(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) A left-wing professor at the University of Notre Dame sued the student newspaper that reported on several of her inflammatory pro-abortion comments at the Catholic institution.
The Irish Rover, the school newspaper, found itself embroiled in a legal battle as Professor Tamara Kay launched a civil lawsuit in Indiana, alleging the Rover published an article defamatory statement about her, Townhall reported. She demanded that the Rover retract the Oct. 12 and March 22 articles to “mitigate damages that may be awarded or recovered in this case.”
Kay spoke about her support for abortion rights to College Democrats on March 7, the Rover reported on the content of her lecture in the following issue. There was no mention of what was false in that article.
In the Oct. 12, 2022, edition of the Irish Rover, then editor-in-chief W. Joseph DeReuil reported on Kay’s promotion of abortion based on her public statements and an interview he conducted. She criticized the paper in a tweet and praised the student-run magazine Scholastic for their accurate and sympathetic coverage of her abortion advocacy. She denied interviewing with the Rover, despite the contrary.
“Professor Kay’s allegations against the Rover are entirely false. And her lawsuit reflects only the latest stage in a tenured professor’s baseless public campaign against undergraduates at her own university who had the temerity to publish accurate stories about her very public abortion advocacy,” the Rover said in a published piece called “We Will Not Be Silenced.”
Kay claimed the Rover had no affiliation with the university, lacked journalistic standards and ethics, was run by faculty advisors promoting bigotry, and connected students to national organizations promoting hate.
Then, negating her own accounts, Kay backtracked: “My colleagues gave me the Cliff Notes version [of the article about her advocacy] b/c I don’t read it [the Rover].” She admitted she did the interview.
According to Notre Dame’s website, the professor worked on global health, including reproductive health and rights.
The publication’s editors said they would “not apologize for just and truthful reporting,” they concluded.
