Christine Brennan became the rare journalist to be directly named by pro athletes in September when the WNBA players’ union released a lengthy statement criticizing her coverage of the league this season for USA Today.
In the days since, Brennan’s editor Roxanna Scott responded with a statement of her own, but Brennan has kept mostly quiet. At the same time, everyone from Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe to voices across sports media have chimed in on the dispute as well as Brennan’s questioning of DiJonai Carrington in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, which was the final straw that led to the WNBPA statement.
This week, Brennan joined Good Game with Sarah Spain to respond to the WNBPA, athletes in the league, as well as fans and media who have voiced their issues with her and her reporting in recent weeks. Brennan elaborated on the strategy behind her coverage of the WNBA this season and acknowledged the need for sports media to be more considerate of the ripple effects of how it frames the league as it navigates the turbulent waters of surging growth.
“Certainly it is something that I guess every journalist needs to start to think about and deal with. Most of us don’t. You ask questions and you see what the answers are,” Brennan said. “I would say that in the case of almost everything that we’ve all done over the years, we have been certainly aware of the criticism we’re all getting. And of course, that means the athletes are getting (it) too … I think it’s something that we haven’t focused on that much.”
While covering the first-round matchup between Carrington’s Connecticut Sun and the Indiana Fever led by Caitlin Clark (about whom Brennan is writing an anticipated book due next year), Brennan pressed Carrington about a collision with Clark during Game 1. After Carrington explained the hit, which gave Clark a black eye, was unintentional, Brennan followed up by asking if there was a connection between the collision and a moment caught on camera later in the game in which Carrington could be seen laughing with a teammate on the bench.
I asked DiJonai Carrington about that moment early in Sunday’s Indiana-Connecticut game when she caught Caitlin Clark in the eye. Here’s her answer: pic.twitter.com/DnQVYi0r6J
— Christine Brennan (@cbrennansports) September 24, 2024
In the interview with Spain, Brennan defended the line of questioning and told a story of being confronted postgame by Carrington’s Sun teammate DeWanna Bonner. In Brennan’s telling, she embraced the conversation with Bonner — and embraced all the branches that her coverage of Clark and the league might bring about from people in the league or fans.
“There is nothing about me that would slough off … any of the issues we’re discussing,” Brennan told Spain. “What has happened from some out there in terms of their hatred for me is fine. It’s a free country. They can hate me. If any of this stuff bothered me I would probably have been hiding under a bed probably in 1982 and never gotten out.”
While Brennan continually defended her credentials as a pioneering woman in sports media and a reporter on women’s sports, she also described the inner workings of being a columnist at a national outlet like USA Today. At the Paris Olympics for example, Brennan did not actually cover the women’s basketball team consistently despite her interest in Clark and more frequent coverage of the WNBA this year.
“You have someone here who has cared about this cause, the cause of women’s sports, the mistreatment in terms of lack of media coverage, the racism, sexism, misogyny,” Brennan said of herself. “If you don’t like me, fine. But I think it’s pretty important to look at the body of work here and, five or six columns about Caitlin Clark that people want to be upset about, go ahead and be upset about it. It’s a free country. But my goodness, you certainly are missing some of the things that I have worked my hardest on and put my soul into.”
USA Today columnist, best-selling author and longtime commentator Christine Brennan joins “Good Game” to talk about her reporting on Caitlin Clark & her responsibility as part of the WNBA media landscape.
Full interview here: https://t.co/6ZEcFu7ls5 pic.twitter.com/UZNoNym16a
— Sarah Spain (@SarahSpain) October 3, 2024
Repeatedly pushed by Spain on the unique ramifications of covering Clark and the WNBA the way she has, Brennan accepted that a different tone may be needed for now around this league. But she maintained that asking athletes about talking points and viral moments is still her job, even if those moments are controversial or potentially misconstrued.
Brennan also defended her personal integrity and ethics and encouraged feedback from readers of her work.
“I think some of the conversation potentially out there, and I’m not seeing that much of it, but potentially might be what an awful person I am. That is OK, it’s their right to say that, but I think they’re missing the fact of what I’m trying to do, what I am doing, what I understand clearly,” Brennan said.
“But also as a journalist, asking questions and putting things out there so that athletes can then have an opportunity to answer issues that are being discussed or out there. Understanding of course that Twitter is a cesspool, that other social media is also terrible, and these are real issues in our society … no way am I minimizing any of that.”
In a concluding monologue at the end of the episode, Spain gave her perspective as someone who also covers the WNBA closely. From Spain’s point of view, the WNBA is different. It requires a different approach given that the players in it are women, predominantly Black, and identify with the LGBTQ community. That approach can come, Spain argues, without being a “sycophant” or a “cheerleader.”
Spain argued that it is also impossible to solely focus on the benefits of Clark’s arrival without acknowledging the negativity that also stems directly from her arrival. Because Clark plays in the league and would not have a platform without it and its other players, Spain said, they cannot be separated.
While Spain called Brennan’s approach “a violation of journalistic responsibility,” many in the old guard side with Brennan and the traditional style of journalism. Whether Brennan evolves from here and adapts to this saga is what will really matter.