NY Times faces growing backlash for ‘petty and misguided’ article about Riley Gaines

The New York Times is facing growing backlash for writing a “petty and misguided” article about women’s rights activist Riley Gaines.

To the right, Gaines is a bright young lady fighting tooth and nail on behalf of all the girls/women across the country who have been pressured to compete against what are essentially boys/men in dresses.

Men like Lia Thomas, the giant former college athlete who began competing against female college swimmers, including Gaines, after supposedly “transitioning” into another gender.

But to the left, Gaines is something else altogether, as evidenced by the Times’ widely panned attempt to profile her:

It’s an extremely high bar but this may be the most biased “news article” I’ve ever seen in ⁦@nytimes⁩ https://t.co/OZ7JpRELeT

— joe sims (@Rock5491) August 27, 2025

“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,” fellow women’s rights activist Jennifer Sey told the Daily Mail in an exclusive interview.

“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,” she added.

Sey, a former Levi’s executive and national champion gymnast who was fired over her opposition to COVID-era school closures, is the founder of XX-XY, a pro-women athletic brand rooted in biological science.

In the Times’ profile written by Ruth Graham, she claimed that when Gaines and her fellow college students were forced to compete against Thomas in 2022, they all “looked indistinguishable from one another.”

This, according to Sey and others, is a helluva lie.

NYT opens its profile of @Riley_Gaines_ with a jaw-dropping lie: claiming a 6’4” male on deck was “indistinguishable” from the young women around him.

Dear Reader, are you going to believe me or your lying eyes? pic.twitter.com/gk8Mxx2FrI

— WomenAreReal (@WomenAreReals) August 27, 2025

The New York Times profile of @Riley_Gaines_ :

“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.”

Reality: pic.twitter.com/WWq0g8KOkp

— Angela Morabito (@AngelaLMorabito) August 27, 2025

“No, they did not look indistinguishable,” Sey told the Daily Mail. “Will Thomas is 6’4 with the broad shoulders and wing span of a man. None of the women looks anything like him. But the writer tries to make the case from the outset that Thomas is just another woman!”

She also took offense to Graham’s claim that Thomas is “quiet.”

“In reality, Thomas cheated his way into the NCAA finals in 2022 by declaring that he is a woman,” she said. “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.”

Of course, why would there be any analysis — the Times is, after all, a propaganda outlet for the left. Nothing more, nothing less.

Gaines has also expressed displeasure with the Times’ report:

Lots of dishonesty & false depictions in this NYT piece written by @publicroad (as expected) that essentially paints me as Satan himself.

But normal, sane people understand men can’t be women and vice versa. Keep doubling down, @nytimes, and we’ll keep winning. https://t.co/SM6k5nEsZe

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 27, 2025

In the report, Graham also attacked Gaines over her activism, claiming it “involves a weaponization of names, pronouns, physical descriptions and other language to undermine the legitimacy of transgender people’s mere existence in the world.”

As evidence of this “weaponization,” she noted that Gaines has referred to Thompson and other men by their correct pronouns, not the made-up pronouns that they demand others use for them.

And finally, Graham made light of Gaines tying at 5th place with Thompson but then being forced to hold up the 6th place trophy for what Sey described as the NCAA’s “woke” photo op.

“This is so petty and misguided and frankly, snarky,” she said of Graham’s attack. “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?”

The vast majority of Americans — including Californians! — support protecting women’s sports. And yet, the fancy people who think they know better continue demonizing regular people who advocate for a mainstream, normie position. No men in women’s sports.

Riley is positioned… pic.twitter.com/GT4Uivios5

— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) August 27, 2025

Senior Staff Writer
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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