Matt Calkins, who resigned from the Seattle Times today because a column on transgender athletes was spiked by his bosses. He is getting good support from Seattle media obserurnesdvers. More from Matt: https://mattycee.substack.com/p/agreeing-with-sophie-cunninghams https://x.com/i/trending/2090496802487201837 From Aaron Levine of Fox 13: Matt has never shied away from tackling some of the hottest-button issues and I give him tons of credit for that. Wishing you nothing but the best going forward, Matt, and truly appreciate and admire the full explanation in your Substack. From Ian Furness of KJR: "When a columnist is muted by a newspaper, the paper of record for the region, we have reached a dangerous place. The fact that it has happened multiple times to Matt is even worse."⁸
Some of you may have heard or read that Scripps has completely removed anchors from the 7 and 11 newscasts at its station WMAR in Baltimore, still a top 30 market. It runs only sequenced local taped reports along with hubbed national stories from its 24/7 streaming service. For me, it touches a nerve. That's me in the middle. I worked there from 74-87 and, even though WMAR was a pioneer and legacy station and the first station in Maryland (1947), it ended up with four different owners from 86-91, suffered thru an ill-fated talent strike in 83 and just two years earlier in 81, lost its CBS affiliation because of low ratings and too many pre-emptions for Orioles telecasts and specials. The decline put a bullseye on the station for a long time and Scripps has made zero progress managing it since 91, culminating in this decision to try something totally different there and in about a dozen smaller markets. They just laid off about 20 WMAR staffers ...