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Columbia, Duke and the Media (Thomas Sowell)
Townhall.com ^ | October 2, 2007 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 10/01/2007 9:20:54 PM PDT by jazusamo

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

On page 28 of last Sunday's New York Times, right opposite the page where the obituaries were, at the very bottom was a news item almost exactly the size of a 3-by-5 card.

It was a fraction of an Associated Press dispatch about Richard Brodhead, president of Duke University, apologizing for "not having better supported" the Duke lacrosse players last year when they were accused of rape.

When this story first broke last year, it was big news not only on the front page of the New York Times but on the editorial page as well.

The way things were discussed in both places, you could hardly help coming away with the conclusion that the students were guilty as sin. But now that the president of Duke University apologizes for the way he handled the case, that gets buried on page 28 at the bottom, opposite the obituaries.

There is no indication that the Times itself is going to apologize for joining the lynch mob in the Duke "rape" case -- as it did in the Tawana Brawley "rape" case before, and as it will probably do again if and when the same kind of issue arises again.

In the full Associated Press dispatch, including the part left out by the New York Times, Richard Brodhead said that he regretted the university's "failure to reach out" to the players under indictment, "causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support."

Brodhead got a standing ovation after this speech at the Duke law school but to call what he said "spin" would be much too charitable.

The issue was never his failure to "support" the students or their families. Universities are not equipped to determine guilt or innocence. That is why trials are held in courts instead of on campus.

It was none of the university's business to "support" either the students or those who were accusing the students.

What Brodhead did was join the campus lynch mob by firing the lacrosse coach, cancelling the rest of the team's season, and suspending the students.

Now, after reaching an out of court settlement with both the students and the fired lacrosse team coach, Brodhead gets a standing ovation at his own law school for an apology that sidestepped the real issue and might well have been part of the out of court settlement.

Brodhead is not the only university president who can walk through a sewer and come out smelling like a rose, at least to those in academia and the media.

At Columbia University, its president, Lee Bollinger, picked up kudos for courage for having Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak on campus.

It would "impoverish public debate" to exclude controversial speakers like Ahmadinejad, Bollinger said.

But apparently it did not "impoverish public debate" to have a representative of the Minuteman organization disrupted and shouted down with impunity at this same Columbia University earlier this year. The "courageous" Bollinger did nothing to punish those students who used storm trooper tactics to silence a point of view they did not like.

Sadly, Columbia University is not unique in either its double standards or its double talk. A Harvard dean back in 1987 put limitations on the number of "controversial" outside speakers allowed on campus, on grounds that it was expensive to provide the extra security needed to prevent disruption or violence.

Since the only speakers who are likely to provoke campus disruption and violence are speakers that left-wing students don't like, this act of preemptive surrender gave campus storm troopers a de facto veto over who can speak on campus.

The real problem on these and other campuses is that no one has to take responsibility. With the power being in the faculty, administrators can evade responsibility, and trustees are not around enough to exercise the ultimate power that is legally theirs.

Moreover, so long as alumni and other donors keep sending money, there is no price to be paid for caving in to the threats of campus ideologues.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and author of Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: columbia; dbm; duke; dukelax; msmwoes; sowell; thomassowell
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To: stephenjohnbanker
Here is a link to David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Heres another link to Front Page ; pretty good website.

21 posted on 10/01/2007 10:19:54 PM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: Nonstatist

Thank you!


22 posted on 10/01/2007 10:22:37 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
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To: jazusamo

bttt

Sadly, Columbia University is not unique in either its double standards or its double talk. A Harvard ...


23 posted on 10/01/2007 11:06:53 PM PDT by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
He doesn’t necessarily say anything different than many FReepers, but he has an uncanny knack for “cutting to the chase”
Yes, he certainly does get to the heart of the matter, even when he isn't saying anything we didn't know. In this article he does make a nice comparison between the treatment of the president of Iran and the treatment of the Minutemen, and between Columbia and Duke.

Yes, and between the full-throated NYT coverage of the latest "Twanna Brawley" incident at Duke, and the whispered NYT aside noting Brodhead's "apology" for not doing what he could not have done, saying nothing of his actual, active malfeasance.

I'm not sure I've seen that all tied together in one place. And certainly not with that neat a bow.

There is no indication that the Times itself is going to apologize for joining the lynch mob in the Duke "rape" case -- as it did in the Tawana Brawley "rape" case before, and as it will probably do again if and when the same kind of issue arises again.
Shudder. None of us is safe while Congress is in session. And The New York Times is even worse - it is always in session.

24 posted on 10/02/2007 2:21:27 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: Obadiah; Mind-numbed Robot; Zacs Mom; A.Hun; johnny7; The Spirit Of Allegiance; ...
He doesn’t necessarily say anything different than many FReepers, but he has an uncanny knack for “cutting to the chase”
Yes, he certainly does get to the heart of the matter, even when he isn't saying anything we didn't know. In this article he does make a nice comparison between the treatment of the president of Iran and the treatment of the Minutemen, and between Columbia and Duke.

Yes, and between the full-throated NYT coverage of the latest "Twanna Brawley" incident at Duke, and the whispered NYT aside noting Brodhead's "apology" for not doing what he could not have done, saying nothing of his actual, active malfeasance.

