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** OPINION
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** She wrote the book on Caitlin Clark: Christine Brennan on the WNBA’s missed opportunity
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WNBA star Caitlin Clark dribbles during a game earlier this month. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

In April 2024, two things were seemingly true about the WNBA.

One was that it was given a glorious gift with Caitlin Clark, the most famous and popular college women’s basketball player of all time, joining the league.

And two, it was completely unprepared for that gift.

You could make the argument that no athlete has ever moved the needle of a sport quite like Clark has with women’s basketball. The only other athlete even in that conversation is Tiger Woods. Yet, the WNBA, pretty much from the start, has had difficulty taking full advantage of Clark — a case laid out well in the latest book by USA Today columnist Christine Brennan titled, “On Her Game — Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women’s Sports.” ([link removed])

Brennan is my guest on the latest “Poynter Report Podcast,” ([link removed]) which is out today.

“She is not only moving the needle,” Brennan said of Clark. “She is the needle.”

In her book, Brennan touches on Clark’s upbringing and the impact she has had on basketball. But the most interesting parts are Brennan’s examination of how the league handled this one-in-a-lifetime gift. It's easy to see how the WNBA bungled Clark’s arrival. In the podcast, we discuss how legendary players downplayed Clark’s abilities, how Clark was left off the U.S. Olympic team and an incident in which the players union of the WNBA tried to get Brennan’s credentials revoked.

And Brennan recalls the story from her book when she talked to someone in the WNBA office who compared Clark’s arrival to that of Maya Moore — a great basketball player, but far from a cultural phenomenon.

“It tells us everything,” Brennan told me. “(The WNBA was) completely unprepared for what was coming with Caitlin Clark. Completely unprepared for the national scrutiny that was going to come. Not preparing the players for the moment.”

Brennan adds, “So I'm very pleased with that anecdote, even if as a human being, I'm sad to see that anecdote. But as a journalist, of course, you go with the story. You don't get to have emotions in the middle of it, you know. And that to me is as telling an anecdote as I have in the book.”
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So check out the podcast. Aside from watching on YouTube ([link removed]) , you can also find the show on Apple ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , and most places where you find podcasts. Also, check out Brennan’s book, which has been near the top of The New York Times’ bestseller list.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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** Sarasota, Florida, event: Poynter’s 50th anniversary exhibit
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Step into the story of how journalism has changed and where it’s headed. Poynter’s "Moments of Truth: An Exploration of Journalism’s Past, Present, and Future" exhibit runs August 4–11 at The Ringling, featuring interactive displays and a free week of media literacy events. The week culminates in a thought-provoking community conversation with leaders in journalism and AI, examining how emerging technologies are reshaping the truth behind the images we see.

Register for the events ([link removed])


** What is the future of late-night talk-show television?
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Late night hosts Stephen Colbert, left, and Jimmy Kimmel, shown here in 2019. (Dan Steinberg/Invision for the Television Academy/AP Images)

For years, late-night television was a staple of American culture.

Johnny Carson was the king of late-night TV, hosting “The Tonight Show” from 1962 to 1992. When he announced his retirement, there was a juicy and memorable battle to see who would replace him, as chronicled in Bill Carter’s classic book “The Late Shift,” which was turned into an HBO movie.

Jay Leno ended up replacing Carson, which led Letterman to bolt to CBS, setting up a late-night fight that lasted two decades. In addition, in the early 1990s, Arsenio Hall brought a much-needed new approach to late night by attracting guests — and viewers — who were younger and much more diverse than traditional late night.

Fox kept trying to get into the game, running out hosts such as Joan Rivers and Chevy Chase. And we were introduced to new late-night hosts, such as Conan O’Brien, Craig Kilborn and Craig Ferguson.

They were the glory days of late night.

These days? Well, there are still big household names in the late-night chairs: Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers. But the times are not only changing, they have changed.

