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Never trust a scholar of Sesame Street to know her legal terminology. Tamara Kay, a sociology professor at Notre Dame who studies the TV show’s cultural transfusion around the world, is suing conservative student publication the Rover for its coverage of her abortion activism.
Kay claims that two of its articles contained “defamatory and false statements.” The only trouble is that the Rover seems to be able to prove that what it published about Kay is true — and the paper has the receipts. Alas, another case of the decline of the American intellectual?
The feud between the two began in 2022 when the Rover published an article on Kay’s comments at an abortion panel. After the event, Rover editor-in-chief Joe DeReuil interviewed Kay with a recorder, an exchange which Kay denied happened after the article was published. Kay later told New York magazine’s the Cut that DeReuil did in fact introduce himself and ask her questions though “he did not say he was interviewing me.” But DeReuil sent National Review a recording of his conversation in which he identifies himself as the editor of the Rover before asking her questions.
“I feel very confident that everything that we said in both articles is true,” DeReuil told National Review. “So I don’t have any fear about the lawsuit, but it definitely is an odd situation to have a professor at a university — a tenured professor at a university — coming after a student publication.”
Kay also had several complaints about a subsequent article, “Tamara Kay Explains Herself to Notre Dame Democrats,” published in March 2023. The article claimed a student at a panel asked Kay how she ended up at a Catholic university despite her pro-abortion stance. Kay claimed the question was never asked, but once again, the Rover sent a recording to National Review confirming that it had. Cockburn wonders if a pattern is emerging…
Lastly, Kay took issue with how both articles portrayed a sign she posted on her office door following the Dobbs decision that read: “This is a SAFE SPACE to get help and information on ALL Healthcare issues and access — confidentially with care and compassion.” The complaint objects to a line in the March article describing how Kay “post[ed] offers to procure abortion pills on her office door.” But Kay did say as much on her apparently now-defunct Twitter account. According to National Review, Kay tweeted that she would help students with access to the morning-after pill as a private citizen and defray its cost.
So how does a big-brained PhD seek to recover from being so thoroughly embarrassed by a couple of undergraduate students? By suing them, it seems. Cockburn can think of a better alternative for Kay: how about keeping a low profile and hanging out at home with Elmo and Oscar the Grouch? Altogether now: “I love you / You love me / Litigate responsibly…“
