Overview: A mirror turned Into a weapon
In this op-ed, veteran journalist Joseph Williams examines the widespread fallout from the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention, where commentator Stephen A. Smith received a "Thumbs Down" award for a pattern of commentary targeting Black women. Williams breaks down how Smith's immediate retaliatory campaign on conservative media highlights a troubling gap in accountability for one of America's loudest media figures.
Stephen A. Smith said NABJ’s Thumbs Down Award was “Christmas arriving early.” But his furious reaction to criticism from an organization he once embraced reveals something more interesting about power, accountability and his relationship with Black America.
As a sports journalist-turned-media personality with political ambitions, Stephen A. Smith has never met a room he couldn’t fill with the sound of his own voice.
So when the National Association of Black Journalists handed ESPN’s flagship Black commentator a “Thumbs Down” award Aug. 16 at its annual conference in Atlanta, citing what it called Smith’s “recurring public pattern of disparaging commentary directed at prominent Black women across politics, sports and media,” the only shocking part was that anyone expected him to sit with it.
Rather than brush it off, defend himself or pause for reflection, Smith came in hot. He posted on X that the award was “the epitome of Christmas arriving early” before promising to “come for” the organization that dared to say publicly what a lot of Black Americans have said privately for years. “I’ve shut my mouth for years. Now y’all started something,” he wrote.
Hard to believe Smith, who’s paid millions of dollars a year to freely speak his mind, has shut his mouth for five minutes, much less years. By Monday, as the online mockery peaked, Smith took his grievances to conservative white media, proof that in the attention economy, any publicity is good publicity, even when it proves your critics right.
A callout on the national stage
I was in the banquet hall when NABJ put Smith on its “naughty” list alongside FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, CBS News and Black media mogul DuJuan McCoy, all cited for undermining press freedom or pushing out Black staff. When Smith’s headshot flashed on the jumbo screens, the room gasped, chuckled, then applauded.
NABJ’s leaders looked at his body of work and concluded his commentary about Black women causes real damage. Consider Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, a former civil rights attorney Smith spent weeks attacking last fall over her “rhetoric for the streets.” By his standards, Crockett was too Black, too Southern, too unbothered by his notion of respectability, so he scolded her on his podcast and questioned whether her style would “help her district.”
The backlash came fast. Rapper Willie D put it plainly: “Dude is sitting on one of the biggest mics in America, and instead of using it to uplift, he’s tearing down a Black woman who’s out here putting in real work.” Smith eventually apologized, kind of, after President Donald Trump piled on Crockett with Smith’s own insults. He acknowledged his words had “given [Trump] ammunition,” but insisted the suggestion he indulged in misogynoir was “emphatically false.”
Hot takes without community accountability
It’s the same energy Smith brought when he scolded former President Barack Obama for telling Black men to examine their reluctance to vote for a Black woman for president. Nuance isn’t missing from his commentary, it’s been surgically removed. That’s hard to reconcile with a man who, stung by the NABJ critique, bypassed Black media to serve up more bombast to Sean Hannity and Chris Cuomo. Perhaps most telling: NABJ’s current president, Errin Haines, is a Black woman.
To be clear, Smith has the right to his opinions, and Crockett, Obama and other Black public figures aren’t above criticism. But if he chooses to spew hot takes targeting influential Black women, he should be held accountable for misogynoir. NABJ didn’t ambush him; this is an organization he has walked into at past conventions with music blasting and arms wide, soaking up the love. Rather than reflecting, Smith vowed revenge, and did it on white media.
That’s not the response of a man interested in growth. It’s the response of someone who has built an empire on being the loudest voice in the room, cashing checks for it and never answering to anyone with the power to say he’s wrong. NABJ handed him a mirror. True to form, Smith wants to use it as a weapon.
This op-ed appeared first in Word in Black. It has been cut for length. For the original, visit www.wordinblack.com/2026/08/stephen-a-smiths-problem-isnt-his-opinions-its-accountability/.
Joseph Williams is a contributing writer for Word in Black.