Academic Freedom Media Review – February 25 – March 2, 2012

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Virginia court rejects sceptic’s bid for climate science emails
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 3/2

Yale Professors Want Singapore Campus to Protect Human Rights
Oliver Staley, Bloomberg News, 3/2

Excellence – but those missing out don’t see it that way
Frances Mechan-Schmidt, Times Higher Education, 3/1

African leader wants end to ‘slave trade’ in education /
Phil Baty, Times Higher Education, 3/1

Student singled out for punishment over Willetts protest
Judith Welikala, The Cambridge Student, 3/1

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CAIR Asks South Dakota Governor to Veto Anti-Sharia Bill

No Bigotry in Our LawsCAIR Asks South Dakota Governor to Veto Anti-Sharia Bill.

Have you heard about this bill?  Well it’s pissing me off and South Dakota isn’t the only state with one in process!  I urge you to click on the link above and read what the Council on  American-Islamic Relations has to say about it.  I’m not angry about it because  it once again demonstrates the appalling lack of understanding and intolerable amount of prejudice must be endured by Muslims in the United States. That deeply saddens me more than it pisses me off.  As an educator, I will do my best to fight against this kind of ignorance.    Americans are innately curious and open-minded, there is simply so much misinformation that has  so massively skewed perceptions.

I am annoyed, ok a little pissed off, that not only South Dakota, but approximately two dozen other state legislatures are wasting time on such frivolous bills when there are so many other pressing issues facing the states and our nation as a whole.  What’s all this talk I keep hearing about budget crunches,  fiscal austerity, and cutbacks?  Both Virginia and West Virginia have debated this kind of a law, as well.  These people, our elected representatives, don’t even understand our system of government, it seems. They pass frivolous, unnecessary legislation to prevent things that are already impossible, instead of dealing with real issues.

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The Diva and the Army Private

To the author of the following Facebook post:

Whitney Houston had a drug problem, went to rehab, died in her bathtub and got recognized on the news and internet. NJ governor ordered the flags half mast on Saturday as a tribute to Whitney. 24 year old Army Pfc. Cesar Cortez, assigned to 5th Battalion, 52nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, Fort Bliss, Texas, died the exact same day serving during Operation Enduring Freedom and I, personally, haven’t heard his name until now. If you believe that the people who are dying daily for your and my freedom are the true American heroes and deserve more respect than any celebrity, then copy and post.

I am declining to repost this on my Facebook page.  It is a mean and faulty argument that unnecessarily brings two very different issues into competition.  But before I explain that, let me point out that it makes an absolute and prejudicial statement that you cannot possibly know is true, and that I wouldn’t repost without changing that anyway.  It’s the concluding statement that’s the problem.  As a teacher of writing I tell my students to try and avoid absolute statements unless they are sure they are true.

An Army carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Pfc. Cesar Cortez Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012 at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Cortez, 24, of Oceanside, Calif. , died Feb. 11, 2012 in Bahrain.

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Academic Freedom Media Review, February 11-17, 2012

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Syria ‘arrests iconic blogger Razan Ghazzawi and leading activists’
The Telegraph, 2/16

US for-profit universities ‘unworthy of the name’
Paul Jump, Times Higher Education, 2/16

Faculty Cry Foul Over Intellectual-Property Policy at U. of Louisiana System
Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2/16

Leak Offers Glimpse of Campaign Against Climate Science
Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman, The New York Times, 2/15

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SAR Academic Freedom Media Review – January 7-13, 2012

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Texas Can Regulate Secular Matters at Religious Colleges, Opinion Says
Katherine Mangan, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/13

US teachers offered support for climate change lessons
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 1/13

Free Speech and (Offensive) Art
Daniel Grant, Inside Higher Ed, 1/13

Stormy waters ahead as ‘disruptive forces’ sweep the old guard
Sarah Cunnane, Times Higher Education, 1/12

Independence, transparency key to research work of ESRI
Frances Ruane, The Irish Times, 1/12

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Just Ignore Him, Maybe He’ll Go Away. Ron Paul and the Media

Watch this video from the CBS Evening News last Sunday, December 4.  At this point it was clear that Herman Cain was ending his run for the presidency and a new Des Moines Register poll had just shown that Newt Gingrich was the new front runner.  Iowa is one of the first states to select its convention delegates, and thus it is closely watched by all involved in and interested in politics.

So according to the report, it’s now a three way race between Gingrich and Romney.  This in spite of the fact that second place in the Des Moines Register poll went not to Romney, but to Ron Paul.  He’s pretty much ignored in this report.  I first noticed the phenomenon when it was pointed out on The Daily Show on August 15, 2011 just after the Iowa straw poll and Pawlenty dropped out of the race.  In this clip, Jon Stewart notes the media’s reluctance to treat Paul as a serious candidate, even on ultra-conservative Fox News.

