Caitlin Clark joins Pat McAfee on ESPN's 'College GameDay,' and left-wing podcasters have a problem with it
Caitlin Clark joins Pat McAfee on ESPN's 'College GameDay,' and left-wing podcasters have a problem with it
Caitlin Clark went back to Iowa on Saturday to promote her new Nike shoe and make picks on ESPNs "College GameDay." The show drew its biggest audience of the season and the biggest October audience in its 40-season history.
Over at "The Sports Gossip Show," a podcast hosted by two women named Charlotte Wilder and Madeline Hill, the hosts found reasons to question the appearance, including Clark sitting alongside Pat McAfee.
I after they mocked Riley Gaines and called Sophie Cunninghams defense of womens sports a "right-wing grift." So, you have a good idea of where they stand politically.
Their podcast was distributed by the New York Times-owned Athletic for about a year before they announced their departure in August. Left-wing outlet Awful Announcing described their departure as part of a "broader exodus of podcast stars" from the New York Times. I must have missed the part where these two became stars.
On the episode, Wilder suggested Caitlin Clark needed to do something "for her own PR." So, Clark got a national platform to promote her shoe, helped drive millions of viewers to the show, and she should be concerned about her PR?
I think shell be OK.
"Pat McAfee, in 2024, called Caitlin a white b---. Which I could give you the context for, but it doesnt really matter," Wilder said during the episode.
Members of the media that hurts their narrative, but theyre not usually so upfront about it. I guess it's refreshing that Wilder admits she's willing to eschew basic journalistic ethics for the sake of the story she prefers to tell.
I happen to think the context does matter, so here it is. McAfee did call Clark a "white b—-" during his show in 2024 but he was defending Clark.
His argument was that people needed to stop crediting the entire rookie class for attention that she was bringing to the WNBA. He was also pushing back on the suggestion that fans liked her simply because she was white. He wanted people to acknowledge how good she was and what she was doing for the league.
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McAfee apologized for his wording, explained that he meant it as a compliment and said Clark accepted his apology. Wilder acknowledged that McAfee had apologized.
The podcast host stopped short of saying Clark shouldnt have done "GameDay," but still questioned her decision to share a stage with McAfee. Clark is allowed to decide shes comfortable with him. Why does she need to answer to two podcast hosts about an apology she reportedly accepted over two years ago?
Wilder not only wants Clark to answer for appearances on GameDay, but also wants her to keep addressing something she's addressed multiple times.
"Weve just said before, if you and I were in a situation where a bunch of Black women were getting death threats and having a really hard time because of people who said they were fans of ours, I think we would say, You are not a fan of mine if you are perpetuating this behavior and these actions. Its not the hardest thing in the world to say," Wilder said, arguing that Clark should say "something a little more forceful."
Heres Clark in September 2024:
"Nobody in our league should be facing any sort of racism, hurtful, disrespectful, hateful comments and threats," she said. "Those arent fans, those are trolls."
And in May 2025, here's Clark responding to a question about an alleged racist incident at a Fever game (the claim
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