What is the mainstream U.S. media’s greatest single distortion about the protests at Columbia University and elsewhere? Here’s the winner so far: the media is ignoring the fact that Jewish students are participating in the pro-Palestinian protests, and therefore they might have valuable things to say about the charges of “rising antisemitism” on their campuses. Their comments would have been particularly pertinent because just last week, Columbia’s president had been interrogated by a hostile committee in the House of Representatives, where she seemed to concede that antisemitism was a real danger.
Let’s start with the New York Times reports in this morning’s print edition. Both articles hide pro-Palestinian Jewish students. The main article, by Sharon Otterman and Stephanie Saul, quotes two Jewish Columbia students, who were apparently unsympathetic to the protest but had nothing to say about alleged antisemitism. Alongside it was an additional report, by Troy Clossen, which reported the rising pressure against President Minouche Shafik and included this clever biased sentence:
“Some Jewish students and other have said they appreciated the response [the police crackdown], while some left-leaning faculty members, students, free-speech advocates and others have said it was too harsh.” ….more
