Campus Newspaper Fires Sole Conservative Columnist

self | 1/1/03 | Igor Birman

[calif_reaganite]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: IGOR BIRMAN
JANUARY 1, 2003

Campus Newspaper Fires Sole Conservative Columnist

DAVIS – In yet another attack on freedom of thought on college campuses, The California Aggie – a campus newspaper at the University of California, Davis has fired Igor Birman – its only conservative columnist, despite a contract lasting until the end of June 2003.

In his email announcing Birman’s dismissal, Fitzgerald Vo, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief cited “a tendency to enrage members of the opposing causes” as the reason for the columnist’s firing.

Birman’s column, The Right Stuff, provided the campus community with conservative commentary, expressing strong support for the war on terrorism and invoking a lively debate on issues ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis to reparations for slavery. The Right Stuff was the only conservative column in the campus newspaper that, along with Birman, also hired three columnists to provide left-wing ideas and views.

To Birman, this latest attempt to silence the growing conservative movement on the UC Davis campus appears to be part of a trend that includes regular disappearances of conservative student publications and intimidation practices, such as obscene and threatening emails sent to prominent conservative students.

“I merely attempted to provide a conservative perspective to the UC Davis community in my column. My intentions never included forcing ideas on anyone. I am profoundly saddened now that the Aggie lost its only conservative voice. The most accessible marketplace of ideas on campus has been shut down. I guess my column was too threatening to the supremacy of liberal thought on campus,” Birman said.

Birman further added that he regards the Aggie’s decision to dismiss him as a breach of contract, since the latter contains an explicit clause setting June 30, 2003 as the termination date and giving the Aggie no power to dismiss Birman before then. “I am currently consulting with my legal counsel, and absent a retraction of the dismissal by the Aggie, I expect to file a breach of contract lawsuit against the parties involved.”

Birman may be reached at 530-754-3339. The dismissal notice and a copy of the contract will be provided upon request.

-30-

Email from the newspaper:
I hope you're having a good new year. Thanks for giving me the opportunity this year to edit your columns. Due to the increasingly tighter spaces in The Aggie and the relative impact of your column, I regret to inform you that I would have to cut your The Right Stuff Column.

This is due to several reasons, first of which is the dryness in your column's tone. I have told you several times that I would like to hear more of your voice in your columns, but that seems to be muddled in a lot of similarly versed right-wing rhetoric that I have heard before. Again, I would like a unique perspective, and you don't seem to provide it.

Secondly, the tone of your column seems to have a tendency to enrage members of the opposing causes. Judging from the range of feedback I have received, your column does not seem to spark dialogue, but anger that only increases a tit-for-tat response.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any more concerns or questions.

Sincerely,

Fitz Vo
________________________
Fitzgerald Vo
Editor in Chief
The California Aggie
25 Lower Freeborn Hall
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
Phone: (530) 752-9887
Fax: (530) 752-0355
www.californiaaggie.com
editor@californiaaggie.com

[GAGOPSWEEPTOVICTORY]

This is due to several reasons, first of which is the dryness in your column's tone. I have told you several times that I would like to hear more of your voice in your columns, but that seems to be muddled in a lot of similarly versed right-wing rhetoric that I have heard before. Again, I would like a unique perspective, and you don't seem to provide it.

Secondly, the tone of your column seems to have a tendency to enrage members of the opposing causes. Judging from the range of feedback I have received, your column does not seem to spark dialogue, but anger that only increases a tit-for-tat response.

Did anyone else notice this? Typical liberal pablum from the editor here. On the one hand, he is calling the column dry, but apparently, it is not too dry becuase in the next paragraph he is complaining about how the column enrages members of the left.

If the column was "dry" like he claimed, noone would even give a damn more or less give a tit-for-tat response. One would think that as a columnist, you are getting paid/hired to illicit responses from people, both positive and negative. You gotta love the hyprocracy of the left.

[rwfromkansas]

Writing is supposed to upset people. If you don't make people think and get them a bit angry, a columnist is not doing his job.....

[tjg]

Post 21 nails it. If your columns are dry and without 'voice' how can they inflame passion?

Presumably you keep repeating the same old boring facts. That's not fun. You're supposed to make stuff up as you go along, call it fact, draw conclusions, and then cite those conclusions as proof of the facts you made up in the first place.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Fitzgerald Vo?

Hmmm, Vo is a SE Asian name and many many SE Asian families are here illegally.

Phone call to the INS perhaps?

[L.N. Smithee]

Secondly, the tone of your column seems to have a tendency to enrage members of the opposing causes. Judging from the range of feedback I have received, your column does not seem to spark dialogue, but anger that only increases a tit-for-tat response.

OK, Fitz, let me get this straight...he is being fired for the "anger" that he sparks rather than "dialogue." If people don't want to respond to Birman by trying to begin a dialogue, doesn't that say more about his detractors than it does about him?