CBS is pretty much getting out of the late-night business, it appears. For eight years, James Corden hosted a show that aired after Colbert. But when he announced he was leaving, CBS replaced him with a comedy-type game show hosted by Taylor Tomlinson that ended because Tomlinson quit. (It’s being replaced by the syndicated “Comics Unleashed,” which is produced by Byron Allen’s company.)

Then came the stunner earlier this month. CBS announced that Colbert’s show will end next May and will not be replaced. The timing was certainly curious — it was announced just days after Colbert blasted CBS’s owners, Paramount, for settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, CBS insists it is canceling Colbert’s show because of financial reasons.

This just isn’t about late-night political commentary leading to dwindling viewership and canceled hosts.

Another late-night host, “The Daily Show’s” Jon Stewart, said on air, “Late-night TV is a struggling financial model. We are all basically operating a Blockbuster kiosk inside a Tower Records.”

The Guardian’s David Smith wrote ([link removed]) , “The late-night format has been struggling for years as viewers increasingly cut the cable TV cord and migrate to streaming. Younger people are more apt to find amusement on YouTube or TikTok, leaving smaller, ageing TV audiences and declining ad revenues.”

The question now is whether everyone will get out of the late-night talk-show game.

At NBC, Fallon and Meyers are signed through 2028. But Kimmel’s contract at ABC is up next year.

CNBC’s Sarah Whitten, Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman recently wrote ([link removed]) , “The entertainment industry will have a better sense of where the truth lies next year when Disney decides the fate of (Kimmel’s show).”

They added, “‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ has been a late night staple since 2003, acting not only as a typical talk show on the circuit, but as a valuable marketing hub for Disney’s slate of theatrical and television content. In addition to traditional one-on-one interviews, Kimmel will also frequently host several stars from the same project, often for blockbuster titles from Marvel, Star Wars and the company’s animated franchises.”

In the end, it all comes down to two things: money and viewers.

CNBC reported that Colbert’s show loses about $40 million a year. As far as NBC, it wrote, “The suite of NBC’s late night shows — ‘The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,’ ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers,’ and ‘Saturday Night Live’ — lose more than $100 million per year based on cost relative to traditional TV advertising, said a person familiar with the shows’ finances. However, the three shows are more profitable when considering other lines of revenue, such as from streaming and digital, a second person said.”

As far as ABC, the CNBC reporters wrote, ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ … loses money based on cost relative to traditional TV advertising, according to a person familiar with the matter. Still, the show is profitable if more than just traditional TV advertising revenue is taken into account, according to a second person directly familiar with the show’s finances. ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ helps ABC boost affiliate revenue when it strikes carriage deals with pay-TV distributors.”

The show also does well on YouTube. All the late-night hosts have huge followings on social media, such as TikTok and Instagram.

As far as viewers, in the second quarter of 2025 ([link removed]) , Colbert’s show on linear TV averaged 2.4 million viewers for first-run shows. Kimmel averaged 1.7 million, and Fallon averaged 1.1 million. Again, this is just linear TV, which doesn’t include YouTube or streaming platforms such as Peacock, Paramount+ or Hulu.

These days, however, late night is not what it used to be. At his peak, at a time when TV options weren’t as expansive, Carson was drawing 10 to 15 million viewers a night.

Nevertheless, CBS has made its decision. Now it’s ABC and NBC at the fork in the road.

On a recent podcast with Dax Shepard, Meyers was asked if he ever feared that his show could end tomorrow. Meyers said, “I do. I mean, only because it is such a time we’re living in, as far as the entertainment industry. There is this weird thing that I feel like I shifted from fearing that I wouldn’t be good enough. And now my fear is weirdly more outside of my control, which is … just at some point, the ecosystem might not support (late-night).”


** Covering the tragedy
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As you know by now, New York City was shaken after a shooter attacked a Park Avenue tower on Monday. The gunman killed four people before killing himself. Reports are that the gunman was from Las Vegas and traveled across the country. Authorities say a note found in his wallet suggested that he had a grievance against the National Football League, whose offices were the building the gunman attacked.

