Warning she has “hired the best libel law firm in the country” and do” reimburse the Washington Post if they post a false narrative on me”, Tigers head women’s hockey coach Kim Mulkey told the media Saturday she’s prepared for a court challenge if the Post publishes what she calls a “hit part”.
The material, subject matter and expected release date of the expected narrative are unknown, though Mulkey says the writer has been compiling data for a couple of decades. Washington Post columnist Kent Babb, whom Mulkey did not name, confirmed to the Associated Press Saturday he is working on a tale about Mulkey. On Friday, Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde posted on X,” Hearing some excitement about a great Washington Post history in the works on LSU women’s hoops manager Kim Mulkey, likely next month. Wagons being circled, etc”.

Mulkey’s No. 3 Tigers defeated No. 14 Rice 70- 60 Friday to advance to the second round of March Madness. The defending national champs will play No. 11 Middle Tennessee State Sunday.
Mulkey, 61, indicated she has refused interview requests by the reporter, who she says gave a Thursday deadline for comment. She explained her refusal on grounds the same reporter previously wrote a “hit job” on LSU football coach Brian Kelly. In 2022, Babb wrote,” In Baton Rouge, there’s a$ 100 million football coach and everyone else”. The story contrasted Kelly’s enormous employment contract to coach football at a public university with the finances of struggling Baton Rouge residents.
Mulkey accuses the reporter of” trying to trick” her former LSU coaches. She claims the reporter left messages insinuating the reporter was with Mulkey and working with her on a story.
Whether Mulkey has actionable grounds to sue is unknown since the story is not yet out. Her threat could be interpreted as an attempt to pressure the Post and its reporter to not run the story or perhaps run a milder version.
The challenge for Mulkey is that defamation lawsuits, especially when brought by public figures, are often difficult to win.
Mulkey would need to establish there is a false assertion of fact about her ( as opposed to an opinion about her ) that causes her reputational harm. As one of the most famous basketball coaches in the country, she is also a public figure. Mulkey would thus have the added hurdle of actual malice, meaning having to show a defamatory statement was made with knowledge of being false or reckless disregard as to whether it was true or false.
Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre would tell Mulkey about the challenge of suing for defamation. He was incensed when sports talk show hosts Pat McAfee and Shannon Sharpe portrayed Favre—who has not been charged with a crime—as” stealing” money from poor people as part of a welfare scandal in Mississippi. The problem for Favre, whose suit against Sharpe was dismissed and who settled with McAfee, was” stealing” was used in the context of opinion or hyperbole—and thus was not defamatory.

There’s no shortage of sports industry figures suing or threatening to sue media publications over unflattering coverage. In a memorable example, Richard Jewell sued CNN, The Atlanta Journal- Constitution and other media companies for reporting on him as the possible 1996 Summer Olympics bomber ( he settled some of those lawsuits while a court dismissed litigation against The Atlanta Journal- Constitution ). Following the death of Boston Celtics star Reggie Lewis, the Celtics threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal for suggesting that cocaine may have contributed to Lewis’s death. More recently, Reggie Bush is suing the NCAA over remarks about whether he would have complied with NCAA rules had NIL been allowed when he played at USC.
A publication like the Washington Post, one of the nation’s most influential and widely read daily newspapers, is likely to engage in significant fact- checking before publication of a story—especially a critical story about a public figure.
Even if the Post’s story on Mulkey contains a statement of fact that is wrong and damaging to Mulkey’s reputation, the quality of the Post’s fact- checking could serve as a defense. The more the Post editors engaged in comprehensive review, with reliance on multiple and named sources ( as opposed to a singular anonymous source ) for information, the more persuasively the Post could argue it lacked reckless disregard as to whether its story was true or false. The Post could also point out that Mulkey has ( apparently ) declined to comment, thus forgoing an opportunity to present her side and rebut allegations.
( Daniel Libit contributed to this story. )
This story was updated to include the Associated Press report that Kent Babb confirmed he was the reporter for the Washington Post who is working on a story on Kim Mulkey.
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