Posts Tagged ‘ethics’

Harvard and Claudette Gay Highlight the Reason for the Christmas Season

Posted: January 3, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, education
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Henry Gondorff (Posing as Mr. Shaw) : If any of you guys want to make a little book in Chicago I’m the guy to see

Mr. Clements: The game is straight poker $100 minimum, table stakes. [Gondorf/Shaw reaches for his wallet in his coat] Ah Mr. Shaw this is a gentleman’s game, we all assume you’re good for your debts.

The Sting 1973

As we are at the home stretch for the Christmas season (10th day of Christmas) I’d like to thank Harvard University in general ad Claudette Gay in particular of highlighting the reason for this season.

As you all know the now ex president of Harvard University got into hot water for her response to the horrible antisemitism on Campus since the Hamas Terror attacks of October seventh. It got so bad on campus that the Hanukkah Menorah on campus had to be hidden away each day after being lighted to prevent it from being vandalized which would cause further bad publicity for the school already rocked by open and proud Jew hatred on campus.

Things were so bad that Gay along with the presidents of MIT and Penn were called before congress to address the issue and in the most incredible public spectacle equivocated when asked if calling for the extermination of Jews was against the school codes both for the group in general

and for Gay in particular

The president of Penn resigned within days but Gay hung on and the Board at Harvard defended her. Even when revelations that Gay had a plagiarism problem and that Harvard had taken aggressive steps to keep said problem quiet she was defended. As recently as four days ago the Harvard Crimson ran an editorial saying that Gay should NOT be made to resign.

A sober-minded assessment of the plagiarism charges indicates that Gay’s behavior constitutes plagiarism, but since the errors do not appear intentional, they do not warrant her resignation.

Because we still have faith in our president as a scholar, because we regard her plagiarism as limited and unintentional, and because we recognize that a stopgap interim president would bring chaos instead of needed stability, we do not believe President Gay should resign.

Harvard Crimson: President Gay Plagiarized, but She Should Stay. For Now.

Note that there is not a word in that piece about her handling of campus antisemitism.

Well Gay has now tendered her resignation and the question remains will the board clean house or will it find an anti-Semite who hasn’t committed plagiarism to take her place? For that we will wait and see (I’m betting on the 2nd choice myself).

But the title of this post is : Harvard and Claudette Gay Highlight the Reason for the Christmas Season so the obvious question is: How do these antisemitism and plagiarism scandals highlight the reason for the Christmas Season?

That’s actually very easy.

James Madison nailed it when he wrote: If men were angels we would need no government, If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Harvard is one of the elite universities. It’s pedigree goes back to before the founding of the nation, many of the most powerful people in the history of the American Republic have tread it’s hallowed halls. Even now Senators, congressmen, governors and members of our Supreme Court have attended or been faculty of that fabled university.

Yet it has an honor code, a written honor code because it’s known and understood that mankind is by it’s nature fallen.

And because mankind is fallen and can’t get up on its own, it was necessary for a redeemer, a savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The one who would save mankind bringing salvation through the forgiveness of their sins

And thus Christ came into the world to die for the sins of the world. It’s was a tough task, so tough that Christ himself asked his father to excuse him from it, yet he did as this father willed.

Harvard’s antisemitism, Gay’s reaction to it along with her plagiarism, and the rush to defend what people knew was wrong highlights the nature of sin, of how ethics go out the window when self interest and agendas are at risk. And while this was a big issue on a grand scale with national implications it’s no different that the man who rationalizes what he knows is wrong at the dinner table or at work.

All of them need a savior and as Linus Van Pelt reminded us:

Linus Van Pelt: And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'” That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Many of us on the right are pleased that Justice has been at least started at Harvard, that this is a blow to DEI and the ills that have come of it. That the vile venom of antisemitism might be checked at the campus, but in this season let us be more grateful that we know a savior has been born to take away those sins and our own.

Merry 10th Day of Christmas to all.

The days of Christmas continue to pass and our fundraiser continues with us $2865 & 10 subscribers from our goal. If you’d like what you see please consider kicking in here.

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Do journalists have ethical standards anymore? Overlooked story about a Chicago Tribune reporter gives me doubts

Posted: April 30, 2023 by John Ruberry in culture, media, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

Late in 2021, the father of Chicago Tribune City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt, died. Father and son shared the same name, but the younger Pratt hadn’t seen his dad since he was five. That is, until shortly before the passing of the older Pratt, which the reporter, in a behind-the-pay-wall column, movingly wrote about in the Tribune. 

Last week, the Chicago City Wire, a newspaper often dismissed as “fake” and “pink slime” by liberals, noticed something in Pratt’s column, a link to a GoFundMe page organized by a cousin for the reporter, to defray the senior Pratt’s medical bills, That GoFundMe link should have immediately raised eyebrows. But it was the “fake” source that got the scoop.

The Chicago Tribune’s lead City Hall reporter Gregory Pratt solicited and received at least $1,790 in donations in a GoFundMe.com fundraiser benefiting his family from sources he covers– including elected officials, political consultants and lobbyists.

The donors included Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, who gave him $150, along with Evelyn Chinea-García, the wife of recent mayoral candidate, U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia ($500) and former Illinois Deputy Governor and State Attorney General candidate Jesse Ruiz ($100).

Three members of the Chicago City Council Pratt covers – Ald. Gil Villegas (36th), Ald. Samantha Nugent (39th) and Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th)– also contributed to Pratt, along with Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Commissioner and lobbyist Michael Alvarez ($250) and Chicago political operatives Rebecca Carroll, Eli Stone, Carolyn Grisko and Joanna Klonsky, who recently worked for Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Chicago City Wire, and several other papers, are published by Local Government Information Services, which was founded by conservative activist and WIND-AM radio personality Dan Proft in 2016.

