Bias by omission on the PBS weekly news roundtable Washington Week with The Atlantic, as the panel of journalists played dumb about why Trump would cancel federal grant money from Columbia University, describing it as a typical Trumpian power grab. Whatever could have been happening there recently to validate such a move?
(Besides months of anti-Semitic campouts last year and the harassment of Jewish students and the chanting of homicidal slogans in the wake of Hamas’s terrorist invasion of Israel, of course.)
But this public television show skipped all that, making it seem Trump was just targeting an elite university because that’s what MAGA does.
Under a chyron that read “Revenge and Retribution,” guest moderator Franklin Foer addressed the panel.
Franklin Foer: I want to just talk about a few events which may have slipped under the radar this week but seem pretty darn significant to me. So, Donald Trump signed an executive order stripping lawyers at the firm Perkins Coie, which had represented Hillary Clinton in 2016, of their security clearances and other privileges, which follows a similar executive order which he signed stripping those same privileges of Covington Burling, who’d worked pro bono with Jack Smith.
Then earlier today the administration stopped a huge number of grants and funds that were going to Columbia University to punish them. Dan, I just want -- just what`s the pattern? What are we seeing when we see all these things lined up together?
Dan Balz, Washington Post: Well, I mean, we’re seeing what he promised, which is retribution and some measure of revenge against the people that he thinks did him wrong over the last four years. They've been quite systematic about that. They've done it through the whole Justice Department in a variety of ways. And now they've broadened it out into the private sector, if you will, and into the universities.
I don't think there's any doubt that Columbia is not the last university that`s going to see funds stripped from them. I think many, particularly elite universities, feel that they are on notice. He’s done things to try to rein in the press, or to target the press, as we know, particularly the things that have gone on with the press pool. And all of this is part of his effort to dominate everything about the federal government and to accrue as much power in his hands as he can.
Actually, Columbia University’s funding was pulled after months of antisemitic harassment (including chants of “intifada” and “long live the intifada”) and death threats against Jewish students and their supporters on the school's campus in Manhattan since the Hamas terrorist assault on Israel and the resulting war in Gaza, with ineffectual at best response from Columbia to the attacks both on students and on campus property, including disrupting classes, breaking windows, and barricading themselves inside campus buildings.
Even considering it was another busy week of news, Washington Week should have taken the time to explain just why Columbia was being punished, and not leave viewers with the implication that Trump was just punishing Columbia for being a bunch of liberal elitists (which they are).
As CBS News reported, “The Trump administration moved Friday to cancel $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing "the school's continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
CBS quoted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon: "Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them."
Proving the validity of Trump's actions, Reuters quoted Columbia’s interim president Katrina Armstrong bowing to the Trump administration’s concerns in a statement issued late Friday: "I want to assure the entire Columbia community that we are committed to working with the federal government to address their legitimate concerns.”
