South Carolina demands more than apology from Columbia-based newspaper after Ryan Hilinski headline

A newspaper in Columbia, S.C., is receiving heavy criticism for a headline related to South Carolina Gamecocks starting quarterback Ryan Hilinski, the younger brother of former Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski.

South Carolina’s football program released a statement Monday taking issue with a headline published in Sunday’s print edition of The State, and adding the newspaper’s apology wasn’t enough. The headline, accompanying a game story from South Carolina’s 34-14 loss to Missouri Saturday, read “Hilinski’s Hope Sinks.”

Hilinski’s Hope is the name of the non-profit organization launched by Mark and Kym Hilinski after Tyler Hilinski took his own life in an off-campus apartment in January of 2018. The foundation aims to raise awareness for suicide prevention and erase the stigma around mental health.

Gamecocks coach Will Muschamp, athletic director Ray Tanner and school president Bob Caslen all signed a statement released by the university on Sunday afternoon.

“Hilinski’s Hope means so much to the Hilinski family, their friends, Gamecock Nation, college football fans across the country and those who have been affected by someone suffering from mental illness,” the statement said. “We were appalled to see this morning’s headline in The State newspaper that seemed cavalier about the seriousness of the mental health issue. It demonstrated a level of unprofessional and irresponsible journalism, and we find it unacceptable that the major daily newspaper in the hometown of our University would use such a headline in their game story.

“We don’t believe their apology is enough. We urge The State to be a leader in advocating and destigmatizing mental illness by making a very public effort to help fund and provide educational awareness to this very real problem.”

Ryan Hilinski has started three games for South Carolina since Jake Bentley suffered a season-ending injury in the 2019 opener against North Carolina. Hilinski completed 13-of-30 passes for 166 yards, one touchdown and one interception in the loss to Missouri.

The newspaper’s statement read: “Our sincerest apologies to the Hilinski family today for the unfortunate headline in our print edition today. Hilinski’s Hope works to raise awareness about mental health issues, especially for student-athletes. Although the connection between the headline and the foundation was unintentional, there is no excuse for such poor wording and we have reached out to the family and university to express our regrets.”

The State followed up an hour later with an additional statement, explaining their print headlines are written by copy editors based in Charlotte, N.C., rather than Columbia.

“A followup because we are getting questions about how our headlines are written: All of our local content is of course generated by staff writers based in Columbia and edited by local editors. The headlines that appear online are written by either the reporter or editor. The print editions of our company’s newspapers in both South Carolina and North Carolina are put together by copy editors based in Charlotte. They handle duties such as trimming stories to available space, editing photo captions and rewording long headlines into the space made available by the design of the page.

“In this situation, the copy editor chose to highlight in the headline the reporter’s wording in the first paragraph about the renewed hope Ryan Hilinski’s performance had brought to the team.”