Christine Brennan, the USA TODAY columnist who the WNBA players’ union said should lose her credentials after a question “designed to fuel racist vitriol,” responded to an “inaccurate” report that she filed a complaint against a player
Brennan generated controversy when asked DiJonai Carrington. if he had deliberately hit Caitlin Clark in the eye during Game 1 of the first-round playoff series between the Sun and Fever. When Carrington denied having any malicious intent, Brennan followed up by asking if Carrington and her teammate Marina Mabrey had laughed about it afterwards, an idea Carrington also disapproved of.
On Monday, espnW sara spain reported on X that Brennan filed a complaint with the league after Carrington’s teammate DeWanna Bonner approached her about her line of questioning.
Spain cited two anonymous sources who said Brennan filed a complaint with the league.
Brennan, who last week appeared on the Spanish program Podcast ‘Good Game with Sarah Spain’He quickly rejected that claim.
The WNBA players union criticized journalist Christine Brennan in a recent statement
Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) drives to the basket defended by Sun guard DiJonai Carrington
Brennan revealed that DeWanna Bonner approached her after questioning her teammate Carrington. The journalist, however, has denied having filed a complaint about Bonner.
“Hi Sarah, this is inaccurate,” he said. wrote. ‘It’s false. I have not filed a complaint. I haven’t contacted anyone from the league. Your sources are wrong. You and I have had a long and good relationship and that is why I always enjoy talking to you. Why didn’t you call me before posting this?
Spain responded about two hours later, writing‘Thank you for the call this morning, Christine. While I trust the sources who provided me with this information, I wish I had called you last night to get your comment. My apologies for not contacting you ahead of time.’
During her interview with Spain, Brennan shared that she and Bonner exchanged a few words after Carrington’s interview.
“I wouldn’t call it, uh, heated,” Brennan told Spain. “I would call it a person who comes up to talk to me.”
Brennan later told CNN’s Jake Tapper that she wouldn’t hesitate to ask Carrington again about the eye poke, and told Spain that people were free to hate her and her reporting.
“There is nothing in me that I can let go… of any of the issues we are discussing,” he said. ‘What has happened by some in terms of their hatred towards me is fine. It is a free country. They can hate me. If any of this had bothered me, I probably would have hidden under a bed in 1982 and never come out.’
Following Brennan’s controversial questioning of Carrington, which has received more than 5.5 million views on X to date, the WNBA players union issued a scathing statement against Brennan, whom they singled out by name.
“To non-professional members of the media like Christine Brennan: You are not misleading anyone,” the statement said.
‘The alleged interview in the name of journalism was a blatant attempt to incite a professional athlete to participate in a false narrative and designed to fuel racist, homophobic and misogynistic vitriol on social media. You can’t hide behind your mandate.’
“Instead of demonstrating the cornerstones of journalism ethics such as integrity, objectivity and a fundamental commitment to the truth, you have chosen to be indecent and downright false,” they added.
‘He has abused his privileges and does not deserve the credentials granted to him. And you certainly have no right to any interviews with members of this union or any other athletes in this sport.
The report that Brennan had complained to the WNBA was shared by Sarah Spain, seen in 2019
‘Those credentials mean you can ask anything, but they also mean you know the difference between what you should and what you shouldn’t. We see you.’
Notably, Brennan is writing a book about Clark’s impact on women’s basketball and has focused heavily on rookie sensation Clark this season in her USA TODAY columns this year.
While Clark denounced racist fans as ‘trolls’ following his team’s exit from the playoffs, several players have criticized their fans for their racist treatment.
On her Unapologetically Angel podcast, Reese talked about how Indiana fans threatened her, followed her home, took AI-generated nude photos of her and sent them to her family members.
And following the Fever’s elimination, Connecticut star Alyssa Thomas was enraged by the racial abuse her team received from Indiana fans throughout the series. Fans pointed at Carrington’s eyelashes, while another had a t-shirt that said “ban nails” with large fake nails sticking out of each finger.
Angel Reese (right) previously said she had been the target of racist abuse from Clark fans.
No foul was called on Carrington after Clark was caught in the eye. He left the court in pain, but later said it was unintentional.
“It’s been a lot of nonsense, I don’t think in my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced racial comments from the Indiana Fever fan base,” Thomas said.
‘We had (Carrington’s) face about a serious matter that happened in this world and it’s unacceptable, honestly. And there is no place for that and we have been professional throughout the process, but they have never called me what they have called me on social media.
However, as Brennan told CNN’s Jake Tapper, she doesn’t regret asking the questions she asked Carrington that have now gotten her in trouble with some.
“The best thing I can do as a journalist is try to give the athlete the opportunity, which I’ve done tens of thousands of times, to answer the question and tell us what she thinks happened,” Brennan told Tapper. “That was literally it.”
“And as you know, first of all I would ask that question 100 times out of 100, I would ask it today, the athlete has every opportunity to then take that question and run with it however they want,” Brennan continued. . And obviously he did. So that’s the opportunity that I think any journalist gives an athlete when they cover a story, to give them the opportunity to give their side.’
