USA Today and one of its columnists, Nancy Armour, faced massive backlash after Armour’s column labeled Caitlin Clark protesting referee calls as “dangerous” ahead of the All-Star Weekend. Yet, just days later, the publication once again found themselves in hot water after a controversial article on why Clark missed the Orange Carpet event. Now, WNBA analyst Rachel Demitta hinted the issue may need a much closer look.
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“I have seen the article from USA Today about Caitlin. Like guys, at this point, I just can’t even give light to it. It’s just crazy. And it continues to happen. I don’t know when it’s going to stop happening.” Demitta said on her Courtside Club podcast.
“I don’t know, maybe if there’s new leadership in the W. Maybe if some of these media outlets kind of do a revamp of even who they’re hiring, things will get better. But this is something that just continues to happen. I don’t understand it. I’m not going to touch on I’m not going to bring any more light to it. It’s horrible. It’s awful. Just ignore it.”
Armour’s story that drew significant backlash was an opinion piece USA Today columnist Nancy Armour wrote. In the piece, Armour directly criticised Caitlin Clark for her “flopping”, arguing that her habit of arguing with referees was inadvertently putting Black and queer WNBA players in danger.
In Armour’s public statement, she apologized for not giving proper context for some of her statements and references she made in her column. Meanwhile, USA Today went into damage control, editing and updating the column and explicitly stating it was an opinion piece. However, when Front Office Sports asked about the piece, they stood by their columnist.
Yet, just days after the piece, USA Today reporter Heather Bruns wrote about why Clark had skipped the WNBA All-Star Orange Carpet event. The backlash originated from the social media caption of the post.
“Caitlin Clark skipped the WNBA Orange Carpet on Thursday, opting to get her hair done in her hometown of Des Moines.”
While the Indiana Fever guard did go back to Des Moines, the reason was completely different. 247Sports’ David Eickholt was among the many who called out the report, saying, “She went back to Des Moines because the Caitlin Clark Foundation was hosting an event. Hard to even put into words how irresponsible this is.”
The backlash once again prompted USA Today to update the article with additional information and include the disclaimer for readers. Now the question is whether media outlets, and especially USA Today, will tread more cautiously when reporting on Clark.