Apparently investigative reporter Kent Babb of The Washington Post is out to make the LSU athletic department’s life a living hell.
After a lengthy piece on Tigers football coach Brian Kelly that scorned him for an exorbitant $100 million contract — juxtaposed with all the people around the program who struggle with money — Babb appears to be coming after women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey here soon.
Mulkey was fired up at the podium in the midst of LSU’s run in the NCAA Tournament, and indicated that the reporter reached out to her last-minute before an unflattering “false story” was about to run.
Yeah I ain’t listening to all that. I’m happy for you though. Or sorry that happened. Just kidding here’s some of what she said.
“The lengths he has gone to try and put a hit piece together. This reporter has been working on a story about me for two years. […] [I] hired the best defamation law firm in the country, and I will sue The Washington Post if they publish a false story on me.
Not many people are in a position to hold these kinds of journalists accountable but I am, and I’ll do it…This is exactly why people don’t trust journalists and the media anymore…It’s these kinds of sleazy tactics and hatchet jobs that people are tired of.
I’m fed up, and I’m not going to let The Washington Post attack this university, this awesome team or me without a fight.”
Given the description Mulkey gave of the reporter and her specific mention of the critical Kelly story, it’s easy to connect the dots and conclude that Babb is behind the word processor for this imminent exposé as well. What’s very funny about this is, if the piece has been in the works for two years, and Mulkey is getting outraged about the last-minute interview request when she must’ve turned down countless similar inquiries before, the joke’s on her.
The only recent news I’ve seen on LSU women’s basketball is a player’s brother leaping over the scorer’s table to get in the mix of a brawl during the SEC tournament final and getting arrested.
Otherwise, anything that isn’t Caitlin Clark-related is totally off my radar and that of most sports fans nationwide. Kim Mulkey has decidedly changed that for better or worse. No press is bad press, right?
I’m not so sure about that, given the blowback that Mulkey is already receiving for her efforts to preemptively combat the inevitable blowback she’ll get for The Washington Post‘s story. A hit piece so nice it hit Mulkey twice.
Kim Mulkey has already lost in the court of public opinion. That’s the cruel world we live in these days. When a WaPo dandy is about to drop on your head like an anvil, I think outsiders are taking liberties and jumping to conclusions about whatever shenanigans Mulkey is involved in.
The best possible outcome to all this would be Iowa meeting up with LSU in the regional final on April Fools’ Day, with all kinds of parody accounts adding to the chaos by creating fake news left and right to add to the buzz around the Tigers’ highly anticipated matchup with Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes.
A man can dream…
