‘Totally get why he resigned’: Jemele Hill defends journalist who resigned over Sophie Cunningham

Jemele Hill has weighed in on sports columnist Matt Calkins, and her take on the situation may surprise you.

Calkins announced Thursday he was resigning from The Seattle Times after 11 years. His decision was based on the newspaper spiking a column he had written defending Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever and her belief that transgender women don’t belong in women’s sports.

Calkins also claimed The Seattle Times previously refused to run several other pieces he wrote that challenged prevailing newsroom narratives and likely would have triggered the outrage mob.”

“One was a piece questioning whether players for the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team were really the victims of discrimination in their equal-pay lawsuit. Another was a more general column on cancel culture in sports. The last, written shortly after George Floyd’s death, implored people to listen to state-champion basketball coach Mike Bethea — a black man urging the public not to stereotype cops,” he explained.

‘Let him have to defend his sh*tty opinions’

In a tweet Thursday night, Hill made it clear she didn’t agree with Calkins’ takes, but still believed the newspaper had a duty to run his columns unless they were “not meeting journalistic standards.”

“It’s not the first column of his to be spiked and while I strongly disagree with all of the columns the Times didn’t run, they should have published them,” Hill said. “Unless these columns were factually inaccurate or not meeting journalistic standards, run it and deal with the fallout.

“If people get pissed, so be it. Let him have to defend his sh*tty opinions in the public square. I totally get why he resigned.”

Hill, who is currently a contributing writer for The Atlantic, has been a columnist for several outlets, including ESPN. She knows what it is like to say something that draws backlash, and that hasn’t prevented her from sharing her opinions.

Clearly, Hill doesn’t think Calkins should be stopped from writing what he believes in, even if she doesn’t concur.

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