USA Today is once again trending this week due to its commentary on Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark.
On Friday morning, USA Today released an article about Clark missing the WNBA Orange Carpet event for this year's All-Star Game. The publication's initial social media post read: "Caitlin Clark skipped the WNBA Orange Carpet on Thursday, opting to get her hair done in her hometown of Des Moines."
It didn't take very long for the basketball community to fire back at USA Today.
"How in the world is USA TODAY still existing with SEXIST headlines like this only aimed at Caitlin Clark?! They just keep doubling down on their ignorance and stupidity," legendary "SportsCenter" anchor Linda Cohn replied.
"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," David Eickholt of 247Sports said.
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"Another day, another USA Today article taking a weird shot at Caitlin Clark," one person wrote.
"Yeah, y’all just need to wrap it up and call it a day. This is getting ridiculous. Your smear campaign is not working. Please move on," another fan wrote.
Several hours later, USA Today issued a correction for this story on Clark. It turns out her absence was due to a prior commitment for the Caitlin Clark Foundation.
"Clarification: Caitlin Clark was attending an event for the Caitlin Clark Foundation, which is why she missed the WNBA All-Star Weekend Orange Carpet," USA Today wrote in a follow-up post.
This is the second controversy this week involving Caitlin Clark.
Two days ago, USA Today columnist Nancy Armour released an article about Clark and her antics on the court.
“It seems there is a white nationalist element to Clark’s fandom that is deeply, deeply problematic, made even more so because the WNBA is made up predominantly of Black women, many of them queer,” Armour wrote. “When Clark claims fouls that don’t exist, when she goes on profanity-laced tirades at referees, those racists see her as a white woman in need of saving and take matters into their own hands.”
There was a point in Armour's article where she mentioned the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till, which led to plenty of backlash online.
“In my recent column, I made an inartful comparison with the murder of Emmett Till. I intended to connect the issues the WNBA is currently facing with its All-Star Game being hosted in Till’s hometown of Chicago. I obviously did not provide enough context for that,” Armour said in a statement released on Instagram. “However, this point stands: There is a history in this country of perceived threats to white women being weaponized against African-Americans, and the danger that poses to Black players in the league. Players have been abused online and have reported receiving death threats. That has to be taken more seriously. I sincerely regret that my lack of appropriate context is overshadowing that important conversation and the action that needs to be taken by the WNBA to address it directly – for the benefit of ALL players.”
Unfortunately, the conversation surrounding Clark this All-Star Weekend has nothing to do with basketball.
