Shaun's column this week

Learn the Lessons of Iraq War

Shaun's column this week

Looking back at "The Gates"

Shaun's column this week

Living and Dying By the Blog

My apologies for failing to stealthly plug the WSN Opinion Blog. I thought about it, but figured Ms. Redtape would flip and try to take it out on Jill somehow, if the URL could even make it into the column in the first place.

Jon has commented on this column over at his blog, and while I understand his critique, I want to stress that my point wasn't to say the NYU bloggers I spoke to were some sort of barometer on the blogosphere as a whole, but rather that their experiences and outlooks brings blogging issues to light. While it's true that the big bloggers aren't likely to shut down, I still believe that the democratic possibilities of personal blogs are tempered by their frailty.

Letters

Traditional marriage should not be redefined

Tenure is needed to protect all minority opinions

Can NYU increase minority enrollment fairly?

Hughes ignores independent radio stations

Americans don't need to hear more sob stories


This is an excellent batch of letters. I look forward to reading your responses...

Jill's column

This one is from last week, but I think it's still relevant...

Let Plan B be sold over the counter

Staff Editorials

I haven't updated this in forever. Here are the staff editorials from the past week:

Stand up for female profs

Close NYU's racial gap

March to fight HIV/AIDS

Fix parental leave policy

Let students be heard

No easy fix for housing

Senate kills Killer Coke

Student voice is weak

Shaun's column this week

The End of the 2004 Post-game

and now...

a PSA from Planned Parenthood

Give me tenure, or give me death

For all our disagreements, Jon, I always value you as someone who will passionately defend the individual's right to do or say as he pleases. Therefore, I was discouraged to see in your column that your zeal for liberty is diminished when the subject in question is not a gun owner or a stock trader, but instead a University of Colorado-Boulder professor.

I realize you are not seeking the abolition of tenure or even necessarily the dismissal of Ward Churchill, but are instead advocating the subjection of professors to periodic review of the quantity and quality of their scholarship. However, you do not take issue with the quantity or quality of Churchill's scholarship at any point, but rather its content. So what are you really trying to say?

The validity, or lack thereof, of Churchill's arguments aside, the right of an academic to ask the hard questions and make the unpopular point is as valuable as any right in the American political lexicon. We're all much better off if we tackle the knottier issues in the laboratory of the university instead of the battleground of politics. There is no argument that does not have a place in the academic discourse, if for no reason other than to prove it wrong. And yes, that includes socialism.

There's nothing particularly faulty with your column, save its casual attitude towards academic freedom. Liberty is liberty, and if you'll argue until you're blue in the face to protect your right to own a shotgun, perhaps the spirit of free inquiry should be treated as something more than a "secondary" concern.

Liberal Guilt

A rare and insightful political commentary from the New York Metro.

At what point do our political leanings color our reading of the news too much? Are liberals secretly happy when something bad happens in Iraq (or anywhere really) because it reflects poorly upon the Bush Administration? Did conservatives feel this same guilty pleasure when negative world events detracted from Clinton's administration?

Fake news from the White House

This is not ok. It shouldn't even have to be said, but it is very unethical to be a "journalist" who is a paid mouthpiece for an organization or a political party -- that's what PR people are for. It's also unethical to be a fake reporter. While the Bush administration is using fake journalism as a great strategic tool, it's bad -- really, really bad -- for the public and for journalism as a profession. This definitely crosses the line between really brilliant PR and really scary propaganda. If any of you go into journalism, please don't do this.

Staff Editorial 02/17

NYU must reveal info.

It's a hard-hitter.