There seems to be a circling of journalistic wagons around Brennan and her right to shove a mic into the faces of players and repeatedly ask questions that serve her predetermined narrative. She expects people to be characters (or villains) in the book in her head but hasn't interviewed Clark. The WNBA players have had enough of the social media ignorantsia and should not have to tolerate a professional behaving like a troll. Just as pro athletes refrain from defending the onerous behavior of some athletes, journalists need to keep that same energy when one of their own oversteps. Brennan and her defenders are putting unfair burdens on players and affecting their workplace, not the other way around. Her opinions are not the players truths - or even factual in the cased of Djonnai Carrington.
Andrew, I appreciate you writing about this and pointing to the generational issues here. It's not an excuse, but it adds to understanding the entire dynamic and story here. Holly Rowe spoke a little about the Christine Brennen topic (and more) on the Elle Duncan show last week and I appreciated what she had to say as well. What I'd like to see the league and the WNBPA do going forward is to set expectations for media interaction. It's something they could work on together. Be proactive, set some standards and a positive tone. To your point, Christine Brennen isn't the only one to behave in this way (though the only one called out which is interesting). Cathy has stated that WNBA stands at the center of sports, culture and society. It also stands at the center of gender, race and sexual identity. They can embrace all of it and set the tone themselves, but they have to go deep and bring everyone along. And then proactively manage media professionally and demand respect and professionalism in return. But this is a culture shift that is internal to the WNBA and it is only one of multiple aspects where they've been reactive, flat-footed, etc.
There seems to be a circling of journalistic wagons around Brennan and her right to shove a mic into the faces of players and repeatedly ask questions that serve her predetermined narrative. She expects people to be characters (or villains) in the book in her head but hasn't interviewed Clark. The WNBA players have had enough of the social media ignorantsia and should not have to tolerate a professional behaving like a troll. Just as pro athletes refrain from defending the onerous behavior of some athletes, journalists need to keep that same energy when one of their own oversteps. Brennan and her defenders are putting unfair burdens on players and affecting their workplace, not the other way around. Her opinions are not the players truths - or even factual in the cased of Djonnai Carrington.
Andrew, I appreciate you writing about this and pointing to the generational issues here. It's not an excuse, but it adds to understanding the entire dynamic and story here. Holly Rowe spoke a little about the Christine Brennen topic (and more) on the Elle Duncan show last week and I appreciated what she had to say as well. What I'd like to see the league and the WNBPA do going forward is to set expectations for media interaction. It's something they could work on together. Be proactive, set some standards and a positive tone. To your point, Christine Brennen isn't the only one to behave in this way (though the only one called out which is interesting). Cathy has stated that WNBA stands at the center of sports, culture and society. It also stands at the center of gender, race and sexual identity. They can embrace all of it and set the tone themselves, but they have to go deep and bring everyone along. And then proactively manage media professionally and demand respect and professionalism in return. But this is a culture shift that is internal to the WNBA and it is only one of multiple aspects where they've been reactive, flat-footed, etc.