It has now been almost two weeks since David White’s essay “Juan Cole and Yale: The Inside Story,” appeared. Sponsored by Campus Watch, White’s piece examined Yale University’s rejection of Cole earlier this summer. White demonstrated that, contrary to Cole’s charges that “a concerted press campaign by neoconservatives” was to blame for his failure to secure a chair in New Haven, his rejection came about primarily because Yale faculty decided that his scholarship wasn’t up to their standards.
Given Cole’s love of words--especially his own--it’s notable that he hasn’t responded to White’s charges. Nor, for that matter, have Cole’s apologists risen to his defense in light of the CW article. One can only conclude that White’s essay proved its thesis, and that Cole had rather not expend his public capital in a vain attempt to refute an essay he knows is air-tight.
