The New York Times demonstrated again this week that it remains solidly part of the cancel campaign culture. The Athletic, owned by the Times, joined the mob in calling for the Indiana Fever to dump Sophie Cunningham for publicly opposing biological males playing in women’s sports — a position shared by the vast majority of citizens.
The column by Candace Buckner blames Cunningham for creating a “circus” and says that she is a distraction from the game due to her public stance. So, she is now “too combustible, her takes too “turbulent” to play basketball.
Of course, if she supported transplayers, she would presumably not be combustible but admirable.
Notably, the Times does not view those who have attacked Cunningham and her fans as too “combustible,” including coaches wearing opposing slogans and statements in favor of biological males in women’s sports. The New York Times itself reported that almost 80% of citizens hold the same position as Cunningham.
The Oct. 6 column called on Indiana not to renew Cunningham’s contract after two seasons when she becomes a free agent because she is “too combustible.”
However, the Times does not believe that those coaches and players speaking out in favor of such inclusion are “too combustible.”
There was no call for sacking figures like Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton, who reportedly yelled profanities at girls who were simply supporting women in sports and Cunningham.
Nor was there a call to sack Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve for wearing a T-shirt supporting trans players in a game against the Indiana Fever and Cunningham.
Liberal sentiments are never combustible for the Times. The newspaper ran a long line of columns supporting Colin Kaepernick in his kneeling protests during games. Conversely, columns attacked former player Enes Kanter Freedom for wearing a T-Shirt reading “WOMAN noun. adult human female.”
For most of us, the hatred for Cunningham is baffling. These athletes have a unique perspective on this controversy that can help inform the debate on both sides. We should welcome the insights of athletes for and against transgender players in this national discussion.
Instead, Cunningham has been subject to the same hateful, unhinged attacks that we have seen on other influential figures such as J.K. Rowling. There is no room for civil debate or any difference of opinion.
The purpose of these campaigns is obvious. Even with the vast majority of citizens supporting Cunningham’s position, press and pundits want to deter others from publicly taking such positions. It is designed to chill speech and deter dissent.
On Friday’s episode of “No Hesitation with Sophie Cunningham & Drew Hanlen,” Hanlen correctly called the piece an “absolute hate piece.” Cunningham responded even more succinctly to the Times with “suck it.”
I am not concerned for Cunningham, who has shown great courage and steadfastness in the face of these critics. Rather, it was the latest evidence that the Times has changed little in fueling the mob and canceling opposing voices.
The Times has thrilled the extreme left with its signature relativism in defending any abuse on the left, from looting to murder. It has continued to feature violent extremists as political attacks rise around the country.
The same newspaper that fired editors and denounced Sen. Tom Cotton for his NYT column quelling violent protests would go on to print individuals who have said that they are ok with killing conservatives or capitalists.
Just before the anniversary of the Cotton controversy, the New York Times published a column by University of Rhode Island professor Erik Loomis, who defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence.
After canceling Sen. Cotton, the Times had no problem with publishing the views of a Chinese figure called the enforcer of Beijing in the crushing of protests.
The New York Times is undeterred because its readers seem to value the very hypocrisy revealed in these controversies. They can rely on the Times to offer spins and deflections to relieve them of any self-examination after tragedies like the Kirk assassination.
While denouncing disinformation, the Times has embraced false narratives and continues to publish distorted historical claims.
As with its cancellation of Sen. Cotton, the Times shows that the left is ready to resume the prior campaign of cancel campaigns and censorship of opposing views. That includes an athlete who merely voiced a view in favor of female athletes that is shared by roughly 80 percent of the country. It is not shared by the Times or its viewers, so (once again) Cunningham must go.
Opposing viewpoints are intolerable to many on the left, and the editors of the Times are once again rationalizing the worst impulses of American politics.
That noise you hear coming from the graveyard is Red Smith turning over in his grave.
Professor Turley, your article brings to mind Herbert Marcuse and his influential 1965 essay, Repressive Tolerance. Marcuse explicitly argued that “liberating tolerance” required “intolerance against movements from the Right and toleration of movements from the Left.” In other words, political tolerance should not be viewpoint-neutral.
