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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

NYC: Come To Our WNBA Comedy Show On May 16

Ten Minute Quarters comedy show at 3:2 ratio

ten-minute-quarters-3.2

Live Event

<p>John Loeppky is a freelance writer and theatre artist currently based in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. His work has appeared for outlets such as FiveThirtyEight, CBC, and <em>Maclean’s</em>.</p>


John Loeppky Headshot

John Loeppky

CLEVELAND, OHIO - APRIL 07: Wheelchair basketball athletes Natalie Schneider of Team USA, Zoie Voris of the Arlington Lady Movin' Mavs, Hayley Nielsen #20 of Arizona and and Josie Aslakson #7 of Team USA compete at halftime during the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament National Championship between the Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on April 07, 2024 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – National Championship

Parasports

University Parasports Brace For Trump’s Anti-DEI Crusade

VictorPortraitWClaw

David Roth

Elon Musk chats with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick as they walk with White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and White House deputy chief of staff for policy and US homeland security advisor Stephen Miller on the south lawn of the White House. Everyone absolutely looks like shit.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Politics

Kingdom Of The Biters


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Typing

Sabrina Imbler

a photo of Veronica Correa, a fired EPA public affairs specialist, standing in snowy woods by a stream

IMG_2272

Interviews

An Interview With A Fired EPA Public Affairs Specialist

IMG_3819

Tom Ley

Surveillance footage of Rumeysa Ozturk's arrest

Screenshot 2025-03-27 at 10.35.23 AM

It Is What It Looks Like

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<div class="p-rich_text_section">Tom Scocca is the editor of <a href="http://indignity.net">Indignity</a>, a subscription-supported newsletter of news, essays, and commentary.</div>
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Tom Scocca

Yemeni men and children in the rubble of a Sana'a neighborhood leveled by U.S. attacks.

Sana’a

Margin Of Error

The Human Factor

A photo of Sara Hugentobler, a USFWS fish biologist, in the lab extracting DNA

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An Interview With A Fired USFWS Fish Biologist

a photo of Kate Wheeler, a former USDA farm to school specialist. Kate has short brown hair and is smiling in front of several painted planks

IMG_0377

An Interview With A Fired USDA Specialist

Image from iOS (36)

Luis Paez-Pumar

Jackie Robinson, in military uniform, becomes the first African American to sign with a white professional baseball team. He signs a contract with the minor league club in Montreal, a farm team for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jackie Robinson Signing With Organized Baseball

Department Of Defense Backtracks After Deleting Jackie Robinson Article For “Woke DEI”

A person holds a sign calling for the release of Mahmoud Khalil as pro-Palestine demonstrators rally for Gaza in Times Square on March 18, 2025 in New York City. Israeli forces carried out renewed airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing over 400 people, according to Gaza officials. The attacks broke a temporary ceasefire with Hamas, heightening fears of a return to full-scale conflict.

Demonstrators Rally For Gaza In New York Times Square In Wake Of Recent Israeli Bombings

Read Mahmoud Khalil’s Letter From An ICE Detention Facility

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Lauren Theisen

Demonstrators hold signs as they protest the deportation of Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Rasha Alawieh of Brown University at the State House in Providence, Rhode Island

US-POLITICS-EDUCATION-MIGRANTS-PROTEST

We’re All We’ve Got Left

a selfie of Sarah Cooley, the former director of NOAA's ocean acidification program, with an orange life vest on a river

JPEG-image-46FF-A6E7-B6-0_69b32a

An Interview With A Fired NOAA Director

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) walks back towards the senate side of the building at the U.S. Capitol on March 14, 2025 in Washington, DC. Tensions have flared over the shutdown within the Democratic caucus after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Thursday that he will vote to advance a House-passed six-month government funding bill, despite opposition from many Democrats who argue it would create a "slush fund" for former President Trump and Elon Musk.

schumer

Chuck Schumer Is Responsible

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Kelsey McKinney

President Trump Speaks Alongside Tesla Vehicles At The White House

There Should Be Consequences For Filming A Tesla Ad At The White House

(L-R) Bari Weiss, The Free Press Founder, Peter Thiel, and Matt Danzeisen attend Inauguration Eve hosted by Uber, X and The Free Press at Cafe Riggs on January 19, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Uber, X and The Free Press host Inauguration Eve

Journalismism

They Should Call It The Free Piss

skalaf-photo

Samer Kalaf

A protestor with a sign that reads "Release Mahmoud Khalil."

US-ISRAEL-PALESTINIANS-CONFLICT-EDUCATION-PROTEST

Mahmoud Khalil Is The Target Of A Desperate Agenda

a photo of Sabrina Valenti, formerly a budget analyst for NOAA. Sabrina has brown curly hair and is standing against a floral background.

JPEG image-4557-80C7-04-0

An Interview With A Fired NOAA Budget Analyst

Robert Pastore

New York correctional officers and sergeants continue their strike for a second week outside of the Coxsackie Correctional Facility on February 28, 2025 in Coxsackie, Greene, New York.

New York Prison Guards Strike Over Proclaimed Unsafe Working Conditions

Policing

What The Corrections Officer Strike Means To Incarcerated People Like Me


<p>Investigations Editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99</p>


DFM New Headshot

Diana Moskovitz

A photo of three women's basketball players. They all stand with their backs to the camera. On the back of their shirts are the 37 words that make up Title IX, the law that gave women equal access to school sports

Title IX

Women’s Sports Happened By Accident, And Could Be Taken Apart On Purpose

<p>Staff Writer</p>
<p>Find me on Signal @DefectorChris.09</p>


Profile Pic

Chris Thompson

The Virgin River flows through the valley floor as viewed on November 9, 2019 in Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park

Why Bully The National Park Service?

a photo of Kaesee Bourne, a former fish and wildlife biologist at the USFWS, holding a shovel in front of a wetland

kaesee bourne

An Interview With A Fired USFWS Biologist

Gays Against Guns contingent at the pride march.

Gays Against Guns contingent at the march. Pride March NYC

Don’t Buy A Gun, Even If It Comes In Rainbow

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, behind a podium at a press conference, looking like doofuses.

Schumer Jeffries DOGE Presser

This Is Uvalde

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Patrick Redford

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 28: U.S. President Donald Trump (C) and Vice President JD Vance (R) meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) in the Oval Office at the White House on February 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump and Zelensky are meeting today to negotiate a preliminary agreement on sharing Ukraine’s mineral resources that Trump says will allow America to recoup aid provided to Kyiv while supporting Ukraine’s economy. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

President Trump Hosts Ukrainian President Zelensky At The White House

JD Vance Screamed Out Of Planned Ski Vacation In Vermont

ratto-ray_400x400

Ray Ratto

(Original Caption) 3/22/1989-Plant City, FL-Cincinnati Reds' manager Pete Rose reacts to a reporters question 3/22 in the dugout prior to their contest against the Cards. Rose is under scrutiny by the baseball commissioners office for gambling.

Pete Rose Reacts To Reporter’s Question

Pete Rose Will Spend The Afterlife As A Cudgel

Dennis M. Hogan

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - FEBRUARY 19: People including researchers from Chicago area universities gather on the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) campus to voice concerns about the potential loss of federal funding for medical research on February 19, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. The researchers are worried about the future of their projects as the Trump administration cuts grant funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).