Matt Calkins, a longtime sports columnist for the Seattle Times, has already received a new job offer, immediately after quitting the newspaper.
The veteran sports columnist, who had been with the paper for 11 years, resigned this week. He stepped down after he wrote a column from the perspective of two female athletes who competed against a transgender female athlete. The column was allegedly spiked by the newspaper.
“After 11 years as a sports columnist at the Seattle Times, I have decided to resign. It was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one. The impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males. It was one of several pieces of mine that had been spiked, and I no longer felt like I could properly do my job as a columnist. I lay out the situation in greater detail in the link below, but I want to say that I enjoyed my time with the paper, find the talent there to be immense, and have no animosity toward anyone who works there. It was just time for a change,” he shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.
Calkins said that he wrote a column under the thesis “that supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic, so let’s stop throwing those labels around.”
However, it never ran.
“I sent a draft after talking to my editor the morning of Friday, July 31, telling him there was no rush to run it. He told me later that day that he and others were looking at it, but that it wouldn’t be ready for Sunday’s paper. Monday night, I got an email saying that his boss was hoping to talk to the top two newsroom editors about it on Wednesday. No feedback had been given to me. Thursday afternoon, my editor informed me that it wasn’t going to run because I didn’t tell him I was doing this in advance. I didn’t buy this reasoning. If that were the case, the piece would have been killed on the spot, not passed through the hands of multiple editors over several days,” he wrote.
“My response? To resign on the spot.”
Calkins might not be out of work for long, though.
Job offer has already come his way
Clay Travis’ new sports media company, Sport & State, is interested in working with Calkins after his resignation.
“Unacceptable. Email @dombonvissuto @SportNState . We may have a job for you,” he shared on X.
Calkins has continued to receive support from others, too.
“Matt has always been the lone bright spot at a dark outlet He wanted to stand up for truth and the Seattle Times wouldn’t let him Kudos to him for standing on principle. I know it is rough to make a change but he will land on his feet because of his immense talent,” one fan wrote.
“When a columnist is muted by a newspaper, the paper of record for the region, we have reached a dangerous place. The fact that it has happened multiple times to Matt is even worse,” another shared.
It’ll be interesting to see where Calkins lands next.
