The NY Times Writer Who Did a Sneak Attack Hit Piece on Livvy Dunne Has Sadly Written His Last NY Times Column

Jerry Thornton9/18/2023 6:10 PM

By the time you've gotten to adulthood, you should've have figured out that capitalistic, free market economy, for all its flaws and inequality, is not a zero sum game. That wealth is not a finite game. And every dollar that is earned by somebody else is a dollar taken from somebody else. Especially not you.

In fact, if someone legally and ethically make cargo ships filled with cash, that's a reason to celebrate. They'll spend lots of it. The people they buy things from will make money. They'll spend it on stuff. And so on. What matters most is commerce. The free exchange of goods and services for agreed upon fees. And the only people who can't be happy for someone who has "made it" fairly, are either resentful, embittered, envious twats or believe Marxism actually works. (And I don't know which is worse.)

Though it doesn't have to be one or the other. For instance, for NY Times columnist Kurt Streeter, it could have been a combination of the two to inspire him to contact Livvy Dunne and ask for some of her valuable time in order to do a profile that, in fact, turned out to be a hit piece. Or perhaps, he just wanted to make some of that sweet, sweet capital of his own by doing a hatchet job on the wildly famous, popular, and wealthy young athlete everyone was suddenly talking about:

NY Post - “It was complete BS. I mean, they called me on the phone in November and they told me that they were going to write about my accomplishments and stuff and I was like, ‘OK, for sure. That’s awesome. The New York Times. That’s huge.’”
Dunne said she was taken aback by the line of questioning from Times reporter Kurt Streeter. ...
“He was like, ‘So, how does it feel to be a small petite blonde gymnast doing so well with NIL.’ I was just like, ‘Why does it matter that I’m petite and blonde.’ You can just ask me about NIL without you having to use these weird ways of saying it.”
Dunne also thought it was bizarre that they photographed her in her LSU-issued leotard, alongside a harsh headline.
“That’s what we have to wear,” she said of the leotards, which they wear during their meets.
“When the article came out, it was a giant picture of me just standing there in a leotard and the headline was ‘Sex Sells.’ So I was like, ‘So, you’re going to come into the gym. You’re going to ask me to pose in our team-issued attire and then put a headline, ‘Sex Sells.’
“In the article, they were saying the things I was doing were a step back for women’s athletics.”

There are a couple of punchlines to Streeter's article. One, it got Dunne the attention of Sports Illustrated, who then signed her up to do the Swimsuit Issue. Second, there was no follow up or companion piece when her fellow LSU Tiger Angel Reese also started banking NIL money, and also posed for the Swimsuit Issue:

Which is funny enough. But true comedy is all about the Rule of Threes. So here's the third, and most hilarious punchline:

Oh nooooo…

Giphy Images.

Sadly, tragically, with a heavy heart I must inform you that Kurt will no longer be "championing women's sports" at the Times. Or whatever it is that he celebrates himself for. I don't know because I would prefer to light cigars with $10 bills that spend them on a subscription to that sleazy, tabloid gossip rag. Or support a "journo" who reaches out to a college athlete - who's simply using her natural gifts to make an honest buck for herself - under false pretenses. When all he was really doing was coming after her with a preconceived agenda.

Now no one who does subscribe to the NYT will get the opportunity. Because they're subcontracting out all their sports coverage to some other outfit now. Like a company closing down their customer service department and outsourcing it to some call center overseas. First comes replacing the Kurt Streeters with some entry level workers. Next comes the AI bots. Because when you don't care about the truth and just trying to push a narrative and will twist a subject's words to fit it, you don't need a talented writer. A protocol droid can do it better and cheaper.