.

Reporter Audrey Dahlgren's since-deleted tweet. (Screenshot)

Dahlgreen's wording — despite pointing out an instance in which it appears that Tracy at the very least contradicted her story — drew criticism.

Dahlgren responded to one criticism by saying that she had updated a story on the station website to include the words "they claim" to the Tucker legal team's allegations.

Dahlgreen Corrected Her Tweet Saying Tucker Accuser Had Lied

Additionally, Dahlgren said her tweet in which she said Tracy lied had been misinterpreted, and that she attempted to correct the language.

Fair enough, it happens. It's why pencils have erasers and X has an edit button (if you pay for it). Dahlgren attempted to rectify the situation, saying that her tweet had been misrepresented.

Eventually, however, Dahlgren's credibility was called into question. She was accused of not doing her job "responsibly" by USA Today reporter Kenny Jacoby.

Dahlgren shot back that she had previously retweeted some of Jacoby's articles on the same story. To show both sides.

Much of the criticism seemed to be aimed at the fact that Dahlgren was reporting on Tucker's attempts to assert his innocence. It sure seems like claims made by his legal team would be worth reporting, and happens all the time.

In a later tweet, Dahlgren even went on to clarify that some specificities were lacking in Tucker's claims.

However, it appears it was too little too late.

This all happened on Thursday, October 5. Multiple reports — including one from her old pal Kenny Jacoby — announced that WLNS had fired Dahlgren on Friday over her now-deleted tweet.

"Uncritical parroting" seems like a real stretch. Dahlgren pointed out some of the vagueries of the statements from Tucker's attorneys.

Dahlgren's bio on the WLNS website has been removed.

OutKick reached out to WLNS about the reason for Dahlgren's reported firing but has yet to hear back.

Follow on X: @Matt_Reigle