As Matt Calkins' posts about his situation have gone viral, journalism experts and others are weighing in on the ethical boundaries of editorial control.
A longtime Seattle sports journalist abruptly resigned from the Seattle Times after he said the paper decided not to publish a recent column about his take on biological males playing in girls' sports.
As Matt Calkins' posts about his situation have gone viral, journalism experts and others are weighing in on the ethical boundaries of editorial control.
Matt Calkins was disappointed but said he expected his column wouldn't make it in the paper. He told KOMO the reasoning he was given was that he didn't give his editors earlier notice about what he'd be covering.
"I don’t have any animosity toward anybody. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I were in their situation," Calkins explained.
The sports columnist of 11 years explained he left after he wrote a column inspired by a rally outside a Seattle Storm and Indiana Fever game in late July. People were there in support of Fever guard Sophie Cunningham, who shares the same belief that biological males should not be able to compete in girls’ sports.
Calkins also gave his personal take that holding the same opinion as these girls does not make someone transphobic.
"We’re trying to have a very honest discussion on a very delicate topic," Calkins said.
Frances Staudt was one of two girls Calkins interviewed for his column, sharing her view as a teen basketball player in the Tumwater School District who said she felt uncomfortable having to share a locker room with a biological male.
"I was very upset about it, very confused why this was happening, so I raised my concerns to the administration and was told they would not do anything about it," she said. "I've been going around, trying to protect girls' sports for a couple of years now. It's very important to me."
The now-17-year-old believes the fallout from Calkins leaving the paper has sparked a bigger conversation.
"It's upsetting that this all is happening, but I'm glad that people are seeing what's really going on in the state of Washington," Staudt added.
University of Washington Journalism Professor and former Seattle Times staffer Douglas Underwood explained he would have liked to see the column run alongside another with an opposing view, especially as there's a ballot issue in November on restricting transgender students from competing on girls' and women's school sports teams in Washington.
"You really have a lot of interesting and important factors on both sides of the debate and it would be nice, whether it’s on the opinion page or on the news page, to give the citizens a full airing on the issues as much as possible," Underwood added. "The column didn’t say it was a representation of the newspaper’s opinion. It said it was Calkin’s opinion, and usually, that’s a freedom that’s granted to sports columnists."
Initiative 638 is the measure going to voters this November. Backers gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures to get it on the ballot.
KOMO News asked the Seattle Times for a response to Calkins' claims. The paper said it does not comment on personnel matters.
