The Harvard Crimson has smacked down the school’s far-left student groups who were petitioning for the paper to stop contacting Immigr...
The Harvard Crimson has smacked down the school’s far-left student groups who were petitioning for the paper to stop contacting Immigration and Customs Enforcement for comment on stories.
The president and managing editor of the paper released a scathing response to a petition penned by the open borders student group Act on a Dream.
The war started in September when Act on a Dream held a rally on campus calling for ICE to be abolished. While covering the story, a reporter from the Crimson reached out to ICE for comment.
Outraged that the reporters would have the audacity to speak to someone from ICE for the story, Act on a Dream launched a petition saying that “in a follow-up meeting to discuss their policy, Crimson staff stood by their decision to call ICE and stated that they would do so again.” They added that “this was the wrong call. We are extremely disappointed in the cultural insensitivity displayed by The Crimson’s policy to reach out to ICE, a government agency with a long history of surveilling and retaliating against those who speak out against them.”
The petition, which has nearly 700 signatures, goes on to accuse the reporter of snitching and putting illegal alien students at risk.
“In this political climate, a request for comment is virtually the same as tipping them off, regardless of how they are contacted,” the petition claims. “We strongly condemn their decision to uphold a policy that blatantly endangers undocumented students on our campus. The Crimson, as a student-run publication, has a responsibility to prioritize the safety of the student body they are reporting on — they must reexamine and interrogate policies that place students under threat. Responsible journalism includes being conscious about the impact caused by their actions as a news organization.”
The group went on to lay out their “demands” for the newspaper, which includes apologizing for the “harm” they caused the “undocumented community,” change their policies about calling ICE, and “declare their commitment to protecting undocumented students on campus.”
Campus Reform reports that the Harvard College Democrats and several other student groups endorsed the petition.
We're not talking to @thecrimson until they stop calling ICE on students, and we urge our members to sign Act on a Dream's petition here -> https://t.co/QpHhS9eAbt— Harvard College Democrats (@HarvardDems) October 17, 2019
Read our full statement below👇 pic.twitter.com/5E24tT6hmM
The Harvard Crimson didn’t back down or cave to their demands at all. Instead, their president and managing editor issued a bold response declaring that they will not comply.
“A world where news outlets categorically refuse to contact certain kinds of sources — a world where news outlets let third-party groups dictate the terms of their coverage — is a less informed, less accurate, and ultimately less democratic world.”“At stake here, we believe, is one of the core tenets that defines America’s free and independent press: the right — and prerogative — of reporters to contact any person or organization relevant to a story to seek that entity’s comment and view of what transpired,” Kristine E. Guillaume and Angela N. Fu, the paper’s president and managing editor, said in the statement. “This ensures the article is as thorough, balanced, and unbiased toward any particular viewpoint as possible.”
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