I wrote about these publications here at Da Tech Guy last year.

A Twitter fight between Proft and Pratt ensued, which led former Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass to respond in the comments thread, “When a news organization gives editorial control to billionaire Bolshevik like George Soros, that news organization has no credibility. Any comment @chicagotribune @CTGuild @royalpratt???

Kass’ referral to @CTGuild is in regard to the Chicago Tribune Guild, the union representing Trib reporters. It is the organization that fought with the longtime conservative columnist at the Tribune over a 2020 column highly critical of Kim Foxx–you know, Jussie Smollett’s protector–where Kass brings up how Foxx and other big city Democratic catch-and-release prosecutors are funded by leftist billionaire George Soros. The Guild, of which Kass was not a member, in a biased manner deemed that column as anti-Semitic. The Guild’s protest led to a de facto demotion for Kass.

Pratt, whose Twitter handle is @royalpratt, displays the Chicago Tribune Guild logo on his Twitter page. 

As legendary baseball announcer Mel Allen used to say, “How about that?”

To be fair, for all I know, Kass and Pratt are best pals. Then again, probably not.

Proft and Kass’ objections to the GoFundMe linkage are fair. Could those donors who work in politics, and who Pratt is expected to cover without bias, expect more sympathetic coverage if he knows they contributed to his dad’s GoFundMe page?

I don’t know.

Here’s what the New York Times, on its ethics page, says about possible improprieties.

Personal relations with sources: Relationships with sources require the utmost in sound judgment and self discipline to prevent the fact or appearance of partiality. Cultivating sources is an essential skill, often practiced most effectively in informal settings outside of normal business hours. Yet staff members, especially those assigned to beats, must be sensitive that personal relationships with news sources can erode into favoritism, in fact or appearance. And conversely staff members must be aware that sources are eager to win our good will for reasons of their own.

Which brings me to beat reporting. Years ago, the Trib used to move around reporters in a seemingly bizarre fashion. For instance, Bruce Buursma went from the religion beat to covering the Chicago White Sox. Such transfers create more-rounded journalists –and since Chicago’s two baseball teams went nearly a century for one–and over a century for the other–between World Series titles, a faith reporter might have been just what baseball fans reading the Tribune needed at that time.

Sadly, for reporters coving elected officials, mostly but not exclusively on the left, politics is their religion. They are not journalists, they’re activists playing on the same team.

Here’s one more old story. Jay McMullen, who later married Chicago mayor Jane Byrne, was for over twenty years was the City Hall reporter for the Chicago Daily News and the Chicago Sun-Times. Eventually his bosses viewed McMullen as being too cozy with the pols he covered–so he was exiled to the real estate page. McMullen later worked for his wife during her single term in office.

Note: Two days ago, I emailed Gregory Pratt about my intention to write a blog post about the GoFundMe page controversy. I received an out-of-office reply that suggested I contact another person. As of the evening of April 30, I have not received a non-automated response from either of them.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

White House press secretaries should be banned from taking media jobs for two years after leaving post

Posted: April 3, 2022 by John Ruberry in media, News/opinion, politics
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By John Ruberry

One lesson from the 2020 presidential campaign, one of many, is that more than ever information is power. More importantly, the flow of information is power.

The journalistic malpractice by the mainstream media, in regard to suppressing and censoring the Hunter Biden laptop scandal, is a subject I covered here at DTG last month. Glenn Greenwald, in a Substack post, deemed it, “One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history.” As for myself I can’t think of one that was worse. 

Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, has generally brushed off questions about Hunter’s laptop, unless she blamed “Russian disinformation” for its existence. Hunter’s MacBook Pro offers damning proof that the president’s son was the head of a Chicago-style influence peddling ring.

Last week Axios broke the news that Psaki will resign and next month join MSNBC and its Peacock streaming service in an on-air role. Axios touched on the obvious ethical concerns in its report. Psaki refuses to confirm the Axios story.

Going back to at least the Obama administration, there have been executive orders that prevent, for a period, senior officials in the executive branch of the federal government accepting a lobbying job. On his first full day in office, Biden signed an executive order that bans his political appointees from taking a lobbying job for two years after leaving their posts. Donald J. Trump signed an even stronger executive order on lobbying bans for his top staffers, one for five years, but in what I see as a bad decision, he rescinded it on his last day as president. 

Biden, as well as his eventual successor, needs to sign an executive order that blocks future press secretaries, as well as White House communications directors, from media jobs for two years. From 2015-2017 Psaki served in that latter post, before leaving for an on-air job with CNN. As for that network, Psaki reportedly has also recently explored a return to CNN, as well as seeking jobs with CBS and ABC, according to Puck. 

Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but last week, vice president Kamala Harris was interviewed, exclusively, by MSNBC’s Joy Reid.

In a rare moment of toughness since Biden because president, Psaki was confronted about those ethical concerns of her possible move to MSNBC by the White House press corps, including an NBC reporter.

As I mentioned at the top of this entry, information, as well as the censorship and suppression of it, is power. So is the granting of access to the media of senior White House officials. 

It’s time to rein in, at least a little bit, the White House gatekeepers of that information. 

And oh yes, Republican press secretaries have benefitted from the “revolving door” from the White House to a media gig too. Psaki’s predecessor, Kayleigh McEnany, who served under Trump, is an on-air contributor on Fox News. She negotiated the landing of that job while still working at the White House.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.