All of which may be true (I was - and still am - living in MN at the time), but it is, again, irrelevant to my point.
If his journalism was so bad, then
The State should have taken action. That they didn't, over such a long time, implies to me they were good with it.
They only took action when USC threatened to ban them from Spurrier's press conferences and deny them access. Even worse (for the point I am making) they appointed a Spurrier sycophant in his place, a person Spurrier specifically recommended for the job.
The clear message was that free press would not be tolerated by the USC athletic department.
This got a lot of attention from the national sports press. Here is one of a number of articles from Deadspin:
Reporter Who Was Critical Of Steve Spurrier Replaced By Spurrier's Pal
So, regardless of whether Morris
should have been fired for cause, he
was fired because USC wanted him fired.
I am fortunate to live in an area with local media who won't kowtow to the local sports teams. There are a few homers here and there (one who is even mocked for his homerism by other writers for the same paper), but there are also sports reporters and columnists who will print what they think should be printed. And the papers back them up (unlike
The State).
The local Columbia media market is paying the price, I believe.