By Jennifer Sey | Commentary, Sey Everything Substack
It is petty and biased from the lede. And it just gets worse throughout.
Yesterday there was a lot going on in the news so you may have missed the long form article about Riley Gaines in The New York Times. Read it if you must, but only to stay motivated to continue the fight for biological reality. It’s a 4000 word takedown of Gaines and the entire movement to protect women’s sports.
It is so dishonest and petty.
Look, we’re not asking for biased treatment in our direction. How about straight up the middle? You know, reporting? But that seems to be beyond Ruth Graham’s capability.
I’ll admit, it annoys me because I’m in it. And I recorded the interview so I know what I said and she leaves out anything I said that would contradict her pre-planned narrative. And that narrative is that Riley Gaines is a mean, bigoted conservative who hates “trans” people and just wants to be famous. In wanting to be famous, she has leaned into the moment that she tied with Will/”Lia” Thomas at the 2022 NCAA swimming finals to catapult herself into the public eye.
First of all, so what? Why can’t Riley be ambitious? The left cheers for “progressive” women who are ambitious. But a conservative woman who is ambitious and competitive is an evil, unprincipled grifter?
This is why we don’t trust you anymore media people. This is why people are abandoning the mainstream media in favor of independent media which at least doesn’t pretend at objectivity.
This is also why people are leaving the Democratic Party. We are sick of the condescension and judgement and finger wagging. We are sick of the fancy people telling us what we are supposed to think and do. We are tired of the “elites” telling us we just don’t understand biology — it’s complicated! — or that we are “low information” voters or that we have been captured and brain washed by Joe Rogan.
No. Just no. And yeah, I know I’m technically an “elite.” But I don’t want anything to do with those people.
The Daily Mail did a paragraph by paragraph analysis of how biased the piece is with my help. Dropping an overview of my commentary down below as well.
The article about Riley Gaines in the NYT is illustrative of the vast divide between everyday Americans who simply believe in biological reality and a media machine still pushing a narrative. Despite the fact that 80% of Americans agree that women’s sports should be for women only, and the fact that all of the major governing bodies have established rules to ensure that that is the case, the legacy media pushes a narrative that only bigots and mean conservatives who hate the LGBT community are pushing for fairness in sports.
From the very first sentence Graham’s piece is all wrong. Here is the lede.
“With caps covering their hair, goggles over their eyes, and sleek suits down to their knees, the eight swimmers on the pool deck looked indistinguishable from one another.”
No, they did not look indistinguishable. Will Thomas is 6’4” with the broad shoulders and wing span of a man. None of the women look anything like him. But the writer tries to make the case from the outset that Thomas is just another woman!
Thomas is favorably described as “quiet” suggesting a meekness. When in reality, Thomas cheated his way into the NCAA finals in 2022 by declaring that he is a woman. He was ranked 554th in the 200 freestyle in men’s the year prior. In one year, he catapulted up to 5th. No training differences. No coaching change. The only thing that changed was the category he was competing in. There is no analysis or questioning of this rapid rise. Any athlete or coach knows that that kind of rise from 554th to 5th in one year in impossible. Any governing body knows. If a person didn’t switch categories, they’d be investigated for doping. It is simply impossible.
“But as Ms. Thomas has largely dropped from public view in the years since, Ms. Gaines has turned that fateful race into a thriving career as an activist against the participation of transgender women in women’s sports.”
Thomas hasn’t dropped from view. He sued the USOPC to gain a spot in the Olympic Trials in 2024. He failed.
And why can’t Riley have a thriving career as an activist and media personality? She’s good at it. We’re lucky to have her. But it’s written with an obvious sneer. But any left leaning woman who did the same — leveraged a moment to build a career — would be championed.
“Three years after finishing fifth in Atlanta, she has essentially not stopped talking about a race that lasted less than two minutes. And right now, she feels like she’s finally winning.”
She can’t stop talking about it? That lasted two minutes? Everything about this is designed to make Gaines seem like a petty, bitter grifter. When in reality, she had trained her entire life for that moment. Sporting events often (always?) come down to a few minutes or seconds. Why minimize it? It was the last race of her competitive career. She placed 5th in the entire country. That is an achievement and she deserved to have her moment on the podium.
It goes on to some snark about how Gaines doesn’t like to lose. So what? Who does? Clearly Thomas doesn’t like losing either. He switched categories so he could move up nearly 550 places.
“But to Ms. Gaines, it was a galling slight.”
It is a galling slight. This is so petty and misguided and frankly, snarky. The NCAA chose a woke photo op over the woman who earned the trophy. Not to mention the woman who was 6th who got bumped off the podium entirely. And why shouldn’t Riley have that moment she’d trained her entire life for?
It goes on. Right up the end. And the scheduling of the interview.
“Setting up the interview with Ms. Gaines this spring was unusually confusing. Two publicists were involved, representing separate professional projects. They each flew to San Francisco for the interview, which took place in a hotel lobby a few hours before a speaking engagement at San Francisco State University. After we talked for an hour, Ms. Gaines excused herself to her room to conduct her own interview for her podcast, Gaines for Girls.”
So? Most notable people have a publicist with them when doing an interview with a publication like The New York Times. Every corporate executive has their corporate communications partner with them, if not two. I may be the only person on the planet who feels perfectly comfortable doing interviews without cover.
This whole thing is totally commonplace — especially for someone as known as Riley is who is entering into what would likely be a contentious interview — but Graham makes it out to be something only a spoiled brat would do. It is also normal to grant an hour for an interview and then get back to work. But Graham again, cites this as if it is bad and unusual behavior.
Also, Ruth — I know it is what reporters do, they act nice and like they agree with you when doing an interview that is considered a “get.” They do it so you open up. But honestly, I would prefer a contentious interview. Don’t smile and nod like you like me and agree with me then write a bullying takedown. Just be honest. Ask aggressive questions and let me defend my viewpoint. I would be more than happy to do that.
Of course the writer doesn’t share my background as a long time leftie, non-Christian, atheist. Or someone who exposed abuse in sports and has fought for female athletes’ safety for two decades.
She is happy to have the whole movement dismissed as a right wing grift. Which is a lie. 70% of Californians agree with Trump’s executive order. This is a broad movement with support from people of all political persuasions.
The lie that it is not just right wing, but bigoted and grifty is architected to ensure that others don’t join. But they are joining. Because we can all see that Will Thomas is a man. We see the lies. And the deceitful narrative isn’t working any more.
READ THE FULL COMMENTARY AT SEY EVERYTHING
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.
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