It was a busy week last week for reaction to the very personal back-and-forth between ESPN NFL analyst Ryan Clark and former ESPN analyst Robert Griffin III. This all stems from the former Baylor quarterback saying in a tweet that he believes Chicago Sky star Angel Reese “hates” Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark. Consequently, many people from across the sports media landscape have shared their insights on the exchange between the two former NFL players, ranging from ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith to former ESPN commentator Jemele Hill.
Following his apology to Griffin for invoking his wife into the conversation, Complex released an exclusive sit-down with Clark Tuesday. In it, Ryan Clark talked about how the biggest problem in sports media today is “liars.”
“It’s now become this race to be first,” said Clark. “It’s not necessarily that people are intentionally lying. It’s that in the race to be first, you aren’t fact-checking. In the race to be first, you aren’t making sure what your idea is, opinion is. Whatever you’re being asked to share is the truth. It’s the other side of people not being accountable.”
Furthermore, the former NFL All-Pro said that commentators need to understand that their responsibility is to tell the viewing public what truth is and what isn’t truth. Clark said that people are now finding themselves frightened in the media because admitting non-truths could affect their standing in sports media.
“People are scared to admit those things, because now does it devalue my opinion or in some way does it invalidate my experience or what I’m supposed to be doing for my job,” said Clark. “The immediacy of content, how people consume it now has made us less diligent in doing the work to be as correct as possible before being as quick as possible.”
Meanwhile, Clark has worked for ESPN since February of 2015 in a number of different roles including as an analyst on Monday Night Countdown.
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