Yes, I think it's good that Eason Jordan quit. No, I don't think Ward Churchill should follow on the basis of his inflammatory statements (the charges of sloppy scholarship are another matter entirely).

Academia and journalism are very different arenas. Both should depend upon facts, but in the case of academia it's really paramount that scholars feel free to say provocative things.

If you're part of a mainstream news outlet like CNN (on the left) or Fox (on the right), there should be a greater sense of responsibility: the line between information and propaganda can be very fine.

Both the mainstream media (other than Fox) and academia (other than Texas A&M) tend to tilt left, and the solution to that is not to fire the lefties, but for these institutions to begin hiring some bright people who do believe in capitalism, who do think America has done some extraordinarily positive things in its short history, who do believe it's okay for for people of faith to publicly express it, and who don't necessarily think government is the only implement in the toolbox of social progress.

In the media, the pendulum is moving to the center very slowly, forced by 1) market changes (as the viewing public rejects traditional left-leaning sources or balances those sources with Fox, The Wall Street Journal, or the right side of the blogosphere); and 2) pressure from blogs when a particularly egregious example of disinformation occurs (Dan Rather airing obvious forgeries, Eason Jordan making outrageous statements about the U.S. targeting journalists).

In academia it'll be harder, because there isn't a market in the conventional sense: it's not as if those who voted for Bush are going to keep their kids from going to college to protest the death-grip moonbats have on higher learning. Change will come slowly and painfully, pushed by people like David Horowitz and the amazing Evan Coyne Maloney.

It's a more entrenched culture, and one that's much less transparent to its consumers, who are in many cases impressionable kids. They may not always understand that they are being fed lefty propaganda, and in many cases they will be delighted if they can grab a shocking idea here and there that might rattle their parents' cages.

And so the wheel turns slowly.

[Dr. Neuron: feel free to comment, though of course I'm discussing the humanities more than science, here.]

Posted by: Attila at 12:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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