USA Today has now found itself in hot water, as it published a controversial article on July 24 claiming that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark skipped the Orange Carpet for a salon appointment.
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The latest, as shared by Clark Report on X, has the outlet claiming that Clark skipped the WNBA All-Star Orange Carpet on Thursday “to get her hair done.” USA Today reporter Heather Burns portrayed Clark as skipping the event to get her hair done—a framing that made her appear superficial, prioritizing a hair appointment over the Orange Carpet. However, Clark was not in attendance because she was hosting a charity dinner in her hometown through the Caitlin Clark Foundation.
USA Today later released a clarification, wherein they edited the introduction of the column, adding an editor’s note about added information. But by then, the piece had already gained widespread attention. And it had drawn a wave of backlash, with many pointing out the inaccuracy. The backlash intensified because this came days after another USA Today piece also went viral for controversy.
July 22 saw Nancy Armour, a USA Today sports columnist, publish an opinion piece criticizing Clark’s on-court behavior. Ahead of the ongoing WNBA All-Star Weekend, Armour wrote an opinion column discussing Clark’s tendency to argue with officials and what she described as “flopping” to draw fouls. However, the most controversial part of the piece was where she attempted to link Clark’s on-court actions to racial violence in American history.
The piece drew immediate backlash. In fact, prominent media personality and Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy described the passage as the “dumbest paragraph… in the history of sports.” There were also widespread calls for Clark to sue the publication for defamation.
In reaction to the backlash, Armour eventually acknowledged that the Emmett Till comparison was “inartful” in a statement on Instagram, and USA Today also edited the piece for greater clarity, adding another editor’s note. However, Armour did not take a fully apologetic stance. Instead, she doubled down on her broader claim regarding the online abuse directed at other Black players in the league.
While Clark has not addressed the USA Today controversies, she recently spoke to ESPN about media mischaracterizations of her personality.
Caitlin Clark’s Response to Media Criticism Comes to Spotlight Amid USA Today Backlash
While Caitlin Clark has not addressed either of the two recent USA Today controversies directly, she recently spoke about the media and inaccurate representation of her personality in the media. She did this during a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews, which aired on Friday as the WNBA All-Star Weekend got underway.
“I think there’s just like a false characterization of who I am sometimes. And I get it. Like, as a reporter or as a blogger, you can write an opinion piece, and that’s your job and whatever. But at the same time, you don’t know me. We’ve never had a conversation. I get people to have a job to do. But at the same time, don’t make accusations about my character and who I am when you don’t know me.”
In the same interview, Clark also emphasized the media’s responsibility in shaping public narratives and expressed concern about how coverage can sometimes drift away from reality.
“I understand this is your job and this is your profession, and this is what you get to do,” she added. “Basketball is my profession, what I get to do. And the reason I play it is when I step in between the lines, I love it. And that’s what’s so fun about it for me is like, I get to compete. This was always my dream. And nobody should ever try to take that away from me”
This season especially has featured one controversy after another involving Clark. The most notable so far was a foul by Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas, which Clark herself addressed in the interview, also stating that the incident should never have deviated beyond basketball.
And now comes the latest controversy, one that was not directly tied to any on-court action at all and instead stemmed entirely from false claims about why she missed the WNBA All-Star Orange Carpet.