October 23, 2019

Harvard students rise up against the student newspaper for covering both sides of a controversy.

I'm reading "Harvard Student Groups Condemn The Crimson’s Coverage of Abolish ICE Rally."
The Crimson reached out to an ICE spokesperson after the protest’s conclusion and did not provide names, immigration statuses, or extended quotes of those who criticized the government agency....

Marion Davis, director of communications for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said... “I know the Crimson acted on a desire for fairness, but I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn't always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known through the megaphones of government,” Davis wrote....

Society of Professional Journalists President Patricia Gallagher Newberry said it is “wholly appropriate” that The Crimson contacted ICE to respond to criticisms of the agency. “You’re not calling ICE to call out an individual person who might be in our country without the documentation required by ICE. You're simply asking for it to respond in a holistic way to the Abolish ICE Movement,” Gallagher said....

41 comments:

gilbar said...

I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn't always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known

Ignorance is Bliss?
Democracy Dies In Darkness?

Jersey Fled said...

650 students out of a total enrollment of 22000.

Mike Sylwester said...

Our universities are the epicenter of the effort to suppress free speech in our country.

rehajm said...

Oops- somebody read an old journalism textbook. Harvard is offended...

This leftie obsession with controlling narratives by stifling opposing viewpoints- first of all- scary! Especially coming from future power brokers...two, its not like we can't figure out when we're being fed propaganda...at least those of us not born yesterday...

Bay Area Guy said...

The Left feels it necessary to censor speech and reporting of opposing views. Any liberal fair-minded person who stays silent about this is complicit.

Temujin said...

We cannot just stand by and have two sides of any story, can we? Where are the One-Sided Story Activists? Oh...they're already present pretty much everywhere in media and academia.

I give Western Civ about 15 years. Maybe 20.

Wince said...

"...I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn't always what is fair...."

Seems they are taking their cues from the Democrat's impeachment on what is and isn't fair.

"I'll tell you what's fair and what's not!"

Kevin said...

#tolerance #diversity

Kevin said...

It’s not about what the people want.

It’s about what we people want.

And if you disagree, you’re anti-democracy.

Unknown said...

David Hogg is a Harvard student.

henry said...

Abolish Harvard. (disclosure: Boola Boola)

rhhardin said...

Even if you hear both sides of an issue, it will be framed wrong.

Jamie said...

My daughter is applying to colleges right now. She has the grades, scores, and activities to put the Ivies in reach - but she is eschewing all of them. In her case, it's cost that matters (she's her father's daughter), but thank goodness. Whatever grounds she chooses to avoid wasting her college years in such places saves me from having to tell her, "Absolutely not - I will not have you destroy your critical thinking skills that way!"

Fernandinande said...

One makes up a cool word like "academentia" and then one finds out that it's already in Wiktionary.

Hubert the Infant said...

I am glad that you linked to this. It is par for the course. I know that because I read college newspapers on a regular basis. This is quite informative, as it provides a preview of where society as a whole will be in five years or so. It is also very depressing. As this article shows, today's undergraduates tend not to be big on liberal democratic values. That would be bad enough, but they also lack the ability to articulate compelling arguments for their points of view. Also, their writing skills are very poor. Many of the articles read as if they were written by high school sophomores. Using The word "only" grammatically seems to be especially challenging.

daskol said...

Someone missed the memo about narrative trumping fairness. That's dangerous, and they need to be shown, pour encourager les autres, just how risky such behavior can be.

Marcus Bressler said...

I got my journalism training in high school, in a small junior college and on the job. I remember being taught the basics. Getting both sides IS a basic.

THEOLDMAN

Jamie said...

Oh, also: "I've learned through experience that presenting both sides isn't always fair" can accurately be read as, "I have expressed my side of an argument in the past and it has failed to carry the day. Therefore someone had xer thumb on the scales -because self-evidently I would have won, otherwise."

Static Ping said...

I'm torn by this development. On one hand, this demand to suppress the press doing its job is clearly fascist. On the other hand, fascists who insist that they are powerless victims should be relatively easy to beat into submission.

iowan2 said...

I see the nations best and brightest (according to my moral and intellecual superiors) that lack the basic cognative ability to defend their intellectual position. They have no skill, ability, or education, to debate their beliefs on battle field of ideas.

Harvard, Harvard students have no tools to defend their beliefs... HARVARD STUDENTS

hawkeyedjb said...

"They have no skill, ability, or education, to debate their beliefs on battle field of ideas."

They don't see why that should be necessary. In their world, it generally is not. In the larger world, they will work to make it unnecessary (or illegal).

