The debate surrounding transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports has once again taken center stage, this time with the controversial removal of an op-ed penned by Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy.
The op-ed, which was published across several Gannett-owned newspapers in the state, was quietly deleted without the senator’s knowledge, sparking outrage over the media conglomerate’s apparent censorship of differing viewpoints.
According to communications reviewed by Fox News Digital, Gannett’s decision to remove Senator Kennedy’s op-ed was based on the company’s claim that the content contained “inflammatory” speech that did not meet their “ethical guidelines.”
Read: Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy Rips Climate Witness Over Repost Of Confrontational Group
Gannett Opinion Editor and Vice President of Standards and Ethics, Michael McCarter, defended the move, stating that the editorial teams across the USA TODAY Network are focused on delivering “local, timely, relevant, and diverse opinion pieces” while maintaining respect for all people.
Senator Kennedy expressed his displeasure with Gannett’s actions, stating that the media company “apparently does not like the way I express myself.” He accused Gannett of acting as the “speech police,” being “drunk on certainty and virtue,” and attempting to silence positions they disagree with. The senator argued that “most people don’t support allowing biological men to participate in women’s sports because they think that will bastardize sports, skew the results, and hurt women.”
After Fox News Digital reached out for comment, Gannett added a disclaimer to the broken links, noting that the content “has been removed because it did not meet our editorial standards.”
In contrast, the media company had previously allowed Stacey Abrams, a Georgia Democrat, to retroactively edit an op-ed she had written in 2021 without placing an editor’s note, a move that drew criticism at the time.
Read: Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy Rips Climate Witness Over Repost Of Confrontational Group
“They think they are the speech police. Drunk on certainty and virtue, they think they are our moral teacher. This attitude is why so many Americans have lost confidence in the media. The media is not going to win that trust back until they return to neutrality instead of advocacy,” Kennedy told Fox News.
As for the original op-ed, Kennedy’s Senate website preserved parts of it.
In the article, he noted, “From middle school gyms to NCAA swimming pools, activists seek to force women and girls to compete against biological men and boys. These activists claim it is a ‘myth’ that transgender athletes have an advantage, but most Americans know this is untrue and unfair.”
“Some activists claim that transgender athletes are different from typical men because they take cross-sex hormones. After two years of cross-sex hormone treatments, however, biological male athletes can still run 12% faster and pound out 10% more push-ups than women,” he continued.
“Allowing biological boys to compete as girls will harm women’s sports. Still, many activists believe their feelings and the feelings of transgender athletes are more important.”
Kennedy added, “Many fair-minded people reject the idea that women and girls who work hard to develop their athletic talents must sacrifice their opportunities, privacy and safety to promote gender activism. I’m one of them.
“Louisiana is full of fair-minded people. We recognize that it’s common sense for boys and girls to compete in separate leagues. That’s why a bipartisan coalition in the Louisiana legislature passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act to prevent biological boys from competing against biological girls in our elementary and high schools and from sharing their locker rooms,” said Kennedy.
“Protecting women and girls in sports doesn’t need to be a partisan issue. Congress should follow Louisiana’s leadership and do more to protect girls, their sports, their scholarships, and their futures from a social experiment that is already proving to be unwise.”
The removal of Senator Kennedy’s op-ed has raised concerns about Gannett’s perceived bias and its willingness to silence viewpoints that challenge the company’s editorial stance.
In 2022, a former USA TODAY editor, David Mastio, warned that Gannett is on a “road to ruin” by “writing off half the country,” suggesting that the media conglomerate’s actions may be contributing to the erosion of public trust in the media.
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