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USC football coach Lincoln Riley. | Photo courtesy of USC
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A sports reporter with the Southern California News Group has been suspended from access to the USC football team for two weeks, a decision made by the university and the football coach, and Wednesday the newspaper group’s sports editors are asking for the suspension to be lifted.
USC football coach Lincoln Riley announced the reporter — Luca Evans, who writes for the Orange County Register, one of 11 newspapers in the Southern California News Group — has suspended access to the team following the publication of a story that ran in papers and online Thursday.
Katie Ryan, the Director of Football Communications, said Riley took issue with the story Evans wrote that included a conversation two players had while preparing to meet with members of the media. USC says Evans violated its policy prohibiting reporting on anything outside media availability in the practice facility.
The sports editors and publisher at the Southern California News Group called the suspension an overreaction and in a letter sent Monday asked Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen and USC President Carol Folt to reconsider.
In the letter signed by Sports Editor Tom Moore, Orange County Register Senior Editor Todd Harmonson and Southern California News Group Publisher Ron Hasse, the news group asked for the suspension to be lifted “in football parlance, USC is looking to kick him out of multiple games for a false start. We ask that this suspension be rescinded immediately.”
The Southern California News Group contends that the suspension is an overreaction, and in a letter sent Monday asked Riley, Athletic Director Jennifer Cohen and USC President Carol Folt to reconsider.
The Orange County Register reported Cohen responded to the letter Monday writing, “As an institution, USC prides itself on treating the media as a respected partner and key constituent. We understand the responsibility of reporters is to fairly and objectively cover stories, news events, and their respective beats. As you know, our media policies exist to protect our student-athletes and promote a culture of trust that is critical to building successful programs.
“After careful consideration and in alignment with the sentiment above, USC supports the football program’s decision regarding Luca’s two-week suspension. We recognize this may be disappointing, but we hope you can understand the need to enforce our media policies as we strive to create a positive and comfortable environment for our players and coaches.”
Harmonson said in a story published in the Register he disagrees with USC’s decision.
“This is a huge overreaction to what the USC program perceived to be a policy violation. We clearly disagree and stand fully behind Luca,” Harmonson said.
Riley was asked after Tuesday’s practice about the decision to suspend Evans. He defended his decision and declined to specify which rules were broken.
“I don’t feel like we have too many rules, too many policies, but the ones we do have we take them serious because my first job is not to, even though it is part of my job, it’s not for the media, it’s not for the fans, it’s not anyone else, it’s protecting the players. That is first and foremost,” Riley said in a story in the Register. “I know the article in question was not accurate, there were multiple policies broken and felt like it was far enough that we needed to act. We look forward to welcoming the reporter back when the time is up.”
The suspension expires on Sept. 28 and Evans will continue to report on the team with access, the Register reported.
