Columbia University and New York Times Agree to Suppress Jewish Voices
When the New York Times published its initial front-page story on Columbia University’s report clearing its professors of intimidating Jewish and pro-Israel students, the news item failed to include comments from Columbia’s Jewish students. The omission, however, was no accident: the Times reporter reached an agreement with the university to suppress comments from Jewish students in exchange for an advance copy of the Columbia report.
The reporter, however, included comments from Joseph Massad, the only professor Columbia’s special committee found to have “exceeded commonly accepted bounds.” The committee chided Massad for allegedly telling a student to leave his class if she insisted on defending Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Otherwise, the report denied Columbia professors intimidated pro-Israel students in their classes. “We found no evidence of any statements made by the faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic,” the report said. “Many of the matters brought before us did not, in our opinion, constitute the basis for formal grievances.”
The Time’s arrangement with Columbia, first reported by the New York Sun, was confirmed in an Editor’s Note in the New York Times on Wednesday. The editor acknowledged that the arrangement was a violation of New York Times policy. “Without a response from the complainants, the article was incomplete; it should not have appeared in that form,” the note concluded.
“Under The Times’ policy on unidentified sources, writers are not permitted to forgo follow-up reporting in exchange for information,” the editor’s note said. “In this case, editors and the writer did not recall the policy and agreed to delay additional reporting until the document had become public. The Times insisted, however, on getting a response from the professor accused of unacceptable behavior, and Columbia agreed.”
According to the Sun, Columbia administrators provided a copy of the report exclusively to the Times and the university’s student newspaper one day before releasing it to the public. In exchange, The Times agreed to run its report the same day without additional reporting – other than to contact Massad – before Jewish students, even those directly involved in the issue, would have a chance to read the report.
The paper then ran a follow-up article the next day that included comments from Jewish students. To lodge a complaint with the Times public editor, Daniel Okrent, send mail to [email protected].
It’s not about journalism anymore.
Most media organizations are simply organs for the ‘party’ that owns a majority share of each unit.
Daniel Okrent, the hardest working man in journo biz.
How long before the title “Paper of Record” gets yanked?
Massad had tons of Jewish students, including many who remained Zionists after his class, with glowing opinions of him and his fairness, and there was a trend of stupidity among his attackers, some of whom were not properly students but were just taking the class to play Loyalty Spy. Needless to say, reading the testimonials of Massad’s Jewish former students was a massive blow for his cause, and it is deeply slimy that they were excluded. People tend to group other people into blocs, especially based on the last sound bite they heard from crowd x, so naturally “all Jews” will come off as condemning Massad.
(it is also interesting to note in passing that:
“Columbia University is home to the most prestigious Center for Israel and Jewish Studies in the country. Columbia has six endowed chairs in Jewish Studies (ranging from religion to Yiddish to Hebrew literature, among others). In addition, a seventh chair in Israel Studies is now being established after pro-Israel groups launched a vicious campaign against the only chair in modern Arab Studies that Columbia established two years ago, demanding “balance”! Columbia does not have a Center for Arab Studies, let alone a Center for Palestine studies. The Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures encompasses the study of over one billion South Asians, over 300 million Arabs, tens of millions of Turks, of Iranians, of Kurds, of Armenians, and of six million Israelis, five million of whom are Jewish. To study these varied populations and cultures, MEALAC has three full time professors who cover Israel and Hebrew, four full time professors to cover the Arab World, and two full-time professors who cover South Asia. One need not do complicated mathematics to see who is overrepresented and who is not, if the question is indeed a demographic one.”)
Also, the guy’s name is Massad. How wierd is that? Does it not scream out for a pun or thirty?
If all these students love the guy so much, why was Columbia so afraid of letting the NYT speak to them that they had to manipulate events?
It’s even more ironic that the Pulitzer prizes were announced this week from Columbia’s campus. The school has one of the most prestigious journalism programs in the country, and yet doesn’t seem above ethically-challenged meida behavior toward its own students.
WHAT THE F***?????????????
THIS IS SUCH CRAP
WE ARE HERE IN A DEMOCRACY WITH FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND THOUGHT…. IF THE PRESS CANT ACT AS A TOOL FOR OUR DEMOCRACY, THEN WHO ELSE DO WE HAVE?
aRE JEWISH OPIONIONS NOT COVERED BY THE U.S. DEMOCRACY????
LETS GO BACK TO OUR LAND….ISRAEL.
THERE WE HAVE OUR RIGHTS AS JEWS (AND AS ARABS OR CHRISTIANS!)
EVRYONE WHO WANTS TO DISCUSS MORE ABOUT THIS CAN REACH ME AT REDDEVILSTELAVIV… I GOT SOME VIDEOS AND PICTURES THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND ABOUT THIS WHOLE COLUMBIA INCIDENT….
DROR
Dror, what is your email address- what did you write?
Is there a link to this story somewhere. This is the only place where I’ve seen it reported.
If all these students love the guy so much, why was Columbia so afraid of letting the NYT speak to them that they had to manipulate events?
Because Columbia doesn’t love him, and the people intimidating Columbia cetainly don’t. That was as easy as dismissing press failures and giving up on America in all caps.
Here is the original NY Sun Story: http://daily.nysun.com/Reposit…
And the Times Editor’s Note: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04…
Cut and paste these if they don’t work as links.
And here is Times Public Editor’s, Daniel Okrent, column on the matter today: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04….
The charges were phony, even the Forward admitted this and I don’t consider the sun a reliable source.