{"id":2647574,"date":"2026-08-20T20:56:01","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newspaper-columnist-quits-after-editors-kill-story-on-a-teen-sophie-cunningham-fan-who-thanked-her-for-speaking-up-for-girls\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T21:00:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T01:00:51","slug":"newspaper-columnist-quits-after-editors-kill-story-on-a-teen-sophie-cunningham-fan-who-thanked-her-for-speaking-up-for-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/newspaper-columnist-quits-after-editors-kill-story-on-a-teen-sophie-cunningham-fan-who-thanked-her-for-speaking-up-for-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Newspaper Columnist Quits After Editors Kill Story on a Teen Sophie Cunningham Fan Who Thanked Her for &#8216;Speaking Up for Girls&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">42<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnewspaper-columnist-quits-after-editors-kill-story-on-a-teen-sophie-cunningham-fan-who-thanked-her-for-speaking-up-for-girls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2647574&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the resignation of Matt Calkins,a seasoned sports columnist at The Seattle Times,after his editorial efforts were censored. Calkins, who worked ther for 11 years, expressed frustration over the newspaper\u2019s refusal to publish a column supporting women\u2019s sports and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/robert-f-kennedy-jr-voices-opposition-to-transgender-athletes-in-womens-sports\/\" title=\"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Voices Opposition to Transgender Athletes in ......s ...\">opposing transgender athletes competing<\/a> against women, a topic that has become a cultural flashpoint. He highlighted that his column argued that biological males outperform females in sports metrics and that allowing such competition undermines women\u2019s sports. The newspaper claimed the column was not published as calkins did not seek approval in advance, but he suspects censorship due to political pressures and prevailing leftist narratives on transgender rights and cultural issues. Calkins reflected on past instances where his work challenged mainstream views,emphasizing the bias and intimidation present in modern journalism. His departure underscores concerns about the decline of journalistic integrity and the suppression of balanced perspectives in media today.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_0)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (REP_2)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>The newspaper might be spineless, but the columnist wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>A veteran Seattle Times sports columnist is making headlines of his own after resigning from the newspaper over a column being spiked that took a sane approach to the issue of men playing women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n<p>And he didn\u2019t hold back.<\/p>\n<p>Matt Calkins, who had been with The Seattle Times for 11 years, took to Substack on Thursday to announce that he\u2019d left the newspaper <a href=\"https:\/\/mattycee.substack.com\/p\/i-was-a-sports-columnist-at-the-seattle?utm_source=post--title&#038;publication_id=10563175&#038;post_id=212028578&#038;utm_campaign=-post-title&#038;isFre=false&#038;r=42vj42&#038;triedRedirect=true&#038;utm_medium=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">and detail<\/a> what sounds like a clear case of heavy-handed censorship in favor of one of the left\u2019s most sacred cows: the current nonsensical controversy over the idea that men and boys who claim to identify as female should have a right to use their God-given physical superiority in direct competition with women and girls.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">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\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Matt Calkins (@Matt_Calkins) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Matt_Calkins\/status\/2090483833057751064?\">August 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>In a column he wrote, but the newspaper refused to publish, he made the unarguable point that women and girls standing up for the sanctity of women\u2019s sports \u2014 from the WNBA\u2019s ever-more-famous Sophie Cunningham to high schoolers just playing for fun \u2014 are not being hateful when they make their points.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re showing guts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people saw bigotry. I saw bravery,\u201d Calkins <a href=\"https:\/\/mattycee.substack.com\/p\/agreeing-with-sophie-cunninghams\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">began the column<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>He went on to describe meeting female athletes outside Seattle\u2019s Climate Pledge Arena on July 28, when the WNBA\u2019s Seattle Storm played Cunningham\u2019s Indiana Fever. They were part of a rally supporting Cunningham. One carried a sign reading \u201cThank You Sophie For Speaking Up For Girls!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Readers might remember the game as the venue where Seattle Storm co-owner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wnba-owner-curses-teenage-sophie-cunningham-supporters-bringing-tears\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Celeste Keaton disgraced herself<\/a>, her sport, and the left in general by verbally attacking two teenage girls showing their support for Cunningham at courtside. (Calkins had interviewed one of the girls.)<\/p>\n<p>Calkins then articulated the reasons it\u2019s necessary for female athletes and women\u2019s sports advocates to stand firm against the insanity of pretending that a man claiming to be a woman is physically no different from naturally smaller, weaker athletes who actually are women (no matter how well trained they are).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Longtime Seattle Times sports columnist Matt Calkins is walking away after 11 years, saying the paper refused to publish his column giving a voice to female athletes who oppose transgender athletes competing in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI couldn\u2019t do my job as a columnist because I feel\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kAKq618qQH\">pic.twitter.com\/kAKq618qQH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FoxNews\/status\/2090586212046135777?