Charissa Thompson saying she made up sideline reports is a more serious issue than you naturally suspect.

Long ago, there was a moment when I was covering an NFL game. From the press box, if my memory serves me right, I saw ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters rushing to talk to one of the head coaches as they were heading onto the field after halftime. I can’t recall the coach, but I remember the coach wasn’t in a hurry, and Salters was stuck to the coach’s side like a cover corner. She was poised like a seasoned veteran. She wasn’t messing around.

Not all sideline reporters are weak. There are genuinely good people out there, like Salters and others. It’s a thankless job, but sharp and resourceful folks always seek out interesting information, putting in hard work to do so. You can see that, especially if you’re in the journalism business. It never felt like any reporter I encountered had completely lied about what they saw or reported. It might be light, anecdotal, and confusing at times, but the good ones, the truly good ones, do their bit.

Previously, if you’re a huge sports fan, you might have heard that former sideline reporter Charissa Thompson went on Barstool and admitted, publicly acknowledged, that when she was a sideline reporter, she made up things. She was providing information like other sideline reporters, but it turned out some of it was false. To ensure I wasn’t being pranked, I had to watch the video multiple times. Yep, she said that.

There’s no way Thompson, who has been doing this for over a decade and knows better, could get away with it. It’s an egregious offense. It’s not even close.

Thompson said, “I’ve said this before.” “I wasn’t let go for saying this, but I’ll say it again. Sometimes I used to make up reports because, hey, the coach wouldn’t come out during halftime, or it was too late, and I didn’t want to spoil the report. So, I’d be like, ‘I’m just gonna make this.'”

“Because if I tell them to stop hurting themselves, no coach is going to be upset. The third place requires us to improve. We must improve our exit strategy from the field and cease flipping the ball. They would not put me to the test on that. I decided to just write the report right away. Thompson admitted to making sideline reports during her “Calm Down” podcast with Fox Sports’ Erin Andrews in 2022. Andrews said she had also done the same. Thompson said, “I used to say, ‘Oh, Coach, what are you planning in halftime?’ He’d say, ‘You smell really nice.'” “I was saying, ‘Oh (expletive), this isn’t going to work.’ I’m not joking; I’ve made a report.”

Thompson now works for Fox and hosts the Thursday night football studio coverage for Amazon. Andrews, who should know better, is among the biggest stars in sports television. She’ll have to pay a heavy price too.”Andrews’ publicist, Jill Fritz, released the following statement to USA Today Sports: “Throughout her entire career, Erin Andrews has worked diligently with coaches, players, and PR staff to ensure accuracy in her reporting. She made a comment on the ‘Calm Down’ podcast about sitting in on head coach meetings, which happens at the beginning of the week, and sometimes she incorporates that into her halftime reports. It’s clear when she references that the coach had previously told his team something in their meetings during the week.”

Some of you might not care. Some of you might say the media always lies. And that’s precisely why Thompson’s admission is a bigger story than just taking it seriously. It’s a big deal on two different fronts. Firstly, X, formerly known as Twitter, was worth watching for the reaction of Black television journalists. It was like Black media Voltron assembled. The main thing here is that any non-white journalist can’t avoid such impactful, career-altering consequences. We all make mistakes in life. I certainly have, but the margin for doing something like that with Black journalists is measured in millimeters. If not more, dozens of colorful journalists were saying the same thing.

The amount of authority in Thompson’s comments is astonishing.

Secondly, and most importantly, these kinds of things, the principles of conspiracy, lies, and madness, are prevalent in our politics, media, and culture. Let me explain.

Our country got lost in the principles of conspiracy and lies during the Donald Trump era. He started with small (but still detestable) scales like birtherism against Barack Obama or claiming Mexico would pay for a wall and escalated the lies. He poisoned the bloodstream of the nation. Then came January 6. He was so adept at fabricating so many lies and conspiracies because he undermined trust in the media. Is it foolish to put Thompson’s statements in the same context as Trump’s? It might seem so, but it’s not. What she said diminishes trust in the media and contributes to the rise of this corruption.

There are some questions about what Thompson really meant in her comments. Was she saying she completely made up the report? That a coach denied talking to her, so she crafted a story she had not? Or was she more embellished than what a coach had told her? Neither is better, but I’m not sure it matters because both options are bad. When she said, “I’m just going to make this,” those words did significant damage, whatever her intent was.