He claimed he had CTE, the brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head injuries often associated with sports such as football. He said he wanted his brain to be studied for CTE.

The four killed included a police officer working an off-duty security shift, another security officer, and two office workers: an executive from an investment firm and an associate from a real estate company. An NFL employee was “seriously injured” and is in stable condition, according to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

As Front Office Sports’ Michael McCarthy noted ([link removed]) , “The most accurate coverage of the deadly mass shooting targeting the NFL’s New York headquarters came from local and national news media plugged directly into the NYPD, FBI, and Mayor Eric Adams’s office. But there was another important source of news during Monday’s chaotic events: NFL insiders.”

McCarthy reported that, through their sources inside the NFL offices, several reporters provided key news and context. Those reporters included Dianna Russini of The Athletic, Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington of ESPN, former ESPNer Josina Anderson, and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.

McCarthy wrote, “NFL insiders reported accurately and responsibly from a distance on a tragic, difficult story, one far removed from their usual beat.”

In addition, Awful Announcing’s Matt Yoder wrote ([link removed]) , “‘Good Morning Football’ addresses ‘heartbreaking news’ of NFL headquarters shooting.”


** Careful what you sue for
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Media mogul Rupert Murdoch, shown here in April. (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

President Donald Trump is suing everyone associated with a recent Wall Street Journal story ([link removed]) that reported Trump sent a bawdy letter that included a sketched outline of a naked woman for a collection of birthday wishes for Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. Trump is suing the Journal, Dow Jones & Co. and its parent company, News Corp., as well as big boss Rupert Murdoch, CEO Robert Thomson, and the two reporters who wrote the story.

This is what Trump does. He doesn’t like a media story, so he sues. It worked when Paramount, owners of CBS, agreed to settle with him in a case most legal experts believed he had no chance of winning.

But suing The Wall Street Journal and Murdoch, in particular, might not be a smart move. For starters, Murdoch isn’t going to back down. After all, as others have pointed out, this is a guy who is willing to fight his own children over the family trust in a drama every bit as compelling as something you might see on “Succession.”

And there’s something else to consider. In a piece for The Hill ([link removed]) , opinion contributor James D. Zirin writes, “Libel suits have historically been gravely dangerous not only for defendants but for plaintiffs as well. Such a suit often serves only to magnify the allegedly defamatory statements.”

Perhaps Trump is putting Murdoch and the Journal through all this to discover how the news organization obtained the birthday letters and if, as many speculate, it came from inside the Justice Department.

But, Zirin smartly points out this could end up being harmful to Trump, adding, “Murdoch’s lawyers will be able to bring out just where the Journal obtained the birthday card, as well as all the torrid details of the 15-year relationship between Epstein and Trump, including such undisclosed gems as how the friendship began; how close was it; whether it involved under-age women; whether, and, if so, when Trump learned that Epstein was trafficking teenagers; when Trump learned that Epstein was engaged in criminal acts; and when there was a severance of the relationship and why.”

In other words, a bunch of stuff Trump might not want out there.


** The dangers of trusting AI
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On Monday, Men’s Health published a big story ([link removed]) , complete with a bunch of photos, on how Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić is losing weight and transforming his body.

In the original story, there was a paragraph:

Oh, and he can jump. Lost in the narratives about his weight and conditioning is the fact that, as a 19-year-old at the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine, Luka delivered a 42-inch vertical leap. After a full offseason with Team Luka, he’s not sure that number is still the same. “This year, we didn’t measure the jumping yet,” he says. “But I think it’s a little bit higher.”

One big issue: Dončić did not participate in the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine.

So what happened? The theory is that a Google AI summary might have confused Dončić with Donte DiVincenzo, an NBA star who did have a 42-inch vertical jump, according to a 2018 story in The Athletic ([link removed]) .

