OT Matt Calkins resigns from the Seattle Times

[Donn Beach]

Hadnt realized that, his quiting is getting a lot of attention in the media

His work earned widespread recognition. Calkins won National Sports Columnist of the Year three times and was featured in Best American Sports Writing. The awards cemented his reputation as one of the country's leading sports opinion writers

[Sibelius Hindemith]

It wasn't just about that article getting nixxed. It was the 3rd or 4th time they did this to him and it reached a tipping point for him. He was on KJR earlier talking about it.

[Donn Beach]

It wasn't just about that article getting nixxed. It was the 3rd or 4th time they did this to him and it reached a tipping point for him. He was on KJR earlier talking about it.

I was going to point that out but i saw where he claimed he resigned on the spot over their refusal to print this particular one. It didnt sound like he ruminated over the entire process

[D-train]

Don’t we have a political form for this crap? If I want to read about politics. I’ll go read/post over there..

He is a sports writer that just wrote about the M's regarding how Jerry is is a POS and now he is gone. How in the F is this not about sports???? I even stated OT but it really isn't.

[Michael K.]

Don’t we have a political form for this crap? If I want to read about politics. I’ll go read/post over there..

He is a sports writer that just wrote about the M's regarding how Jerry is is a POS and now he is gone. How in the F is this not about sports???? I even stated OT but it really isn't.

OR? If you decide you don't want to read something, holy shit, don't read it!? I laugh all the time at the what the world has come to. Same shit on social media...."I don't want to read this shit". Wow, how about these problem solving skills....don't fucking read it....scroll on by ignore, what ever. Or? Decide that it is perfectly normal to have conflicting opinions with others, and not have it become out of control. But I just can't get over the "I don't want to read this crap" crowd. Easy fix, if you do a little TINY bit of problem solving.

[bpj]

It wasn't just about that article getting nixxed. It was the 3rd or 4th time they did this to him and it reached a tipping point for him. He was on KJR earlier talking about it.

I was going to point that out but i saw where he claimed he resigned on the spot over their refusal to print this particular one. It didnt sound like he ruminated over the entire process

Sounds like it was the straw that broke the camels back.

[gil]

It wasn't just about that article getting nixxed. It was the 3rd or 4th time they did this to him and it reached a tipping point for him. He was on KJR earlier talking about it.

I was going to point that out but i saw where he claimed he resigned on the spot over their refusal to print this particular one. It didnt sound like he ruminated over the entire process

Sounds like it was the straw that broke the camels back.

From reading his substack post, I think you're both right. Yes, he said he resigned on the spot, but it clearly was something he had been thinking about.

"That may come off as an emotional decision, but it was exactly what I was prepared to do. This, after all, was one of several columns of mine that had been spiked at the Seattle Times." https://mattycee.substack.com/p/i-was-a ... dium=email

A couple of other thoughts:

1. I don''t think it takes too much imagination to surmise that Calkins didn't have a great working relationship with anyone higher up than his editor. ("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.")

2. The description of events above takes us to Thursday afternoon, August 6. Although he said he resigned on the spot, he just announced it yesterday and has continued to write columns. 2 weeks notice? He is still listed on the ST sports and Mariners pages as I write this.

3. It makes me wonder what happened with the 3 other pieces he describes that the Seattle Times "spiked". Similarly being passed up the ladder and then spiked with some weak-ass excuse?

4. I'm also curious is the Seattle Times is going to present its side, either from a sports editor or higher up. I'd love to hear what they have to say. I mean, honest words over a few beers rather than some PR pablum. But I suspect silence will be all we get.

[D-train]

Don’t we have a political form for this crap? If I want to read about politics. I’ll go read/post over there..

He is a sports writer that just wrote about the M's regarding how Jerry is is a POS and now he is gone. How in the F is this not about sports???? I even stated OT but it really isn't.

OR? If you decide you don't want to read something, holy shit, don't read it!? I laugh all the time at the what the world has come to. Same shit on social media...."I don't want to read this shit". Wow, how about these problem solving skills....don't fucking read it....scroll on by ignore, what ever. Or? Decide that it is perfectly normal to have conflicting opinions with others, and not have it become out of control. But I just can't get over the "I don't want to read this crap" crowd. Easy fix, if you do a little TINY bit of problem solving.

Exactly. Not like I threw sand in his eyes. Just words.

btw just got back from snorkeling and this was the fav "fish" I saw. lol

Screenshot 2026-08-21 102225.png (487.49 KiB) Viewed 110 times

[Donn Beach]

Control the message

WASHINGTON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The editor-in-chief of the Stars and Stripes U.S. military newspaper said on Friday that he ‌was being fired for insubordination and Reuters learned that the Pentagon had sent notices to the paper's leadership informing them that they would be let go.
"According to the notice, I am being fired for stating in a CBS interview that hypothetical censorship of news for service members ​would constitute a personal red line," Erik Slavin said in a statement