I was a university student in the late 1960s, when Marcuse was practically worshipped by some of my friends on the far left. I witnessed firsthand how his philosophy was invoked to justify shouting down anyone who challenged their political orthodoxy. Ironically, several of those graduate students subsequently became university professors.
I have long believed that Marcuse’s philosophy helped lay the intellectual foundation for the ideological monoculture that has developed in parts of American academia, where suppressing dissenting opinions and canceling controversial speakers can be rationalized as defending tolerance rather than violating it.
The connection to your article is striking. When disagreement is no longer considered legitimate discourse, but instead becomes grounds for silencing or professionally punishing someone, we are witnessing the very logic Marcuse articulated sixty years ago.
I would be interested in your perspective on how much of today’s cancel culture can be traced to Marcuse and the intellectual legacy of the New Left. The historical connection deserves considerably more attention.
14han, your comment hits the mark. Marcuse’s message didn’t sit well with American workers. They were happy that their bellies were full and their lives were enriched by a lifestyle previously unimagined. Americans were gaining a new type of freedom with the half-century growth of automobiles and roads. Marcuse was left to offer his vision only to those on the fringe: student and minority activists and revolutionaries. Today, we see such activism directed toward transgenders and the elimination of biological sex differences.
Though Marcuse is linked to the left here and elsewhere, his ideas have proven to be failures, even though acceptance has increased due to media saturation, the downgrading of our public schools by progressive policy, and the hard left targeting the teaching profession.
Is this civil rights?
Frankly Scarlett I don’t care anymore. It’s an lgbt organization. It’s unfortunate but let’s move on to the tanking economy. This athletic thing could have been solved long ago.
Any subscriber to the NY Times is, as they say ‘ complicit.
the last and final chance at redemption was when Bari Weiss was there.
The Old Gray Lady has tragically passed away—dead.
The NY TIMES died light years ago with its stance on the Soviets, Ukraine and Walter Duranty, Moscow bureau chief! And in WW II, didn’t explicitly campaign in support of banning Jewish refugees during WWII, but down played the Holocaust and avoided references as a Jewish tragedy.
The national origin quotas mandated by the Johnson-Reed Act were maintained before, during, and after the war. This allowed German Jews to emigrate while severely restricting Jews from Austria, Poland, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries.
The one post-war concession was to bunch several years’ quotas together
Sophie should sue the NYT for defamation. $100 million should do it.
Kudos, is 100mm enough.
500mm would be more appropriate.
Maybe Musk will buy the Times and fire all the cancerous personnel.
She’s a public figure.
Would mandating urinals in the ladies room get rid of the tampons in the men’s?
It is me; it seems I’m sometimes required to Log In with WordPress to appear as enigmainblack. I’ve never hidden my identity, you can click on my photo and see my profile. Some of you have gone as far as to look up my address in Tax Records when I lived in Orlando. You may think I contribute to rage; educating people around here tends to do that. One difference between Turley and me is that he recently reached 100,000,000 readers, IIRC. He might even be in the billions. I tried unsuccessfully to find his latest post, but he has a large following and says many of the same things on television. I am merely in the low few millions of views and go on the occasional podcast.
narcissistinblack
EB – Kudos for posting under an identity.
Educating people requires providing correct information – Facts. While you are far from the worst poster on the left,
you repeatedly demonstrate significant failure to understand what you are talking about
Regardless, I welcome posts from people who grasp that an identity means a reputation, and from those who mostly do attempt to make an argument rather than toss out insults.
You are an important contributor here – being wrong serves a very important purpose.
As John Stuart Mill said – he who knows only his own position knows little of that.
It is important to hear from those like you would mostly make counter arguments, or arguments for positions outside the norm here. I say outside the norm because where there is a massive body of left wing nuts posting, most just engage in ad hominem not argument.
The NYT is a purveyor of Evil. Period. No better than Storm Trooper or the Daily Woker. Anti-American and Anti-Semitic. I once subscribed to that paper. I would now be as likely to subscribe to that paper as join the KKK
Nobody with a brain thinks the NYT is anything but Democrat propaganda, just like CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNOW, PBS, etc. etc. etc., so it’s not a surprise to see them condemn Cunningham while approving of those WNBA officials who openly approve of men cheating against women in sports.
