A longtime U.S. sports columnist has quit his position at a prestigious newspaper in response to the women’s sports controversy taking over American sports debate.
Matt Calkins, a veteran sports columnist for The Seattle Times, announced on X that he has resigned from his position after 11 years with the newspaper. Calkins said his decision to quit comes after the newspaper refused to publish his column, written “from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males.”
The veteran U.S. sports columnist said that there’s no animosity toward his former employer, though.
“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,” Calkins announced.
Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images.
Calkins said that the thesis of his spiked column was that “supporting the separation of biological females and males doesn’t automatically make you transphobic, so let’s stop throwing those labels around.”
“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.”
U.S. sports columnist receives support after quitting
Calkins is receiving some major support online after quitting.
“Proud of you Matt!!! Always looking for the best story never biased towards results!” one fan wrote.
“Your situation is one that forced me and thousands of others like me to cancel her subscriptions. You did a great job and the newspaper has an extreme liberal ideology and will not tolerate different opinions. You knew that a long time ago,” one fan added.
“Thank you, Matt. I was one of the female athletes you interviewed, and I truly appreciate the way you treated me. You were fair, listened to my story without judgment, and wanted to share my experience—even when The Seattle Times refused to let it be heard,” Frances Staudt shared.
“Respect for leaving an organization not interested in providing a balanced view. What I don’t understand are the kind words about the paper and very people that undermine your writing. A journalist would be more forthright versus straddling the proverbial fence,” another fan shared.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Seattle Times responds.