I'm not sure I've seen that all tied together in one place. And certainly not with that neat a bow.

There is no indication that the Times itself is going to apologize for joining the lynch mob in the Duke "rape" case -- as it did in the Tawana Brawley "rape" case before, and as it will probably do again if and when the same kind of issue arises again.
Shudder. None of us is safe while Congress is in session. And The New York Times is even worse - it is always in session.

25 posted on 10/02/2007 2:23:30 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

BTTT


26 posted on 10/02/2007 2:53:16 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: jazusamo; Sonny M

“You’re not the first to bring that up and it’s an excellent idea. If I were a candidate I’d be trying to sign him up.”

Sowell is not known for suffering fools gladly, and most of the candidates are fools. His past experience has made him extremely wary of requests for support, so he may have been asked, and declined the invitation.


27 posted on 10/02/2007 3:07:59 AM PDT by Blue_Ridge_Mtn_Geek
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To: stephenjohnbanker

I’ll note it was posted after midnight, for those on the East Coast.

Also, there isn’t a lot to say. He’s completely spot on, there’s not much to argue.


28 posted on 10/02/2007 3:47:03 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: abb

DUKELAX ping.


29 posted on 10/02/2007 3:47:25 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: stephenjohnbanker
There are few political philosophers in the nation's history who are more clear-sighted, more honest. and more on point than Dr. Thomas Sowell. Not just in our time. Ever in our history.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "Anchor Babies, Away"

30 posted on 10/02/2007 4:22:55 AM PDT by Congressman Billybob (2008 IS HERE, NOW. www.ArmorforCongress.com)
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To: jazusamo
The issue was never his failure to "support" the students or their families. Universities are not equipped to determine guilt or innocence. That is why trials are held in courts instead of on campus. It was none of the university's business to "support" either the students or those who were accusing the students.

Sure its THE issue. It is the fundamental issue. It is the basic duty of a teacher, of a school, of a college to support its students. It is called "In Loco Parentis", a doctrine that in great folly has been re-defined, scoffed at and forgottten, as "Universities" become great feed lots, impersonal factories, no place more selfish and dehumanizing.

The students should have been given more than just the presumption of innocence, they should have been supported the way a parent supports an accused child.

Because there has developed a heartlessness in the academic class, a greediness, a sense of lifetime tenured entitlement -- even for professors who speaking from extremely coddled, protected tenured pensionated turrets fire off broadsides about free markets and libertarian economic philosophies. Because the sentence prior was left incomplete, I must begin a new one.

The end of the last one starts here: because of that heartlessness and abandonment of basic duty the College -- now more grandly titled "The University" -- becomes a Duke. Becomes a. Columbia.

A Duke. A Columbia. A waste and a wasting.

Because professors with so called ideals are themselves afraid to walk-the-walk and not just talk the talk talk talk, the greedy and lazy -- the selfish and miserable have taken over.

31 posted on 10/02/2007 4:41:27 AM PDT by bvw
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To: conservatism_IS_compassion

Another OUTSTANDING article by Thomas Sowell. Thanks for the ping.


32 posted on 10/02/2007 4:54:11 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: jazusamo

Thanks for posting Dr. Sowell’s article.

Crystal Gayle Mangum BUMP! /sarcasm


33 posted on 10/02/2007 5:49:24 AM PDT by PGalt
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To: stephenjohnbanker

BTTT


34 posted on 10/02/2007 6:15:13 AM PDT by jokar (The Church age is the only time we will be able to Glorify God, http://www.gbible.org)
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To: bvw
the greedy and lazy -- the selfish and miserable have taken over.

Yes, and to compound the tragedy, those in that majority chastise the truly good people in the halls of higher learning to insure they maintain their perverted control.

35 posted on 10/02/2007 9:31:28 AM PDT by jazusamo (DefendOurMarines.com)
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To: bvw
The issue was never his failure to "support" the students or their families. Universities are not equipped to determine guilt or innocence. That is why trials are held in courts instead of on campus. It was none of the university's business to "support" either the students or those who were accusing the students.
Sure its THE issue. It is the fundamental issue. It is the basic duty of a teacher, of a school, of a college to support its students. It is called "In Loco Parentis", a doctrine that in great folly has been re-defined, scoffed at and forgottten, as "Universities" become great feed lots, impersonal factories, no place more selfish and dehumanizing.
Hmmmm . . .

I think you have caught Professor Sowell on that one. Congratulations; that is no mean feat.

In critiquing Brodhead's "apology, I thought "Would it actually have killed him to have said at the outset something as positive as, 'While of course having an open mind about any possibility, Duke of course hopes that none of its students are guilty of this, or any other, crime.'?" And the answer to that question, I'm afraid, is "Yes." Because that would not have been politically correct, it would only have reflected what the parents of the students must hope is the mission of the University.


36 posted on 10/02/2007 9:48:03 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which liberalism coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: Congressman Billybob

“There are few political philosophers in the nation’s history who are more clear-sighted, more honest. and more on point than Dr. Thomas Sowell. Not just in our time. Ever in our history.”

No argument here!


37 posted on 10/02/2007 10:08:44 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (Pray for, and support our troops(heroes) !! And vote out the RINO's!!)
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