NYT: College Editor Stands Pat on Giuliani-Hitler Likeness -- from the People's Republic of Vermont

New York Times ^ | May 3, 2005 | AL BAKER

[OESY]

ALBANY, May 2 - It did not take long for the editor in chief of the Middlebury College weekly student newspaper, The Middlebury Campus, to resign and apologize for publishing a doctored photograph in the March 17 issue portraying the college's next commencement speaker, Rudolph W. Giuliani, as Adolf Hitler.

But if she had the chance to do it over, Andrea Gissing, the former top editor who has taken "full responsibility" for the sardonic portrait of New York City's former mayor, said she might publish the piece again.

"I had spent a lot of time thinking about the illustration, going into it, and my decision to run that was not a light one," Ms. Gissing said in an interview on Monday. "It served the purpose of a political cartoon, which is to, you know, make people think about the issue and to react to it in a positive or negative way." Ms. Gissing resigned her job in an editorial in the March 31 issue, and cited internal reasons, not outside pressure.

Mr. Giuliani is still planning to speak, said Sunny Mindel, his spokeswoman.

Still, questions persist about whether there will be protests, either for or against Mr. Giuliani, as various letter writers to The Middlebury Campus have taken both sides in the debate. "There are people wondering if there will be demonstrations," said Philip G. Benoit, the school's spokesman. "Although I would not think it would be on that large a scale."

The controversy began when the college announced on March 10 that Mr. Giuliani had been selected as the commencement speaker because "of his actions on 9/11," said Mr. Benoit.

The rest of the episode goes like this: Ben Gore, a senior Middlebury student from Maryland, wrote an opinion piece, "Giuliani Is a Punk, Un-invite Him," that assailed the former mayor's legacy and referred to him as a "racist," which many students find "morally reprehensible." Though Mr. Gore wrote that Mr. Giuliani was "coming to be considered a fascist," before Sept. 11, he did not take the leap of comparing Mr. Giuliani to Hitler. That was left to the retouched photo that ran next to the column, which depicted Mr. Giuliani with a Hitler-style haircut and mustache giving a Nazi salute.

Then, in a campuswide e-mail message, the college's president, Ronald D. Liebowitz, who Mr. Benoit said is the college's first Jewish president, called the newspaper's decision to use the doctored photograph "a gross misunderstanding of history, let alone of Mr. Giuliani's record."

Telephone calls to the student newspaper and to Mr. Gore were not returned.

[OESY]

The New York Times’ Continuing Love Affair With Communism

[Puppage]

"It served the purpose of a political cartoon, which is to, you know, make people think about the issue and to react to it in a positive or negative way."

And, what would THAT issue be?

[faloi]

Hmmm... From their site:

Middlebury is an institution with a long-standing international focus, a place where education reflects a sense of looking outward, and a realization that the traditional insularity of the United States is something of the past.

Middlebury's undergraduate college is enriched by its other programs. Every summer, the main campus in Vermont is transformed into an institution single-mindedly devoted to the study of nine foreign languages and cultures, and the use of English is virtually banned for the participants, among whom are many Middlebury undergraduates.

Sounds like something like this is to be expected at this college, I'm frankly surprised there was any negativity toward it from Middlebury.

[martin_fierro]

[Tulane]

Middlebury has an excellent Russian program (it really does).

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I had spent a lot of time thinking about the illustration, going into it, and my decision to run that was not a light one," Ms. Gissing said in an interview on Monday

Perhaps not...it was just a stupid one.

[AnAmericanMother]

Awhile back (when this fifty-ish person was in college), Middlebury had the dubious reputation of having the highest tuition of any college in the U.S.

Have no idea where they stand now, but even then it was considered a hippy-dippy college for kids with filthy rich parents . . .

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Does she wear a brown shirt ?

[Calvin Locke]

I thought Bennington had that distinction? That was the mid-70s, I guess.

Didn't Bush's first Press guy come from Middlebury?

[AnAmericanMother]

Don't know. But I had a friend who was applying to Middlebury until her parents saw how much it would cost and put the quietus on THAT notion.

[CT CONSERVATIVE]

Gosh, this wouldnt be Hate Speech would it? I guess it can't be since its just someone expressing themselves in a pluralistic collegial atmosphere

[luv2ski]

I know several kids who are current students at Middlebury. They are all good kids but it has a reputation for being a big dope-smoking school. The kids I know there are thrilled that Guiliani is coming to speak. Many of the students had connections to people who were killed on 9.11.01: they get it.

[jmaroneps37]

This is a "progressive" idea? Picturing Rudy as hitler, a prue socialist is a 'progressive" idea? We have nothing to fear from these people!

[AnAmericanMother]

I think you'd have to be brain dead not to "get it" if you have friends or relatives who died on 9-11.

But astonishingly, there ARE some who don't.

Glad to hear that conservativism is alive and well at Middlebury. (I had heard about the dope-heads too, but figured they are everywhere.)

My daughter is looking at Washington & Lee, Davidson, and Rhodes, which pretty much tells you where she's at -- Middlebury ain't it. (Sigh of relief - going to be hard enough to pay for college without adding to the travel costs.)

[Psycho_Bunny]

I had spent a lot of time thinking about the illustration...Ms. Gissing said in an interview

Apparently, she didn't "think" enough or here concept of "thinking" is akin to the sense that God gave grapes.

[Liz]

What? Rudy worry?

Rudy will silence his critics with this picture.