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Already? & What’s That Got to Do with Christmas Anyway?

Peace on Earth, Good will to AllIt’s the Holiday Season again. Until recently I’ve had very warm and fuzzy feelings toward Christmas, including all the usual associations of friends and family gathered, good food, gifts, and music. As a very earnest, religious child, I truly believed in a Spirit of Christmas that could surround the world once a year.  I didn’t know anything about non-Christians then, but even when I learned of them, I just knew in my heart that Christmas was a time when you showed generosity and magnanimity toward everyone, and they too would feel cheer joy. I truly believed in the greeting of the angels to the shepherds in the fields, “Peace on Earth, good will to all.” The story of a humble child born in a manger that would save all of humanity for sin, remains compelling even today, but Christmas has definitely lost it’s luster.

In fact, I have come to dread the season. Christmas music invades the malls, radio and television as early as October, so that long before December 25 that it by the time the holiday actually rolls around the music I’ve loved since I was a child starts to seem like the music military units incessantly blast into surrounded compounds in order to get those inside to surrender. The bombardment of advertising that starts even earlier makes me tense about the financial pinch so many of us are in this year. And then there’s the traffic and crowds to content with.  I could go on, but you get my point.  It’s stressful.

There seems to be so little joy and merriment left in the season. In fact there’s an ugliness to it, stoked by rantings about an imagined “War on Christmas” and a siege mentality many people seem to genuinely feel, though I can’t discern any  any credible cause. I’ve already gotten my first Facebook message denouncing the White House for not having a Christmas Tree because they are accused of calling it a “Holiday Tree.” My heart sank when I saw the message. Are we really starting this again? Don’t we have enough to deal with as a country that we don’t need to pile this issue on?

First off, let’s be clear about the veracity of the rumor. It’s essentially the same email/Facebook status message that circulated last year and the year before, just with the dates changed.  It is FALSE! NOT TRUE! It was false in 09.  It was false in 2010, and its false now. President and First Lady Obama had two little girls and will celebrate Christmas in ways that are pretty much like every other Christian, American family, except with a lot of extra security and much less privacy.  Check out the pictures from last year.  They are almost too perfect, just like White House Christmas photos generally have been, ought to be, and probably how you want your family photos to be.

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Academic Freedom Media Review – November 12 – 18, 2011

The Scholars at Risk media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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Ai Weiwei investigated over nude art
Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 11/18

English universities enjoy ‘most freedom’ in Europe
Jack Grove, Times Higher Education, 11/17

CHILE: Opposition and students unveil reform plan
María Elena Hurtado, University World News, 11/17

East and West, African sector a middle-class fortress
David Matthews, Times Higher Education, 11/17

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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review, October 28-November 4, 2011

The media review seeks to raise awareness about academic freedom issues in the news. Subscription information and archived media reviews are available here. The views and opinions expressed in these articles are not necessarily those of Scholars at Risk.

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TURKEY 11/3/11: Ragip Zarakolu releases public letter from prison
PEN, 11/3

Russian Terror Law Has Unlikely Targets
Sophia Kishkovksy, The New York Times, 11/3

Climate change scientist Michael Mann fends off sceptic group’s raid on emails
Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 11/2
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Campaign Ads, Satirical Magazines and Religious Intolerance

I’m used to negative politics and personal attack ads.  The strategy of attacking your opponents character is probably as old as politics itself, but it’s gotten particularly virulent in recent years.  Unfortunately, it’s seldom elucidating in terms of someone’s ability to govern.  Women and men who have made mistakes in their past or who have truly disastrous personal lives, may well be effective policy makers.  At the very least, though, we ought to be able to expect these personal attacks to be factual, and far too often they aren’t.  Just follow FactCheck.org or Politifact.com and you will see far to many examples of ads called to task for being untrue.

Sadly, I’ve grown used to these.  They disgust me, but they don’t infuriate me.  What does enrage me is negative campaigning the resounds beyond the campaign and affects our society more broadly.  This is advertising that plays on fear, intolerance and ignorance, impugning the character not only of an individual candidate but of an entire race, religion, ethnicity, or other group.  In a particularly egregious example, popular Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, a Democrat and a Muslim, is now being challenged in the race by Gary Boisclair, an anti-abortion activist, and member of Randall Terry’s Society for Truth and Justice (STJ), one of 25 candidates they are running in carefully selected advertising markets, less in hopes of getting the candidate elected than as a cover for running explicit anti-abortion tv advertising.  It’s a sleazy but clever strategy, one that the organization itself cops to.  I kind of admire it.  But Bosclair is also using campaign ads promote a Islamophobic agenda, running ads that explicitly attack Ellison’s religion, and that is unacceptable.

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