USC Football Suspends OC-Register Writer for "Rules Violation"

I never fucking thought I'd be rooting for Deion but here we are.

 

I doubt it. I know with the school that I cover, all of the visiting credentials are actually approved by the visiting team. When I apply for road credentials, that school asks the school I cover if I should be approved.

I would imagine that Colorado is going to have so many media requests for that game that they aren't going to have the time to make a statement. If USC doesn't want Luca in that press box, he isn't getting in that press box (and even if he somehow got it, USC could still certainly ban him from postgame access to their coaches and players).

 

Devil's advocate: At what point does the reporter have to take accountability for his actions? These rules at USC are dumb and overkill, but so are many of the media rules that we as reporters have to follow on high school, college and pro beats. I may have missed other stories, but it doesn't seem like the rest of the USC press corps is having an issue with these rules.

The OCR doesn't seem to dispute USC's claim that in the two months this reporter has been on the job, he has violated their rules on at least three occasions and USC previously brought their concerns to an editor at the OCR.

It seems to me that after that, USC was looking for a reason and Luca gave them another one.

In the end, the decision to issue this suspension was excessive and I'm not sure that USC really thought about the negative PR that would come out of this story. However, I am having a tough time mustering up too much anger. This reporter crossed what USC perceived as the line on multiple occasions and they decided to send a message. We'll have to wait to see what the fallout is.

 

What rules did the reporter break? And why is he bound to the rules as USC doesn’t employ him?

 

Even if the beat writer ran “afoul” of the rules before this, the “violation” at hand isn’t the one on which to suspend the writer.

Miss by Riley.

 

According to the OCR article, he asked a question after a press conference had ended (the horror), tried to speak with players/coaches in an area that wasn't a media availability (an accusation that needs more details because that could either be a huge deal or no deal at all) and printed something from a casual conversation that two players were privately having (regardless of how harmless the quote was, I don't get how this is being defended).

And why is he bound to those rules? For the same reason that any of us are bound to the media rules that are established by the teams we cover. You are correct that USC doesn't employ him, but USC also doesn't have to credential him. It's their house and I don't think it is an affront to journalism that they set some basic ground rules.

 

If a private convo is in earshot of the collected media - including behind a closed door - it is not really private, IMO. Not sure what happened here.

My sense is USC is annoyed and sprung this as a “hey, back off, Bob Woodward” move. Bad look for the Trojans and Riley.

 

My understanding of the "private convo" is that they were off to the side waiting to go in front of the mics for a presser.

 

. “I know the article in question was not accurate."

1. Riley never says what is not accurate.
2. Anyone reading that story, which is about as puff piece featurey as possible, is going to go -- what is not accurate because the info either comes from direct quotes, factual stats and the kid's father. There's no blind items or anonymous sources.

 

Read the story and seemed like that. Of course if they’re six feet from the podium and saying it right behind the reporter…not saying that happened here. If they’re 30 feet away and the reporter is sorta just hanging there, eavesdropping, I can understand USC having a WTH vibe…still wouldn’t suspend.

Lincoln Riley is touchy. Always has been.