ALBANY, N.Y. — After criticism from LSU coach Kim Mulkey, the Los Angeles Times changed a story on their website.
Mulkey took offense to a column that was posted prior to the NCAA women’s tournament game between UCLA and LSU on Saturday and attacked it in her postgame press conference after The Tigers beat the Bruins at MVP Arena.
The column portrayed the game as a battle of good (UCLA) versus evil (LSU). It called the Bruins “milk and cookies” and the Tigers as the sport’s “dirty debutants.”
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That column hadn’t received any national attention until Mulkey mentioned it in her press conference. Mulkey was asked if the negative attention related to another story — a profile on her in the Washington Post, that Mulkey had railed against before it was even published — had galvanized her team. She answered by going after the L.A. Times story.
She said:
”There were some things in this commentary, guys, that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist, and they don’t even know it. It was good versus evil in that game today. Evil? Called us dirty debutants? Take your phone out right now and Google dirty debutants and tell me what it says. Dirty debutants? Are you kidding me?
I’m not going to let you talk about 18-21-year-old kids in that tone. It was even sexist for this reporter to say UCLA was milk and cookies. Now, you women sit there and you keep your mouths shut if you want. I’m in the last third of my career, but I’m not going to let sexism continue. And if you don’t think that’s sexism, then you’re in denial.
How dare people attack kids like that. You don’t have to like the way we play. You don’t have to like the way we trash talk. You don’t have to like any of that. We’re good with that. But I can’t sit up here as a mother and a grandmother and a leader of young people and allow somebody to say that.Because guys, that’s wrong. I don’t even know what dirty debutants are, but I know when I Googled it, I went (gasps). Growing the game was a part of it. How many of you have been to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, raise your hand, and seen our games? How many of you have been to an SEC game when you played on the road?You want to talk about growing the game? Go see our crowds, people.I don’t get that. I’m sorry. I come from a different generation. I get it. But I know sexism when I see it and I read it. That was awful.”
The Times made a concession after Mulkey’s reaction. They removed the “dirty debutants” paragraph and posted this in the newly edited story:
“Update: 10:10 p.m. March 30, 2024A previous version of this commentary did not meet Times editorial standards. It has been updated.”
