There have been three recent pieces in the Boston Globe related to Mahmoud Khalil, one a guest essay humanizing him by his friend Jeromie Whalen ("My friend Mahmoud Khalil is no terrorist sympathizer"); another on Columbia's capitulation to Trump ("Columbia yields to Trump in widening crackdown on universities"); and a Globe Editorial Bo…
There have been three recent pieces in the Boston Globe related to Mahmoud Khalil, one a guest essay humanizing him by his friend Jeromie Whalen ("My friend Mahmoud Khalil is no terrorist sympathizer"); another on Columbia's capitulation to Trump ("Columbia yields to Trump in widening crackdown on universities"); and a Globe Editorial Board entry on that capitulation ("A hostile takeover at Columbia").
In the over 700 (to date) reader comments to those pieces, it has been distressing (to say the least) to find that the majority - the majority! - perhaps two-thirds, are filled with vitriol, hatred, small-mindedness, jingoism, misinformation, disinformation, ignorance, and regurgitation of propaganda. Okay, not a scientific sampling of the sentiment of the general population (at least I hope not), but nonetheless, in brief, the villagers are marching through the streets with pitchforks and torches in hand.
Speaking of information, and a presumed obligation on the part of the press to speak accurately, truthfully (how naive I am) to the public, I took the Globe Editorial Board to task "for its passing off this tripe - larded with leading statements, bogus assertions, reliance on Right-wing front groups, the acquiescent smearing of scholars - as an editorial worthy of reading. It is nothing more than an exercise in Hasbara." To my surprise, I got nine "thumbs up" to eight down. (I did get one negative reply from a villager who cited Wikipedia in an attempt to dismiss one of my points (Alan MacLeod's jaw-dropping investigative piece in Mintpress on Mahmoud Khalil's dean at Columbia, Keren Yarhi-Milo), so you can see what sort of savants we're dealing with here).
I endeavor to keep mentioning two other sleazes at Columbia, who shouldn't be allowed to slink away, the strident Israeli sympathizers (agents?) Shai Davidai, assistant professor at the business school, and David Lederer, junior at the college. They helped finger Mahmoud Khalil for DHS and ICE. True "heroes of Israel." And beyond doubt foot soldiers for Campus Watch and Project David, two pet projects of Miriam Adelson to control, influence, and set the narrative on Israel and the Zionists on campus.
There have been three recent pieces in the Boston Globe related to Mahmoud Khalil, one a guest essay humanizing him by his friend Jeromie Whalen ("My friend Mahmoud Khalil is no terrorist sympathizer"); another on Columbia's capitulation to Trump ("Columbia yields to Trump in widening crackdown on universities"); and a Globe Editorial Board entry on that capitulation ("A hostile takeover at Columbia").
In the over 700 (to date) reader comments to those pieces, it has been distressing (to say the least) to find that the majority - the majority! - perhaps two-thirds, are filled with vitriol, hatred, small-mindedness, jingoism, misinformation, disinformation, ignorance, and regurgitation of propaganda. Okay, not a scientific sampling of the sentiment of the general population (at least I hope not), but nonetheless, in brief, the villagers are marching through the streets with pitchforks and torches in hand.
Speaking of information, and a presumed obligation on the part of the press to speak accurately, truthfully (how naive I am) to the public, I took the Globe Editorial Board to task "for its passing off this tripe - larded with leading statements, bogus assertions, reliance on Right-wing front groups, the acquiescent smearing of scholars - as an editorial worthy of reading. It is nothing more than an exercise in Hasbara." To my surprise, I got nine "thumbs up" to eight down. (I did get one negative reply from a villager who cited Wikipedia in an attempt to dismiss one of my points (Alan MacLeod's jaw-dropping investigative piece in Mintpress on Mahmoud Khalil's dean at Columbia, Keren Yarhi-Milo), so you can see what sort of savants we're dealing with here).
I endeavor to keep mentioning two other sleazes at Columbia, who shouldn't be allowed to slink away, the strident Israeli sympathizers (agents?) Shai Davidai, assistant professor at the business school, and David Lederer, junior at the college. They helped finger Mahmoud Khalil for DHS and ICE. True "heroes of Israel." And beyond doubt foot soldiers for Campus Watch and Project David, two pet projects of Miriam Adelson to control, influence, and set the narrative on Israel and the Zionists on campus.
Think the odds are against us?