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Days after USA Today "reporter" Nancy Armour compared Caitlin Clark allegedly flopping on the basketball court to the people who lynched Black people — no, this isn't satire — the outlet published a false report about why Clark skipped the WNBA Orange Carpet on Thursday.
According to another USA Today "reporter," Heather Burns, Clark skipped the event to "get her hair done in her hometown of Des Moines."
As expected, the report riled up the anti-Clark and anti-White brigades across the WNBA community. How dare she skip the event for a hair appointment?
Well, she didn't.
Clark missed the event because she was — wait for it — hosting a charity dinner in her hometown.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) plays against the Connecticut Sun at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind., on July 22, 2026. (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
USA Today finally corrected its false report on Friday, issuing the following note:
"Clarification: Caitlin Clark was attending an event for the Caitlin Clark Foundation, which is why she missed the WNBA All-Star Weekend Orange Carpet."
There is, of course, a problem with that "clarification." It wasn't a clarification. It was a full correction. The entire premise of the original report was false.
Further, the outlet owes Clark an apology for publishing inaccurate information that portrayed her in a negative light. USA Today framed Clark as selfish. In reality, her reason for missing the Orange Carpet was anything but selfish.
USA Today Sports Columnist Nancy Armour, WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark (Lucas Boland/USA Today; Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
OutKick contacted USA Today for comment, asking whether it plans to apologize to Clark and whether it will acknowledge that it issued a full correction rather than a mere clarification. The outlet had not responded by the time of publication.
We will update this story if we hear back.
That said, it's difficult to see how USA Today can defend its coverage of Caitlin Clark over the past week. Invoking Emmett Till and lynching in a column about an alleged flop during a basketball game was egregious. The fact that Nancy Armour remains employed undermines whatever credibility the USA Today newsroom has left.
Burns' report was equally troubling. It was so easily disproven that it raises questions about how much effort went into verifying the information before publication. We suspect not much.
Caitlin Clark No. 22 of the Indiana Fever reacts after a flagrant foul by Diamond DeShields No. 0 of the Chicago Sky at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill., on Aug. 30, 2024. (Getty Images)
Armour and Burns are pathetic journalists. USA Today is a putrid outlet.
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"As I tweeted earlier, USA Today is like a hotel chain that kept getting traded to new private equity firms, who wring the money out as it continues to deteriorate," sports media reporter Ryan Glasspiegel told OutKick. "This analogy is ironic in the sense that hotels were a big part of the newspaper's business for several decades."
It might be time for USA Today to shut it down — after it apologizes to Caitlin Clark, of course.
Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick.
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