Faith in American media keeps hitting new lows. How can news outlets regain that trust? Could it be by investing themselves in a position that 80% of the American public opposes? The Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) want everyone to hold their beer.
Each year, APSE holds contests for sports coverage in several different categories. This year, the APSE has added a new category for covering transgender sports. The announcement came last month, but curiously did not make news at the time:
APSE first vice president Erik Hall introduced a new category for the upcoming APSE contest. This category is dedicated to recognizing Excellence in Coverage of the Transgender Community in Sports. The announcement was made during the awards banquet at the annual APSE Summer Conference on Saturday night, July 18, 2026, in Arlington, Virginia.
Eeeenteresting, and a bold strategy, Cotton, when it comes to connecting with the AP's consumers. After all, Americans overwhelmingly oppose males competing in sports leagues meant for women in multiple poll series. Gallup puts it at 69%, while Harvard-Harris CAPS has it at 67%. A Napolitan News Service survey this month shows a 63/20 split, with the vast majority of the 20% being from the "terminally online" demographic.
Will the APSE grant awards for covering the debate honestly? Will the outlet's new award category include those who argue against the intrusion of biological males into female spaces for both safety and competitive realities? Not in a million years, as Hall himself explained while announcing the category, emphases mine:
We are journalists.
Words matter.
Accuracy matters.
Humanity matters.
So let us be clear:
Transgender boys are boys.
Transgender men are men.
Transgender girls are girls.
Transgender women are women.
Their lives are not a sidebar.
Their stories are sports stories.
In other words, this is not a category for sportswriting at all. The APSE plans to award narrative-shapers supporting the radical-elite trans agenda. Hall makes that abundantly clear in this announcement, especially with the deliberate line breaks between the declarative statements. There is no room to report that transgender girls and women are, in fact, biological males with distinct sex-based competitive advantages over biological females. Words and accuracy only matter in relation to the radical trans narrative, not to objective fact and reality.
The Associated Press has invested itself in propaganda. The APSE has created an enforcement mechanism for it through its promotional contests. The AP and APSE are not interested in reporting truth, but in marginalizing the vast majority of the American public in favor of a radical fringe of nihilists.
And the media wonders why the American public trusts them less than used-car salespeople.
Former Seattle Times sports columnist Matt Calkins shined a spotlight on this from his Substack platform, where he ended up when the Times repeatedly censored his attempts to debate the transgender-sports issue. Calkins sees through the APSE effort to the censorship and propaganda enforcement that it truly is:
Perhaps at first glance that looks like APSE’s attempt to honor those who best tackle what may be the most polarizing issue in sports — a chance to recognize nuance and insight from every side of the debate.
But when you look at how this category was introduced earlier in the month, it appears to be something much different: a large contingent of sports editors trying to end the debate entirely. ...
First off, it seems odd to me that the APSE contest — which has been described as sports journalists’ Oscars — would have a category exclusive to transgender athletes. If trans participation in girls sports is as rare as everyone says it is, how many entries could one realistically expect? Should there also be a category for disabled athletes? Ginger athletes? (Let’s go!) Athletes over 50?
This feels like a political statement, even if it is well-intentioned. But we all know that line about good intentions and the road to hell.
I did a TV hit earlier this week with former swimmer and civil rights lawyer Nancy Hogshead. She made the point that mainstream newspapers never run stories on this issue from the perspective of the biological females competing against trans athletes in their sports. They’ll have no problem printing pieces from the trans athlete’s point of view — which would be fine if there was balance. But there isn’t.
Is this new category a reflection of why?
Calkins gives APSE and Hall more credit than deserved. This new category did not come in a vacuum. Even before Enes Kantor Freedom upped the stakes for the WNBA this month, female athletes have made strides over the last few years to force the issue of male intrusion into female athletic spaces at all levels. The Trump administration changed the policies at the Department of Education to enforce Title IX on the basis of biology rather than self-declared identity, and the Supreme Court unanimously upheld that policy at the end of its term on June 30th.
It is absolutely no coincidence that Hall and APSE rolled out this category for its annual awards less than three weeks after the unanimous decision in West Virginia v BPJ and Idaho v Hecox. This isn't an attempt to expand recognition in sports journalism by recognizing an organically emerging genre of it. APSE and the Associated Press want to incentivize features promoting the male intrusion on female sports to normalize it, and to squeeze out opposition to it through the use of manipulative emotional propaganda. It's a clarion call for activism masquerading as "journalism," with the promise of fame for the privilege of threatening the safety and access of women and girls to athletic competition.
This puts an end to the masquerade of "journalism" from mainstream media outlets like the Associated Press. They do not want truth, nor will they tolerate debate. And this is precisely why the American public despises them.
Addendum: Be sure to read all of Calkins' essay, and subscribe if you can.
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