OutKick reporter Bobby Burack called out ESPN analyst Monica McNutt for saying Caitlin Clark needs to be more “accountable and self-aware” to protect her WNBA “sisterhood.” McNutt was responding to Clark’s comments about the media’s “false characterization” of her during a sit-down with ESPN’s Malika Andrews released on Friday.
“I do think as she continues to matriculate to this league, there’s room for a bit more accountability and self-awareness,” McNutt said. “In terms of her role in the larger sisterhood, if she sees it that way in the WNBA.”
Clark said it was “exhausting” for people to keep the conversations going around her, especially after the Alyssa Thomas incident on Jun. 24. After McNutt’s comments on Sunday’s NBA Today show, several right-wing media personnel hit back, including Burack, who passed strong remarks in his latest column for OutKick.
“By definition, Monica McNutt provides nothing to ESPN,” he wrote. “More people don’t watch the channel because of her. Sponsors don’t pay more because she is on the network. She doesn’t provide news or insight that is exclusive to her. She doesn’t improve the public perception of ESPN.”
Burack also compared her to Ryan Clark, who was among several ESPN employees laid off last week. He also made scathing accusations against McNutt’s personality.
“And like Ryan Clark, she has provided ESPN with a lengthy list of reasons to cut her,” Burack said. “McNutt isn’t valuable enough to be this reckless, this racial, and this uninformed. She is also either too arrogant or too naïve to read the room. Look at those thriving at ESPN. They cover sports and do so positively and entertainingly. Meanwhile, McNutt is caterwauling and gaslighting, often by forcing oversized words into sentences.”
Burack revealed that OutKick reached out to McNutt on Monday to ask about her coverage of Clark, but the ESPN analyst has yet to respond.
He closed his feature by speculating that Monica McNutt would hold Caitlin Clark responsible “to defend the Mean Girls in the media who are smearing her.”
Another OutKick reporter calls it “asinine” for Monica McNutt to hold Caitlin Clark accountable
Bobby Burack’s OutKick colleague, Jon Root, called Monica McNutt’s statement about Caitlin Clark’s complaints against the media “asinine.”
In his first reaction to the viral segment on X, Root wrote:
“ESPN’s female Ryan Clark, Monica McNutt, threw shade at Caitlin Clark saying she needs “accountability” & “self awareness”, insinuating Clark is an immature 24-year old. Asinine statement.””
Many analysts feel Caitlin Clark doesn’t speak up enough because of the hate her fans direct at other players, while others in her favor feel she’s addressed it and doesn’t need to go out of her way, as it’s not in her control and not what she embodies.
That’s the point Clark tried to make when she told Andrews about the accusations made against her character in the media, especially by personnel who don’t know the Fever superstar personally.
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