Democrats OWN hypocrisy.
But it is fun to watch them repeatedly going against what 80% of the country are for (closed border, deportation of illegal aliens, men staying out of women’s sports, locker rooms and bathrooms, Capitalism, protecting Israel, keeping Iran from getting nukes, etc.).
Whether they will admit it publicly or not, most people agree with the conservative stance on most of the issues.
Biology Matters – is age next? Should an 18 year old HS player be allowed to play in Little League?
Female thoroughbred horses are allowed to enter open and male-restricted races (including major stakes races), while male horses are strictly banned from competing in races reserved exclusively for fillies and mares.
Rules on Gender in Thoroughbred Racing
Famous Examples
We attended a morning adult formation workshop yesterday at our Catholic parish on Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. It was standing room only. A married, 50+ years old Catholic Permanent Deacon, PhD candidate in Systematic Theology at a Benedictine college, led the forum given his career in information technology. We sat in the back of the room to allow others better access to the speaker since we read the encyclical at home as a family when it was first promulgated in May 2026. A well known retired attorney from a large firm sat at our table where we all shared a breakfast provided by the parish. His wife is a recent convert to Catholicism. It was an enriching time of intellectual philosophical reflection, lively discussion on safeguarding of humanity, truth, dignity of work, social justice, and peace. The Catholic Church continues to attract people from all walks of life. The number of new converts is steadily growing globally. Even the atheistic, left-wing UK Guardian covered the topic, in spite of their injecting what all Leftists do: bile and hatred
“US Catholic churches see a record number of conversions: ‘It’s a real shift”
theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/aug/25/young-americans-catholic-church-revival
The Left? I have said for years that they are infertile. They do not reproduce. They do not promote growth nor peace. There is no redemption with the Left. They have no good news, no shared values other than violence and destruction. They make the Catholic Inquisition and Tomas de Torquemada look like girl scouts with their relentless promulgations of anathemas,, inciting to violence and death threats. The Left are nihilistic to the core, a miserable lot.
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/nihilism
As for the NYT, let the dead bury the dead. the NYT now has only 1.5 million news-only subscribers, compared to 10.8 million on a digital bundle plans. Games, Cooking, Audio and sports content account for more than 50% of time spent inside the NYT app. The NYT has turned its failing news organization into an ancillary business, a side show. Cf: zacks.com/stock/news/2812651/how-the-new-york-times-digital-bundle-strategy-is-winning-subscribers
What about Islam, Jane? 😂. The article is about free speech and politics. Cunningham is a public figure and the NYT is without malice. It pushes what it pushes. It’s a genderless world so quit asking.
Imo
Congress could have acted long ago.
That’s just out and out NAZI behavior quit calling them socialists, communists or anything else… they are flat out and out NAZIS… MY WAY OR ELSE WE’LL BURN YOU DOWN.
Menopuase?
Top athlete Sophie Cunningham is rebuked by media for speaking out about transgender females, but do we remember how media absolutely glorified and sainted outwardly-lesbian soccer player Megan Rapinoe? From YouGov. https://yougov.com/en-us/trackers/fame-and-popularity-megan-rapinoe
(Sorry, I don’t care about Rapinoe’s private proclivities, but I DO mind the media sainthood of one outspoken athlete versus the damning to eternal hell of another.)
No historian of our time and place should ignore the malign influence on our Republic of The New York Times. In the 1930s, when the naivete of our political leaders about the Soviet Union needed a corrective,the NYT provided the lies of Walter Durant. When the intentions of Fidel Castro were questioned, the NYT’s correspondent, Herbert Matthews, reported that Castro was a democrat. When it looked like there might be a genocide in South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, Anthony Lewis told his readers that there was nothing to be concerned about. When some people predicted a mortgage meltdown in 2008, Paul Krugman told us there was nothing to worry about. It’s position as leading newspaper in the media center gives it the power to blind the government of our country.
An excellent list of priors, Edward. And the NYT is doubling down on more felonies. It is important to remind people about the past.
