The search for truth occasionally involves shouting down a few fools along the way.
Take Naomi Schaefer Riley, for instance.
On April 30, The Chronicle of Higher Education published a Brainstorm blog entry entitled, The most persuasive case for eliminating Black Studies? Just read the dissertations. The entry, penned by Riley, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and regular Chronicle blogger, offered up several jewels of idiocy. It is best summed up in this chunk:
“… If ever there were a case for eliminating the discipline (of Black Studies), the sidebar explaining some of the dissertations being offered by the best and the brightest of black-studies graduate students has made it. What a collection of left-wing victimization claptrap. The best that can be said of these topics is that they’re so irrelevant no one will ever look at them. …”
Understandably, the entry drew outrage from thousands not expecting such mean-spirited, cable newsness from the usually even-tempered, collegial publication. Not to be outdone by her own words, Riley doubled-down on that initial entry on May 2:
“… Such is the state of academic research these days. The disciplines multiply. The publication topics become more and more irrelevant and partisan. No one reads them. And the people whom we expect to offer undergraduates a broad liberal-arts education (in return for billions of dollars from parents and taxpayers) never get trained to do so. Instead the ivory tower pushes them further and further into obscurity. …”
That may have been the last straw. Just days later, after outrage continued to grow, Chronicle editor Liz McMillen finally emerged and wrote:
“… We now agree that Ms. Riley’s blog posting did not meet The Chronicle’s basic editorial standards for reporting and fairness in opinion articles. As a result, we have asked Ms. Riley to leave the Brainstorm blog …”
Let’s get this on the table:
The Wall Street Journal, forever a security blanket for the 1 per cent, has had its share of quality journalism over the years. In fact, some of its reporting (not opining, mind you) could be seen as quite progressive. But in the post-Murdoch Era (the Australian media baron’s NewsCorp purchased the paper in 2007), the paper has eroded into a joke, a publication built on the same right-wing reactionary scare tactics employed by its sister outlet, Fox News.
So seeing one of its recent journalists pen a piece like this is no surprise.
They do so love crazy statements that draw big reactions.
Riley is a partisan hack with little interesting to say about higher education beyond far-right talking points. Want to have some fun? Read her 200-page anti-tenure treatise, Faculty Lounges … And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get the College Education You Pay For where she concludes “tenure is preventing institutions from living up to their highest potential.”
Nothing loaded about that statement, right?
Simply stated, Riley is not a must-read, and who, despite graduating from Harvard University, continues to hammer away at the very tenets of higher education that made her alma mater (and countless others) the foundation of modern society. That’s the role she plays – the mandatory fake counterbalance for a media who scurries to false ‘balance’ because the truth may upset some viewers/readers.
All that said, she should be heard. Period.
Quite frankly, it’s people like Riley – credentialed, seemly authoritative, yet completely wrong – I have spent a career teasing their ill-conceived opinions out into the public domain where they can be summarily dismantled and discredited. Not only does sunlight remain the best disinfectant, but it tends to disintegrate blood-suckers like her.
If we cannot survive challenges to our work, or have the ability to defend it against even the most small-minded of critics, how are we to stand up against real threats against our pursuits?
Higher education is different; our opinions are strong and conversations can be uncomfortable. Academic freedom depends on openness and a trust that, in the end, we are all seeking truth.
Shouldn’t this hold true for publications covering higher education as well?