\">August 20, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a column filled with common sense, combined with compassion for those unfortunate enough to \u201cfeel trapped in the wrong body,\u201d as Calkins put it. But it doesn\u2019t shy away from the truth:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy every measurable metric in sports \u2014 whether it be 100-meter times, vertical leaps, weightlifting, yards off the tee, etc. \u2014 the top males substantially outperform the top females.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn short: The separation is strictly for the sake of girls and women. So surely one can see why, to many, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/women-shouldnt-accept-third-place-in-a-race-they-won\/\" title=\"... Shouldn...t Accept Third Place In A Race They Won\">allowing biological males<\/a> to compete against females undermines this division.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In his Substack report, Calkins described how he filed the column, then waited as it went through reviews by the newspaper\u2019s top editors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThursday afternoon, my editor informed me that it wasn\u2019t going to run because I didn\u2019t tell him I was doing this in advance,\u201d Calkins wrote. \u201cI didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>No one who\u2019s ever worked at a newspaper would buy that reasoning. But then, neither would anyone outside journalism who\u2019s followed the \u201ctrans\u201d debate since it burst into the national debate as it\u2019s gone from a fringe issue a decade ago to one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wnba-forced-issue-another-humiliating-response-mom-daughter-made-cover-pro-girl-shirts-opposing-trans-players-womens-sports\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hottest battlefields<\/a> in the country\u2019s unending culture wars. (Thanks, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/riley-gaines-gets-ultimate-vindication-3-years-later-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-erased-record-book\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lia Thomas<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>So-called \u201ctrans rights\u201d has been treated as religious certainty by the American left, along with \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/zeldin-drive-dagger-straight-heart-climate-change-religion-axing-landmark-obama-era-ruling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">climate change<\/a>\u201d and \u201csystemic racism.\u201d Any voice of dissent from the leftist orthodoxy is viewed as heresy and treated as such by those with the power in the media, academia, and politics to stamp it out.<\/p>\n<p>Calkins wrote that he\u2019s had columns spiked before, when they didn\u2019t match the leftist view of events:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne was a piece questioning whether players for the U.S. Women\u2019s Soccer Team were really the victims of discrimination in their equal-pay lawsuit. Another was a more general column on cancel culture in sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last, written shortly after George Floyd\u2019s death, implored people to listen to state-champion basketball coach Mike Bethea \u2014 a black man urging the public not to stereotype cops. The common theme? All of these challenged prevailing newsroom narratives and likely would have triggered the outrage mob.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Seattle Times had not publicly responded to Calkins\u2019 columns Thursday afternoon. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/politics\/articles\/longtime-columnist-resigns-over-spiked-225554807.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HuffPost<\/a>, a newspaper representative would not comment on \u201cpersonnel matters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So the limp-wristed excuse that Calkins didn\u2019t clear his subject matter in advance will have to stand for the moment, but there are really only two possibilities for the newspaper to kill a column by one of its star voices:<\/p>\n<p>Either the newspaper\u2019s top bosses despised the eminently sane points it made and squelched it in an irresponsible abuse of power, which would be unforgivable, or they feared the backlash that would ensue from injecting a note of reason into a debate that leftists can only argue on grounds of emotion, which would be even worse.<\/p>\n<p>That kind of spinelessness in the face of political pressure is inexcusable in an institution that\u2019s part of a profession that was considered so important by the Founders that they enshrined freedom of the press in the First Amendment to the Constitution they gave to posterity.<\/p>\n<p>Either way, it\u2019s a sad commentary on the state of journalism in the United States \u2014 and it\u2019s just one more proof that the American public\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/695762\/trust-media-new-low.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">record-low level of trust<\/a> in the establishment media is remarkably deserved. (In a just world, in fact, it would be lower to the point of being nonexistent.)<\/p>\n<p>Spineless in Seattle? It appears so. And just about everywhere else in the American mainstream media today.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]] = document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display = 'block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src = firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id'] = firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting = jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display = 'none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display = 'block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/body><\/html><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Seattle Times sports columnist resigns over censorship on gender sports debate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2647575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Seattle-times-columnist-quits.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[6371,84475,5157,41580,84474],"class_list":["post-2647574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-censorship","tag-female-empowerment-2","tag-journalism","tag-media-ethics","tag-teen-issues"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Seattle-times-columnist-quits.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2647574"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2647578,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2647574\/revisions\/2647578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2647575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2647574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2647574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2647574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}