Excellent, but with regard to “When the intentions of Fidel Castro were questioned, the NYT’s correspondent, Herbert Matthews, reported that Castro was a democrat.”He was right but said it a number of years too earlyfew too many
Clever and cute
I truly wish that more Americans would pay attention and understand–at least contemplate-that it is the MSM/Media that is responsible for dividing and alienating Americans against each other. The kneading and manipulating of public PERCEPTION of selective issues and events is nothing less than stunning–and all for political dominance rather than news reporting.
This Sunday morning, I watched ABC Jonathan Karl interview the Democrat candidate (Hamilton) hoping to flip a Kansas seat to flip the Senate. NBC Kristen Welker interviewed Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, also hoping to flip the Senate with his election.
This Sunday morning–on national ABC high-viewership Good Morning America, –I watched anchor Gio Benitez ask Jonathan Karl, “how do Republican candidates distance themselves from Trump without alienating their base(es)?” (reminder: what single Republican does ‘neutral,’ ‘objective’ ABC have representing Republicans on its discussion “panel?” –spiteful Christ Christie, who badly lost his presidential bid to Trump and has spoken against him ever since. NBC Kristen Welker interviewed Republican Trump critic Thom Tillis.)
When left-leaning Newsweek (and Gallup) reported Joe Biden’s approval rating was in the low 30s, I don’t recall Gio asking Jonathan Karl, “how do Democrat candidates distance themselves from Biden without alienating their base(es)?” https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-approval-rating-hits-record-low-2014691
Sophie should be barred from the WNBA. She too attractive and lacks sufficient tattoos.
Why doesn’t someone ask these transgender activists why only men trannies want to compete against women and never hear women who think they’re male compete against men?
What would the result be if they swam against a top college male swimmer, a heavyweight boxer, a MMA fighter, for that matter any male. It’s only men who think they’re female who want to compete against women.
I think if that question was asked continually the men invading women sports would slowly disappear. What a spectacle it would be to see a woman thinking she’s a man give the trans world a reality check when she’s carried out of a ring?
There’s truth in what you’ve said, Finch. It’s misogyny and getting medals for beating-up women in a legal competition is a dream come true. 😏
I have doubts as to whether the majority of the PURPORTEDLY MTF trans competing in womens sports are even trans.
While we have many high profile instances of male athletes deliberately identifying as Trans for a day or a competition to demonstrate the absurdity of this, I think there is also a number of 2nd or 3rd tier Males who are happy to get attention and win awards that they would have no chance at in male sports – a Trophy is a trophy.
A decade or so ago, a man would be embarrassed to win a sports competition against women.
But not today.
It seems to me to be logical conflict for a male who choses to identify as feminine to in that female persona engage in primarily masculine activities. Only a tiny portion of people are MTF trans – of those I would be shocked if more than a very tiny portion are “butch” trans.
Just my 0.02.
Far as I am concerned – you are free to identify however you please – so long as that does not REQUIRE others to act.
You can identify as you wiush have whatever pronouns you want – but you can not make me or anyone else use them
Your liberty ends when it REQUIRES others to act.
“And it also is true that people who excel at manipulating other people’s emotions… ” Just like Christianity? You’ll go hell if you …
@Bargette
Ah. I love the smell of a leftist non-sequitur deflection in the morning. Good stuff.
Honestly, I am secular, but to my eye, you all are magnitudes more obsessed with religion than even actual christians are, but for the fringe extreme. Maybe they aren’t the hateful fundamentalists, after all?
You are not required to believe them. I say you’ll be beamed up by the moon people. Does that enrage you as well?
What about Islam, Jane? 😂. The article is about free speech and politics. Cunningham is a public figure and the NYT is without malice. It pushes what it pushes. It’s a genderless world so quit asking.
Imo
Congress could have acted long ago.
Thank you to Jane Bargette, and even more so, thank you to Professor Turley.
This blog reveals how common is the hatred that Christians and Jews face. When Ivy League presidents testified before Congress that it’s not a violation of their Codes Of Conduct for mobs to take over their campuses and call for the extermination of Jews, that was just the tip of the iceberg.
No, Jane, everyone goes to purgatory before choosing hell. 😏.