My name goes here. said...

At some point the pendulum is going to swing the other way and when it does these people unable to hear a differing opinion will have a very difficult time adjusting.

Big Mike said...

Years ago I quietly made it a policy not to hire Ivy League grads. Nothing I've read or heard about since then suggests that I was in any way wrong.

Gahrie said...

They have no skill, ability, or education, to debate their beliefs on battle field of ideas.

Which is why their only argument is "shut up you racist homophobe".

The whole artificially created controversy over Trump using the word "lynching" is a perfect example. No attempt to explain why it isn't a lynching, just manufactured outrage that Trump used the term, even though most Democrats used it when Clinton was impeached.

Rory said...

"...getting both sides isn't always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known through the megaphones of government"

This is an iron rule: when you decide that it's necessary to rig the argument for some downtrodden group, people from Harvard will somehow manage to appropriate the status of the downtroddens.

chickelit said...

Veritas -- was ist das?

traditionalguy said...

The ChiComs have taken over Harvard and their ways are mandatory.

Browndog said...

Temujin said...

We cannot just stand by and have two sides of any story, can we? Where are the One-Sided Story Activists? Oh...they're already present pretty much everywhere in media and academia.

I give Western Civ about 15 years. Maybe 20.


They now walk the hall of Congress. Soon enough, the White House.

I'm not talking propagandists. I'm talking true believers. Certain they are, that any information or discussion that runs counter to "the truth" is a danger to society.

Quaestor said...

So when do they dedicate the statue of Joesph Goebbels?

Michael K said...

today's undergraduates tend not to be big on liberal democratic values. That would be bad enough, but they also lack the ability to articulate compelling arguments for their points of view.

There was a study a few years ago in which Harvard freshmen and seniors were tested on general information. The freshmen scored higher on information. Harvard reduces knowledge. They should just collect four years' tuition and grant a degree. Why waste four years? The kids are there for the degree.

Gusty Winds said...

College has not only become an expensive, worthless investment, it now produces negative returns for American Society. Nothing more than a dog and pony show. Raise costs, run these kids into massive debt, and completely pollute there ability to think rationally. Great output.

I wonder if there are any genuine Professors or Administrators, and other educators that look at all this and wonder, "Oh my God (wait...I don't believe in God) what the hell have we created in the last 30 years?"

I'm sure it's the discussion among faculty that dare not speak its name.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Before Jussie Smollett and Nick Sandmann, any wypipo accused of being racist were presumed guilty. Remember all the media interviews with the Double Tree security guard and manager who were fired for "racially profiling" a 34-year-old black man with a head full of gray hair? I don't. Remember all the interviews of every Becky accused of harassing black folks just fo' participatin' in they own lives? Those racists didn't deserve to defend themselves against a charge of racism!

GingerBeer said...

There are some ideas so stupid it takes an Ivy League education to believe them.

mockturtle said...

“I know the Crimson acted on a desire for fairness, but I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn't always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known through the megaphones of government,” Davis wrote....

What about the megaphones of the MSM through whom we have been blasted pro-illegal-immigration propaganda on a daily basis?

PM said...

Advanced Study in Social Theory
4 units
Comprehensive analysis of the cultural risks in presenting both sides of an issue when there is clear evidence one side is evil and wrong.

Marc in Eugene said...

You're simply asking for it to respond in a holistic way to the Abolish ICE Movement...

Granted that the Harvard organizations upset at Crimsonian journalistic practice are fools blinded by their ideological premises, what most irritated me was the "in a holistic way" in the real journalist's comment. The fact that I can (perhaps correctly) deduce from "in a holistic way" what she meant doesn't excuse the lack of clear English prose. Right thought, and then everything else is of minor importance, I guess.

Caligula said...

"I have learned [through] experience that getting both sides isn't always what is fair, especially when one side has already made its views well known ..."

The unspoken part: And I should get to decide what is and is not fair. Because.

Yet the "logic" of those opposed to free speech always shipwrecks on the rocks of, "But then who would decide what may be said (and who may say it)?"

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Holistic" always means "justifying unfairness".

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Holistic = Opacity and bullshit justifying unfairness

Martin said...

No problem, it's not as if those Harvard speech-Nazis will be in positions of power and influence in a few years.

minnesota farm guy said...

I read about this yesterday. It is absolutely shameful that the school doesn't take these opportunities to teach the students about values ( remember the Winthrop House Master defenestration last spring). However it is characteristic of the current administration which is more concerned with various PC agenda than actually educating the kids about what matters.