-Caveat Lector-
Prof. Gore insisted on silencing his students. Why did Columbia go along?
BY TUNKU VARADARAJAN
The Wall Street Journal
Thursday, February 8, 2001
Albert Gore Jr.--remember him?--has blundered into our midst
again, and the first indications are that he hasn't changed one
whit. He's still too cautious, and he's still too careworn. And
he's still his own worst enemy.
Mr. Gore, who has fallen on hard professorial times, taught the
first of a series of classes at Columbia University's Journalism
School on Tuesday. Intended as the start of a sabbatical from
politics--right down to the discarding of his dark D.C. suit and
its replacement with a woolen jacket of aptly pedagogic
brown--the occasion was a public-relations disaster. It provided
a lesson not so much in journalism as in the dark arts of
paranoia and presumption.
As the entire planet probably knows by now, Columbia muzzled the
students attending the class. Mr. Gore's tutelage is, by
university fiat, strictly off the record. This imposition has
been touted as the brainchild of the associate dean of the
Journalism School, who was appalled, apparently, at the prospect
of Mr. Gore's students dashing off after each class to file their
copy to newspapers. (And this is supposed to be a journalism
school?)
But I have learned (on deepest background) that this is a decanal
smokescreen, and that the demand for a gag came as a
precondition--i.e., no gag, no Gore--laid down by the former vice
president himself. Ever the fumbling strategist, Mr. Gore has
ensured that every one of his students is now talking unstoppably
about how he won't let them talk to anyone. And the press, never
entirely kind to him in even the best of times, has unleashed its
own displeasure.
"Hypocrites Triumph at Free Speech Temple" was the headline on a
frothing piece by the New York Post's Steve Dunleavy, who
described Mr. Gore as a "rat fink." The New York Observer's
Gabriel Snyder was equally dismissive, though in more
conventional idiom. He called the Gore lectures "a classic
ivory-tower boondoggle," and remarked that the gag was "sure to
make Joseph Pulitzer and Edward R. Murrow roll simultaneously in
their graves."
Columbia, an inherently liberal institution, snapped to attention
when Mr. Gore first approached it in January with his offer to
teach there. Judging by the alacrity with which the J-school has
gagged its students, it is clear that Columbia believes that the
allure of Mr. Gore's presence outweighs the cost--in terms of
free speech now curtailed--to the institution's reputation.
It's also clear, from an off-the-cuff remark made by Mr. Gore
after his lecture, that he has a scant understanding of the
working of modern universities. According to the New York Times,
he said: "I think normal classes are off the record. . . . I
think the students will get a better experience if it's as much
as possible a normal classroom experience."
Now I was once a university professor, and I gave lectures, and
Mr. Gore's remark struck me as distinctly bizarre. Students were
always free to do whatever they wanted with my pearls of wisdom,
though I suspect no one ever prized them highly enough to make
them part of any "record." But I taught at a funny old university
in England where a number of odd practices flourish.
So I called a few friends yesterday--professors all, at American
universities--and they guffawed. Clearly, said one, "the poor
dude can't tell the difference between a class at Columbia and a
West Wing briefing."
Shouldn't Columbia reconsider the terms of its association with
its visiting professor? Quite apart from being a restriction on
the students' First Amendment rights, the gag also raises obvious
questions of contract law. Whom do the lectures "belong" to?
Surely the buyer (in this case, the student who has paid tuition
fees, and who was unaware of the gag at the time of entering into
a contract with the university) should be free to deploy the
lectures' contents in any way he wishes, provided always that he
acknowledges his source and does not pass the ideas off as his
own.
If I were a student in Mr. Gore's class, I'd consider testing
these rules in the real world (of which Columbia's Journalism
School is clearly not a part). I'd call a newspaper--The Wall
Street Journal, in all likelihood--and ask to speak to the
editor. "I have a story for you," I'd say, and offer it for
publication.
To Mr. Gore, and to my school's administrators, I'd have one
blunt message: "Try and stop me."
Mr. Varadarajan is deputy editorial features editor of The Wall
Street Journal. His column appears Mondays.
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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