I thought you were different, Brynn Cameron told me over the phone.
Cameron, a guard for the USC women’s basketball team, had granted the Ventura County Star the first interview since giving birth to Matt Leinart’s child. Now, days later she was having second thoughts, frustrated I was using quotes of her criticizing Leinart’s parenting skills.
An in-depth feature appeared shortly after in the Star’s Sunday sports section. It detailed her drive to return to Division I basketball following two hip operations and childbirth. Newspapers across the country cited Cameron’s comments. Entertainment magazines People and US Weekly called afterward trying to find out Cameron’s contact information.
Normally, the backstory behind an article remains unseen, the fodder of the writer and his or her fellow journalists. However, the story behind how Cameron’s critical quotes ended up in a feature became relevant after an appearance by two Emerald sports writers on campus radio last week.
When athletes question a writer, whether it’s the reporter’s motives or word choice, it bears discussion. Cameron and soccer player Dylann Tharp, who questioned an article in the Emerald, aren’t alone in debating stories that appear in print. That’s why transparency is important in explaining what’s involved in reporting a story.
Athletes have a right to react to statements made by the media and put them back into the public forum. But what athletes must also understand is that the press has duties that they can’t control: quoting athletes accurately and reporting objectively.

Hitting the air waves

Last Monday, I joined Dan Jones, the Emerald soccer beat writer, in an appearance on Quack Smack, a sports talk show on campus radio station, KWVA 88.1 FM.
It started with harmless discussions on popular sports news, namely Yankee manager Joe Torre’s unsettled future and the Colorado Rockies’ surprising playoff success. Talk next shifted to the Oregon sports and play of the volleyball and soccer team. Expectations for this season’s men’s basketball team were discussed.
All of this was fine, until soccer player Dylann Tharp called in and questioned Jones’ use of the word “steamrolled” in his recap of the soccer team’s 3-0 loss to UCLA, in which Oregon was outshot 16 to 5.
Criticism of the word choice is fine, even expected in sports journalism. But when Tharp said there should be more support from the campus newspaper I shuddered.
Recaps and features tell what really happened – good or bad – with Oregon sports. When teams do well, it is reflected in the stories. When they do poorly, it is also shown. The Emerald sports section is not a cheerleader for Oregon athletics.
Tharp, of all athletes, should expect unbiased reporting from the media as her mom, Shelley Smith, is a correspondent for ESPN. Honest, balanced reporting is what separates the Emerald and other daily newspapers from the tabloids found along the checkout lines of supermarkets.
That the Emerald should be considered any different is ludicrous.

Basketball star

This brings me back to Cameron, a well-spoken athlete who ruled the high school basketball scene during her prep days at Newbury Park High in Southern California. She earned a scholarship to USC and had a promising freshman season in 2004-05, leading the Trojans in scoring at 9.8 points a game and named to the Pacific-10 Conference’s All-Freshman team.
Cameron underwent an operation to alleviate pain in her left hip following her freshman season and did so again after her sophomore season – cutting her second season short. It was after the second operation that Cameron learned she was pregnant.
A different Star reporter published the news, quoting Cameron’s father, Stan, and naming Leinart, the former USC quarterback and current Arizona Cardinal, as the baby’s father. Stan Cameron called the next day berating the reporter for running the story.
Brynn Cameron declined interviews and waited until after Cole Cameron Leinart was born on Oct. 24, 2006. Even then, she remained quiet until I called USC and asked for an interview last summer. All the interview requests until then had focused on Cameron’s relationship with Leinart and had been turned down, but I emphasized Cameron’s return to the basketball court, an uplifting story in itself.

Talking about Leinart

In the ensuing interview on a Thursday, Cameron openly discussed the joys and challenges of parenthood, including Leinart, whose parenting skills had been positively portrayed in the media. Cameron disputed it and said so.
“It’s kind of hard for me as the mom – I’m with Cole probably 99.9 percent of the time – to open a magazine or read a newspaper article with Matt saying, ‘Oh, I love being a dad. I love changing diapers. I love doing this.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’” said Cameron, who added, “I don’t know how to word how he is about this, but it’s been hard when I’m doing all the work, but he gets all the credit for it.”
Days later, a photographer and I visited her home, capturing Cameron, a doting mother relaxed in a familiar setting and joined by her older sister, Emily Monroy, niece Drew Monroy and younger brother Colby. She gave a second interview during the visit and listened as I checked the Leinart quotes for accuracy.
The experience, which had been positive so far, changed as the story moved closer to publication and Cameron became uncomfortable about using her quotes about Leinart in the story. Out of fairness, I called the Arizona Cardinals and offered Leinart the chance to comment. He declined.
Cameron, when she learned I tried reaching him, was furious, saying she never would have granted an interview if she knew I was going to talk to him. The USC sports information director for women’s basketball accused me of taking an advantage of a young mother and trying to boost my journalism career by talking to Leinart. The latter criticism is a funny thought, considering I’m still in college and working at a student newspaper.
I e-mailed Cameron a copy of the story beforehand, a courtesy the newspaper approves of, allowing her to check for inaccuracies and when she responded, she called the portion of the story about Leinart the stuff of tabloids and wrote she “thought I was different.” She had repeated this sentiment in an earlier telephone conversation, citing Derek Wynn, a USC assistant coach who I’ve known for years and who vouched for me.
With Cameron, this was an unusual situation – balancing the need to respect Cameron’s privacy while informing the newspaper’s readers.
Leinart is relevant, and a part of the story. In telling readers about a single mom who plans on juggling school, parenting and Division I basketball, the natural question is, how is she going to do it? Who is going to help her? Her parents and coaches and teammates naturally. What about the father who helped create this life? Leinart is important in discussing how their son will be raised.
This exploration into the background of the Cameron story provides an example of how an athlete can be misinformed about the media’s role. My intent with this behind the scenes glimpse, and it relates to Tharp, was not to belittle Cameron, but to tell the whole story – positive and negative.
When the Oregon soccer team loses 3-0 to UCLA, it’s not a narrow defeat, whether steamrolled is the right word or not. When a feature prints Cameron’s thoughts on Leinart and how attempts were made to contact him, it’s balanced reporting.
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