Over the past few days, the Jewish community has struggled to decide how to respond to Philip Kurian's anti-Semitic Oct. 18 column.
Although we are working with the administration to find a meaningful way to educate the community about the danger of Kurian's rhetoric, we have also recognized a more systematic problem we feel needs to be addressed.
Throughout the semester, in lieu of fostering dialogue on controversial issues, The Chronicle has contributed to a climate of stereotyping and caricaturizing cultural groups. Such irresponsible news practices cripple the ability of this campus to engage in meaningful debate across cultural lines.
The Chronicle's news coverage of the Palestine Solidarity Movement consistently set up a false "us vs. them" picture of the events taking place on campus. The Joint Israel Initiative made every effort to bring in speakers that represented a wide array of viewpoints, something reduced to the simplistic and inaccurate headline "Burg gives pro-Israeli lecture" in The Chronicle's Oct. 18 coverage of the weekend's events.√
Oct. 15 Chronicle inaccurately reported on the Students Against Terror concert, again reducing an event that incorporated many subtleties and viewpoints to a mythical side in a nonexistent competition. Such inaccuracies in news reporting are unacceptable and require printed corrections, something The Chronicle has not yet provided.
On the editorial side, we recognize The Chronicle's commitment to avoiding censorship of its columnists and cartoonists. However, any time inflammatory material is printed, The Chronicle should recognize its responsibility as a publication committed to education and dialogue by ensuring such views are only disseminated with the appropriate tools for the community to digest them.
Two Campus Beat cartoons stereotyped students involved in the PSM as potential terrorists. While we certainly are not calling for The Chronicle to censor such editorial expressions, it would have been wise of Chronicle editors to include a note clarifying that The Chronicle as a publication did not subscribe to the racist views expressed on its pages.
Similarly, with Kurian's column, we believe that standards dictating acceptable editorial content were not properly applied to this piece, perhaps because The Chronicle has failed to delineate specific guidelines. If they felt it was necessary to run the column, our opinion is that a responsible publication would have included an editor?s note next to Kurian's column reiterating The Chronicle's policy not to censor columnists, but expressing concern that the language used in the column is the language of historical anti-Semitism, and explaining its devastating consequences.
Additionally, to our knowledge The Chronicle has asked columnists to change the wording of their pieces or sometimes omit inflammatory statements. The Chronicle should have applied those standards here, and made sure that Kurian's column was not only accurate but also safe for the campus community. Kurian's statement that "we are dealing with a very well-funded and organized establishment" implies that the Jews are a group to be dealt with by the greater campus community, which begs the frightening question, "how'".
And, perhaps most appallingly, The Chronicle has failed to provide additional letter and editorial space for people to respond to and digest Kurian?s column. Even a letter from the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League went unpublished. Allowing Kurian's claims to stand without careful and lengthy refutation is irresponsible and dangerous.
Because of the above criticisms of The Chronicle's ability to provide appropriate news to this community, as well as un-addressed concerns voiced by us repeatedly throughout the semester, we are calling on The Chronicle to conduct an internal investigation of its news practices and report its findings. Through this investigation, we believe The Chronicle needs to re-examine whether its leadership is fit.
We also feel it would be appropriate that the Chronicle develop a specific set of guidelines for what sort of language towards a particular group is acceptable on the editorial page, and what needs to be edited or delayed.
The Chronicle should give special consideration before publishing pieces that attack any group. Additionally, until specific guidelines can be outlined, we feel it would be irresponsible of The Chronicle to publish any future columns of this sort.
Rachael Solomon is the student president of the Freeman Center for Jewish Life.
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