While not a journalist, I can’t help but wonder about something I noticed having to do with the NPR piece. In Anthony Brook’s extensive and interesting NPR segmenton the controversy at Columbia, he reports that the current controversy “has gone well beyond campus walls” and that Professor Dabashi “has stopped speaking publicly because of a rash of threatening phone calls...” He then plays one of these abhorrent calls, which goes like this:
A few days ago though, I was reading through some old articles and came across this in a piece published in the Times Higher Education Supplement by Dabashi in 2003:
“Hey, Mr Dabashi,” bellowed an angry voice, “I read about you in today’s New York Post. You stinking, terrorist Muslim pig. I hope the CIA is studying you so we can kick you out of this country back to some filthy Arab country where you belong. You terrorist bastard.”
The main point is that we all condemn such hate messages. But I still have to ask what’s going on here? Is this acceptable journalism? Shouldn’t the report have pointed this out? Is this acceptable on Dabashi’s part?
