Charissa Thompson should be fired in the wake of her sideline reporting scandal, asserts a veteran USA Today columnist.
This week, Thompson admitted on a "Pardon My Take" podcast that in her history as an NFL reporter on live TV, she would sometimes "make up" her halftime and in-game reports, choosing to do so when coaches wouldn't make themselves available for the traditional "quickie'' interviews.
Thompson essentially said that she would tend to speak in cliches and say things that the head coaches surely would find appropriate.
This is obviously not an ethical practice, and Thompson has since walked back her comments, claiming, "I chose the wrong words to describe the situation. I'm sorry. I have never lied about anything or been unethical during my time as a sports broadcaster.''
The second explanation of course does not match the first explanation ... and many of Thompson's colleagues are dissatisfied with her attempts to downplay her actions.
One of those colleagues is long-time NFL columnist Mike Freeman, who is calling for Thompson - who was on the air for Amazon's "Thursday Night Football'' even as the story broke - to be fired.
"There's no way Thompson, who has been doing this for more than a decade and knows better, should survive this. This is a firing offense. It's not even close," Freeman wrote.
It is indeed - in terms of journalistic ethics - difficult to get past what Thompson said, which included this remark ...
““I haven’t been fired (for) saying it, but I’ll say it again. I would make up the report sometimes, because the coach wouldn’t come out at halftime, or it was too late and I didn’t want to screw up the report. So I was like, ‘I’m just gonna make this up.’
More must-reads: