Posted on 09/16/2005 6:47:02 AM PDT by Wombat101
Column on Arabs strikes a nerve at UNC Student paper at UNC fires writer
By JANE STANCILL, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL -- The dismissal of a writer from a student newspaper over a controversial column usually would stir a tempest only on campus. But not at UNC-Chapel Hill, a frequent battleground in the national culture wars.
In the first sentence of her opinion column Tuesday in The Daily Tar Heel, Jillian Bandes wrote: "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport."
Referring to conservative writer Ann Coulter's comment that if she ever wanted physical intimacy, she would walk through airport security, Bandes wrote: "I want Arabs to get sexed up like nothing else."
Bandes, 20, a junior from Oldsmar, Fla., was dismissed Wednesday from the student newspaper.
Within a day, she was being interviewed by radio stations throughout the country. Her case was gobbled up by the conservative media and featured on a major professional journalism Web site Thursday.
Bandes' column unleashed outrage among Muslim students and others who sent letters to the student newspaper's editor. Some students also came to her defense.
Bandes, in the column, quoted Arab students and a professor at UNC-CH as saying they wouldn't mind being searched.
"I essentially was committing an act of freedom of speech," Bandes said Thursday. "I was fired because of the reaction to my piece."
The Daily Tar Heel's opinion editor, Chris Coletta, explained his action to readers in a column Thursday. He said he fired her not because of what he termed her inflammatory comments but because of "journalistic malpractice."
"I fired her because she strung together quotes out of context," wrote Coletta, 21, a senior from Cary. "She took sources' words out of context. She misled those sources when she conducted interviews."
Bandes disputed that Thursday, saying she did not cross any journalistic ethical boundaries.
She also said Coletta did not have a problem with her column before it ran. "He laughed," she said. "He thought it was humorous. He praised me for having the guts to write what I did."
Qualified apology
In retrospect, she regrets offending people she respects, she said, and she has apologized to some of them.
But she's not backing down entirely. On Thursday, she was all over talk radio and featured on a number of conservative Web sites, including Coulter's.
Coletta said the newspaper had been deluged with about 200 responses to the situation.
"In some ways, this is going to be turned into another salvo in the culture wars," Coletta said in an interview.
He said he was sorry to have lost the newspaper's main conservative voice because of what happened.
"This is a liberal campus; I don't think there's anyone who's denying this," Coletta said. "Students who hold beliefs like Jillian's do feel put upon, do feel persecuted."
But Coletta said the newspaper embraces a variety of viewpoints and freedom of expression. "I never would have run the column if those weren't fundamental bedrock ideals that I hold dearly."
The issue is not Bandes' opinions, Coletta said, but the way she conducted herself as a journalist. He said Bandes told her interview subjects that she was writing about Arab-American relations after Sept. 11, 2001, and then used selected quotes to bolster her argument for racial profiling.
'A lot different'
"That's a lot different to me than saying, 'I would like to write a column on racial profiling,' " Coletta added.
Coletta said he takes responsibility for not thoroughly scrutinizing the column before running it.
Readers were joining the debate on the Daily Tar Heel blog about the brouhaha Thursday. One post said Bandes had offended the "liberal Ayatollahs of academia."
Members of UNC-CH's Muslim Students Association denounced what they said was a disrespectful column.
"The image of naked Arabs in a public airport is not only truly horrifying, but it is also reminiscent of the Abu Ghraib photos where Iraqis were also 'stripped' down for information about terrorists," wrote Uzma Khan and Bushra Bhatti.
Bandes said she thinks Coletta was too easily swayed by public opinion and emotion. She also pointed out that she had received support from readers.
"The way I made my point was offensive," she said, "but some people appreciated it."
Stifling of Free Expression at UNC. Disgusting.
Freedom of the press is so important to the left isn't it?
sounds like the newspaper is splitting hairs to find a good reason to justify their stifling of free speach.
Daily Tar Heel Columnist Fired (after writing that all Arabs should be strip-searched at airports)
...makes perfect sense to me.
There is next to no REAL freedom of expression at any campus in the USA. We are under the thumb of leftist totalitarians.
Everyday here on FR I see threads asking or encouraging that emails and phone calls be made to various columnist or employers expressing their dislike of various positions expressed. Oddly, when it is the conservatives doing this, it is not considered the "stifling of free expression."
This person just learned a valuable lesson....if you want the freedom to say anything, you need to be your own boss.
A couple of years ago I looked into the idea of starting a conservative student paper to counter the trashy liberal, tabloidesque paper we have on campus. Couldn't find anybody willing to print for us though, and selling ads to businesses would be hard since a lot of them were already selling to the current paper. Looking back, I'm glad it didn't happen because of certain circumstances that happened and the inevitability that my reputation would have been completely trashed by the liberal students. We did have some good ideas, though.
In America, respect is earned, then it is given. Not all people are worthy of respect.
""Freedom of the press is so important to the left isn't it?""
That damn freedom of the press. Huh
Do you think that should be removed from the constitution?
You miss the point. This is a UNIVERSITY. You know, a place where contrasting viewpoints are supposed to be allowed and debated without fear of retaliation?
Yes, she could start her own newspaper, but what makes you think the reaction wouldn't be the same? Don't you think that the same people who now make lame excuses for firing her wouldn't find a way to put her private newspaper out of business?
Sorry, but when it's a university newspaper, funded by tax dollars, she has a right to print what she wants. Especially when "the other side" prints all the disagreeable filth they want to. What's fair is fair.
Liberals version of free speech:
I have the right to spew whatever america-hate I want, but you only have free speech as long as I'm not offended or uncomfortable with what your saying.
The Hate Crimes Laws are nothing more than the implementation of the Values set forth in the European Socialist Manefesto. They undermine our Gurantee of Freedom of Speech by the Constitution. The Hate Crimes were put into law to do just that. We have the right to Hate just as we have the right to Love. The Constitution of the United States is slowly but surely being replaced with the Socialist Version of the European Constitution, read it for yourself:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318061/posts?page=6#6
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318038/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318034/posts
http://waysandmeans.house.gov/hearings.asp?formmode=view&id=954
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1254190/posts
Another example of the tolerance and diveristy that is the People's Republic of Chapel Hill.
Why shouldn't Arabs be searched more at airports? Every one of the 9/11 hijackers was an Arab. Hey I'm sure most Arabs living in this country are great people but this is just the reality of the situation.
They've taken over the airport in Minneapolis.
I wonder if she'll marry me.
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