One outlet reported the allegation. The other covered a different story entirely.
Former SJSU volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose alleges that Blaire Fleming, a transgender player, failed a testosterone test before the 2023 season's first conference match and that the result was concealed from the team. Fox News reported the allegation in detail. The New York Times piece in this set is about Title IX and sexual assault at Cornell — a different story. There is no left-leaning coverage of Batie-Smoose's specific claim here to analyze.
Former SJSU volleyball coach alleges trans player failed testosterone test kept secret from team
2 sources · hover a dot to see coverage
What happened
Melissa Batie-Smoose, a former San José State University volleyball coach, has alleged that transgender player Blaire Fleming failed a testosterone test prior to the first conference match of the 2023 season and that SJSU officials kept the result secret from the team. Fox News reported the allegation, attributing it to Batie-Smoose directly. The story is part of a broader, ongoing controversy surrounding Fleming's participation on the SJSU women's volleyball team, which drew national attention in 2024 when several opposing programs forfeited rather than compete against the team. That is the wire version. Two outlets were analyzed; they are not covering the same story.
Fox News reported the allegation with Batie-Smoose named and specific
Fox News, via its Outkick Sports vertical, named the coach, named the player, named the specific test, and named the specific timing: before the 2023 season's first conference match. That level of specificity is attributable and checkable. Whether the allegation is accurate is a separate question, but the reporting gives readers enough to evaluate the claim. No other outlet in this set covered Batie-Smoose's allegation.
What one side told you that the other didn't
A named coach made a specific allegation. One outlet reported it.
Batie-Smoose's claim — that a testosterone test was failed and the result hidden from the team — is the kind of specific, attributed allegation that typically generates cross-spectrum coverage. In this set, it generated one story, from a right-leaning outlet. The NYT piece present here covers Title IX through a Cornell sexual assault lawsuit, a genuinely separate story. The gap is not spin. It is absence. Readers relying on left-leaning outlets have no version of Batie-Smoose's allegation to evaluate, agree with, or dispute.
What to watch
If SJSU or the Mountain West Conference responds to Batie-Smoose's testosterone test allegation on the record, watch whether that response pulls left-leaning outlets into covering the underlying claim for the first time. A denial from an institution is often the hook that makes a story cross the spectrum. No response has been reported as of this set.
See how outlets across the political spectrum framed this differently — and what each side left out.