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    L.A. Times reporter apologizes after Mulkey rips column



    A Los Angeles Times author apologized on Monday through social media for a roundly criticized weekend column that previewed the LSUUCLA NCAA ladies’s basketball event game.On Saturday, LSU coach Kim Mulkey ripped columnist Ben Bolch for a piece that portrayed the matchup between the Bruins and Tigers as a “reckoning” between good versus evil, calling it “sexist,” “awful” and “wrong.”During her postgame information convention following LSU’s 78-69 victory over UCLA, Mulkey was requested about her staff embracing an “us against the world mentality” and whether or not she has advised her gamers to “enjoy having the black hat on.”In response, she stated she was despatched Friday’s column within the Times that described her staff as “dirty debutantes” and UCLA as “milk and cookies.” In addition, the column portrayed the matchup as “inclusive versus divisive.”On Monday, posting on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bolch hooked up a screenshot of a doc that was written in italics, saying, “It has taken me two days to write this apology because I wanted to be as thoughtful as possible in my response to the situation I have created. These are words I have not been asked to write by anyone at my paper, but they need to be expressed so that I can own up to my mistake.”Words matter. As a journalist, no one ought to know this more than me. Yet I’ve failed miserably in my alternative of phrases. In my column previewing the LSU-UCLA ladies’s basketball game, I attempted to be intelligent in my phrasing about one staff’s angle, utilizing alliteration whereas not understanding the deeply offensive connotation or associations. I additionally used metaphors that weren’t applicable.”In the third paragraph, Bolch continued on with the actual verbiage of an apology: “I sincerely apologize to the LSU and UCLA basketball groups and to our readers.”On Saturday, Mulkey, whose team played in the Elite Eight on Monday night, added that “you may criticize coaches all you need. That’s our business. You can come at us and say you are the worst coach in America. I hate you, I hate every thing about you. We count on that. It comes with the territory.Editor’s Picks2 Related”But the one thing I’m not going to let you do, I’m not going to let you attack young people, and there were some things in this commentary that you should be offended by as women. It was so sexist. It was good versus evil in that game today. Evil? Called us dirty debutantes? Are you kidding me?”I’m not going to allow you to discuss 18- to 21-year-old children in that tone.”The Los Angeles Times removed some of the language, including its reference to “soiled debutantes,” later Saturday, saying in a statement that “it didn’t meet Times editorial requirements.””I had somebody say the L.A. Times up to date, rewrote, did one thing,” Mulkey said on Sunday, a practice day for the Tigers. “That was the extent of it. So I’m not sure what the rewrite was. I’m not sure if it was an apology. I’m not sure of any of that. But personally no one has reached out to me, nor do I require that. I do not need all that. I identical to to acknowledge after I really feel one thing was finished inappropriately to younger people that I get to educate.”She said that in her view, the Los Angeles Times story crossed a line.”I’m not going to let sexism proceed,” Mulkey said. “And when you do not assume that is sexism, then you definitely’re in denial. How dare people assault children like that. You haven’t got to love the best way we play. You haven’t got to love the best way we trash-talk. You haven’t got to love 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 know sexism when I see it and I read it. That was awful.”Earlier on Saturday, a long-anticipated Washington Post profile on Mulkey was revealed, an article she described as a “hit piece” in a assertion she made final week anticipating its publication. Mulkey has repeatedly stated she isn’t afraid to talk out in opposition to what she sees as fallacious.Later Monday, Iowa defeated LSU, 94-87, within the Elite 8, ending the Tigers’ season.


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