On Fox Sports 1, host Nick Wright said on the “First Things First” Monday ([link removed]) , “You read the entire article aside from the fake news in it that Luka had a 42-inch vertical at the combine, which is not correct, it’s AI slop that the author got wrong. … Luka didn’t go to the combine, so that’s the first key. Kids out there, real quick lesson, if you Google ‘Luka Dončić vertical’ the first result is an AI overview that says Luka Dončić had a 42-inch vertical at the combine because AI doesn’t know sports.”

Eventually, Men’s Health removed that reference to the 2018 combine. In fact, according to USA Today’s Bryan Kalbrosky ([link removed]) , the magazine edited that paragraph twice. After the changes, it didn’t immediately alert readers to the change, but eventually did add this editor’s note:

An earlier version of the story incorrectly stated that Doncic recorded a 42-inch vertical leap at the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine. He in fact did not participate in the 2018 NBA Scouting Combine.

OK, that’s all technically correct, but it’s a rather weak editor’s note that begs for more information, such as exactly how that mistake was made. Men’s Health needed to be a bit more transparent.


** Making moves
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Meghan Rafferty, the executive producer for the “NBC Nightly News,” is joining Versant. That’s the cable TV company that will be spun off from NBCUniversal.

Rafferty will be Versant's vice president of news standards. She will help set and maintain journalism standards for MSNBC and CNBC and guide each network’s newsrooms.

Brian Carovillano, senior VP of standards and editorial partnerships for news, said in a note, “She will help lead our News Standards Team and guide newsrooms at MSNBC and CNBC to ensure the work is fair, accurate and transparent. She'll collaborate with colleagues across our news platforms, as well as legal and other departments, and she will report to me.”

As Variety’s Brian Steinberg wrote ([link removed]) , “Meghan Rafferty spent nearly four years as the voice in Lester Holt’s ear as he anchored ‘NBC Nightly News.’”

But now, Rafferty moves on just two months after Holt stepped down as anchor of the “Nightly News.” For the time being, Ben Mayer will serve as interim executive producer of “Nightly News.”

Meanwhile, former NBC Cable president and CNBC founder Tom Rogers is joining Versant as an adviser. TheWrap’s Lucas Manfredi has more ([link removed]) .


** Media tidbits
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* New Yorker editor David Remnick with “Israel’s Zones of Denial. Amid national euphoria over the bombing of Iran — and the largely ignored devastation in Gaza—a question lurks: What is the country becoming? ([link removed])
* The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio with “NBC’s ‘Dateline’ hitting the road for a live true crime show — and maybe a new revenue stream.” ([link removed])
* Axios’ Dan Primack with “What comes next for Skydance after the Paramount deal.” ([link removed])
* The Tennessean’s Angele Latham with “Nashville Public Radio raises over $400K following Congress funding cut.” ([link removed])
* Catching up on this from last week. The Chicago Sun-Times’ Kaitlin Washburn with “Chicago Tribune lays off 8 from newsroom, including 5 union members.” ([link removed])
* Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark with “What happens when you get the name of the dog? Journalism magic.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* Terrific story from Bloomberg Businessweek's Susan Berfield, Margi Murphy and Jason Leopold: “DOGE-Pilled. Luke Farritor could have been an artist, or a builder, or someone dedicated to seeing a great historical mystery through. Instead he wound up at the Department of Government Efficiency, slashing, dismantling, undoing.” ([link removed])
* CBS News’ Dan Ruetenik with “CBS News investigation of Jeffrey Epstein jail video reveals new discrepancies.” ([link removed])


** More resources for journalists
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* Turn your life story into a memoir in this pioneering virtual workshop led by Poynter's Director of Craft Kristen Hare, featuring accomplished authors as guest instructors. Enroll now ([link removed]) .
* Join a five-day, in-person workshop that gives new managers the skills they need to help forge successful paths to leadership in journalism, media and technology. Apply today ([link removed]) .
* Access ([link removed]) Poynter’s comprehensive mental health reporting resources.
* Journalism leaders of color: Poynter’s prestigious Diversity Leadership Academy has helped over 200 journalists of color advance their careers. Apply today ([link removed]) .

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

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