Reporter distances herself from paper's WNBA headline

There’s often a lot of discussion of local media homerism in sports. But it’s much more unusual to see local media seemingly siding with a visiting team and its star player, and doing so in such a way that some of those involved in their sports coverage have distanced themselves from the decision. That’s happened at least twice this year with Chicago newspapers’ WNBA coverage, with the Tribune editorial board likening a foul from the Chicago Sky’s Chennedy Carter on Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark to an “assault” in June, and now with the Sun-Times back page spotlighting another Sky foul on Clark from Diamond DeShields with a “Foul Ball” headline:

That cover drew a fair bit of criticism, especially around DeShields taking online abuse for that foul. And, with Annie Costabile (the paper’s reporter for the Sky and the NWSL’s Red Stars) tagged in that tweet, a lot of it was directed at her. That led to her putting out a thread confirming she didn’t select that photo or headline:

Yes, most people with any journalism experience or history of studying it understand that headlines and photo choices often come from editors rather than writers. But a lot of readers still don’t get that, and that often leads to personal attacks on reporters for decisions beyond their control. (This happens with syndication too, as we saw with the Boston Globe ‘s factually-inaccurate headline for a Imane Khelif piece by Greg Beacham of The Associated Press, which led to Beacham taking online abuse and to the paper eventually apologizing .) So it’s definitely understandable why Costabile felt the need to clarify this the way she did. And, as she noted, her story is much more on the wider issue of Sky late-game meltdowns and their recent overall struggles (this was their fifth-straight loss) than DeShields’ specific foul on Clark.

The really strange thing here, as discussed above, is the way the Chicago papers appear to have repeatedly taken the side of Clark and the Fever in their rivalry against a Chicago team. Local media coverage usually goes the other way. But the Tribune editorial board went off on the Sky rather than the Fever in June, prompting disavowals from some of their sports staff.

And now, the Sun-Times back page has prompted their beat writer to confirm that she was not involved in their headline or photo choice for a Sky-critical page. Strangely enough, too, it came right after the paper ran a story on a non-sports front criticizing photo choices (in this case, using a photo of a nurse murdered in 1966 for a “Average nurse salary” story):

The photo choice here is obviously more related than that one was. Yes, the Sky committed fouls against Clark and the Fever Friday, and that was part of the Fever’s eventual 100-81 win. And Costabile’s story touched on that fairly. There’s even an argument that the photo of this particular foul was somewhat fair for the story; fouls were part of what was covered there.

But spotlighting DeShields on Clark, and doing so with the “Foul Play” headline, was an unusual choice. And that was one that Costabile felt the need to distance herself from. And it’s interesting to see that, and to see this being at least the second Chicago paper WNBA story this year that sports staffers have disclaimed responsibility for.

[ The Chicago Sun-Times ]

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