In an appearance on CNN with Jake Tapper, Christine Brennan defended herself from fierce criticism from the WNBA players association.
Caitlin Clark’s rookie season in the WNBA may be over, but the off-court controversy that has swirled around it nearly every step of the way isn’t finished just yet. Longtime sports journalist Christine Brennan appeared on CNN to defend herself after a blistering statement from the WNBA Players Association over her questions towards Dijonai Carrington of the Connecticut Sun.
In what has become the eyepoke heard around the world, Brennan asked Carrington if she intentionally tried to hit Clark in the eye, which the Sun star quickly brushed off as accidental contact.
Brennan’s line of questioning was immediately pounced on by the WNBA players association. In a fiery statement, the WNBAPA said it was, “a blatant attempt to bait a professional athlete into participating in a narrative that is false and designed to fuel racist, homophobic and misogynistic vitriol on social media.”
This kind of heated rhetoric has followed Clark all season long through no fault of her own, but seemed to reach a fever pitch in the playoffs. There’s no discounting there is a level of racial tension when it comes to anything surrounding the Indiana Fever star. Nick Wright was most vocal in the aftermath of the Sun’s series victory over Indiana saying that racist so-called fans attached themselves to Clark in an attempt to tear down Black WNBA stars in the process. And unfortunately, the accidental contact between Clark and Carrington was another opportunity to stir the hornet’s nest of bad actors online.
USA Today quickly published a statement defending Brennan, but it wasn’t until an appearance with Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead on Monday that she spoke out herself about the exchange and the WNBAPA’s criticism. She defended her line of questioning, saying that she would do it again as a journalist, and challenged the WNBA that they should be questioned on the same level of male athletes she has covered over the years.
“The best thing I can do as a journalist is to try to give the athlete an opportunity, which I’ve done tens of thousands of times, to answer the question and tell us what she believes happened. That was literally it. And as you know, first of all I’d ask that question 100 times out of 100, I’d ask it today, the athlete has every opportunity to then take that question and go with it any way she wants. And obviously she did. So that’s the opportunity that I think any journalist gives an athlete when you’re covering a story, to give them the opportunity to give their side of it,” Brennan said.
Brennan spoke about the internet furor around Clark, calling it a “cesspool” and citing the horrible things said about Carrington, Clark, and others. But she made a special point to realize that neither she nor Tapper could fully realize what it is like living as a Black woman and living with the abuse that comes their way. But she didn’t back down when Tapper asked her about a response to the WNBAPA statement.
“Is the league ready to handle some of this scrutiny? That’s a question I would ask and say ‘yes they are’ because these are wonderful women who have been in this spotlight for a long time. But for some reason this has touched a nerve and I would say the other question I would ask, Jake, is that I would ask that question of a man and have for thousands of times in my career, asked tough questions of Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps and you name it. Are they saying we cannot ask tough questions or in this case, not even a tough question, just a fair question of a female athlete?” Brennan said.
You can see where both sides are coming from in this. Christine Brennan wanted to give Dijonai Carrington a platform to answer to the terrible things being said online and clear the air. Maybe the follow-up question about laughing at Clark wasn’t needed and helped play into the idea that she was trying to bait the Sun player in some way. But given how much of an advocate she’s been for women’s sports over the years, it’s hard to assign any ulterior motive. For the WNBAPA’s part, they have a responsibility to defend their players and were clearly of the belief that asking the question legitimized some of the online toxicity the league is finally starting to address.
As for Tapper, it’s no mystery which side the CNN host came down on in the debate as he closed his interview with Brennan.
“Whoever wrote that statement for the WNBA players union should probably read a little bit more about Christine Brennan before accusing her of buying into anything having to do with homophobia or racism or sexism because those are horrible blights on our culture that you have been fighting against for decades,” Tapper concluded.