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

...the newspaper’s editor-in-chief cited “a tendency to enrage members of the opposing causes” as the reason for the columnist’s firing.

Sounds like this guy has a good wrongful termination case, especially since the guy who fired him said this in an e-mail.

[Robert_Paulson2]

Ah the sound of liberal heads butting to get in line for the pork tits... and debating who indeed is the most pathetic victim that can claim "aggreived" status, procuring the coveted "I am the REAL victim here" award...

Being a victim gives them such er... "GRAVITAS" in the world of socialist science.

If only they could SEE themselves in lieu of their habitual thinking OF themselves. They are indeed are a true "dual threat" crowd, both foolish and blind.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

To Birman, this latest attempt to silence the growing conservative movement on the UC Davis campus appears to be part of a trend that includes regular disappearances of conservative student publications and intimidation practices, such as obscene and threatening emails sent to prominent conservative students.

Gee, it's good to see the wonderful progressive liberal students sticking up for a person's academic freedom and freedom of speech. Oops, I forgot, those rights are only for liberals.

[Robert_Paulson2]

First they say "get out, your too stale" then follow it up with, "you are too contoversial and upset us all"

Pathetic, stupid, and apparently, quite contagious.

[Republican Wildcat]

I have heard of some campuses where the Republicans, tired of being suppressed, started their own newspapers independent of the school. You may want to look into this...there may be groups with funding available for such an endeavor.

[Republican Wildcat]

The editor's explanation seems to be self-contradictory. At one point he calls you "dry" (ridiculous given the example I just read from your link above, but for the sake of argument, let's go with his comment), then says you are too controversial. You can't have it both ways. Given the tone of his e-mail, including such phrases as "right-wing rhetoric", it is quite clear that his agenda is to silence those with opinions that do not conform to his liberal mindset. The fact he is trimming you off, the only conservative columnist, and keeping all the other liberal columnists indicates that his argument for needing to save space is also hollow.

[Da Mav]

One of the reasons I don't pay too much attention to the libs who are going on about Aschcroft and the Bill of Rights is that they are the first in line to suppress those rights when it is their ox that is gored.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I think the guy has a good case for a wrongful termination suit. Just an opinion, I'm not a lawyer.

[calif_reaganite]

We've actually done that. Ours is called Liberty's Flame and apparently it pissed off a sufficiently large amount of campus commies that stacks started disappearing right and left...

Email me you address at iabirman2000@yahoo.com and I'll be more than happy to send you a copy. We are not on the web yet.

[nutmeg]

bttt

[chnsmok]

You couldn't come up with one victimhood arguement for your plight (you don't need a plight, just an arguement for why it is unjust)? Of course you did live to fight another day. Great story.

[dubyajames]

I was the token conservative columnist at our student newspaper when I was in college. The politically active campus was, on balance, pretty solidy left-of-center and we College Republicans and other conservatives thought we were living under politically correct oppression. But we actually had it pretty good compared to most other places, including your school. Never once was a column of mine spiked and I was never asked to edit what I believe.

I had only a couple of instances where an editor changed something I wrote. I used to refuse to call Bill Clinton "President Clinton," not because I was in denial but because I just didn't like the looks of it. I used to prefer to call him "Mr. Clinton" when I was being polite. One semester, I got a new editor who didn't like the use of "Mr." or "Ms." in front of people's names, so she changed a couple references from "Mr. Clinton" to "President Clinton." In my next column, I wrote that my policy was never to refer to Bill Clinton as "President Clinton," and if readers saw such as reference in my column it was because it had been changed from "That Bastard" during editing. The editor changed "That Bastard" to "That Bubba."

[PedroDaGr8]

The more that I hear about colleges and universities across this nation, the more I feel like the university that I attend is an oddity rather than the norm. When I first started to attend the university of kentucky there was a strong liberal voice that it seemed to me was more people just trying to find soemthing to complain about and feel important because the administration ignored them. When we got a new administration (our new prez is a former VP at IBM) the liberal voice vanished. Now there are several liberal and several *gasp* conservative columns in the Kernel. Along with the appearance of a rather strong Young Republicans group, a floundering College Demorcats Association, and funny enough the decline of several liberal groups (ACLU, leftist student union, Anti-Sweat shop group) etc. I just hope that maybe in time this trend continues to the rest of the nation.

[Husker24]

Since this is a public University, and that they take tax money. Couldnt they be sued for civil rights violations concerning the threatening emails the stealing of newspapers and other intimidation as well as being sued for breach of contract. I hope you nail thier balls to the walls.

[gubamyster]

Stanly Kurtz in NRO has written a few articles about the lack of free speech on campuses. Check out this article:

Through the FIRE

This article references Foundation for Individual Rights in Education which might be of some help to you.

Good luck.