Special Report: Columbia University

Columbia University helps define the news business. Its School of Journalism is perhaps the foremost institution of its kind in the United States, and its alumni fill the ranks of news organizations. It is also home to the Pulitzer Prize – the top award in the industry. Each May, it graduates a new class and sends a fresh crop of young editors, writers and producers into the field.

Unfortunately, Columbia’s journalism program is not committed to honest journalism. Instead it delivers a one-sided education that celebrates left-wing policies and is overwhelmingly run by liberal journalists, most of whom work for liberal news outlets in addition to their jobs at the school. Sixty-eight percent of the full-time faculty at Columbia University School of Journalism write for explicitly left-wing news outlets. Many of the adjunct faculty and guest lecturers also work for these operations.

Columbia’s Journalism School professors have written for left-wing blogs calling Occupy Wall Street “sweet-tempered,” while bashing the Tea Party as “radicals.” They’ve also authored articles and books attacking Israel for “terrorizing” Gaza, ranted about how the fossil fuel industry’s “extraordinary corporate culture of discipline and secrecy” is destroying the environment, accused Republicans of using racist “code language,” and promoted liberal causes from socialized medicine to gun control to abortion. Columbia University President Lee Bollinger has repeatedly argued for massive government funding of journalism.

Columbia has received $9.7 million from left-wing billionaire George Soros, more support than he has given to all but three other schools. Soros is also connected to the newly appointed dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Steve Coll, is currently the head of the New America Foundation, a progressive public policy organization that has received $4.2 million from Soros since 2000.

The influence of Columbia University School of Journalism is substantial. Alumni have gotten jobs at such prominent media outlets as The New York Times, Bloomberg, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, CNN, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. Alumni have also worked at a number of left-wing outlets including Mother Jones, The Huffington Post, NPR and The Nation – the same operations their former professors staff.

The Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute has extensively researched Columbia University School of Journalism, including its faculty, alumni, student publications, funding, guest lecturers, endorsements and awards. BMI found that there was a significant left-wing bias prevalent at the school – a bias that then migrates with its graduates to permeate the daily operations of news organizations across the United States. These results include the following:

• 68 Percent of the Professors Work for Liberal Outlets: The faculty list of the Columbia University School of Journalism reads like a Who’s Who of liberal organizations. Of the 40 full-time members of the faculty, 27 work at left-wing news outlets and organizations including The Huffington Post, Slate, Mother Jones, Salon, The Nation and Greenpeace. Adjunct faculty work at Al Jazeera, Alternet, The Daily Beast, Salon and The Nation. These professors are also cited as experts by major news outlets, such as The New York Times, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post and USA Today, thanks to their status as Columbia faculty.

• More than $9.7 Million in Soros Funding: Columbia University has received $9,708,486 from liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. That makes it the third-most Soros-funded school in the world, and the second-most in the U.S. The school also received an additional $1.63 million from the liberal Tides Foundation, which Soros also supports.

• Soros-funded Liberal Leadership: Incoming dean Steve Coll has his own left-wing rap sheet. Coll, who will take over as dean of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in July 2013 is currently the president of the New America Foundation, a left-leaning public policy organization which has received more than $4.2 million in Soros funding since 2001. Before working at New America Foundation, Coll was managing editor at The Washington Post.

• Ties to Terror-Friendly Al Jazeera: Al Jazeera English was awarded more than just the Columbia Award, the highest honor that Columbia could give. It was also granted a fellowship, and allowed to host its show, “Empire,” with a guest panel of full-time Columbia University School of Journalism professors. Al Jazeera employees work as adjunct faculty and guest lecturers, and the journalism school also listed Al Jazeera English and Current TV (which has been bought by Al Jazeera) as potential vendors at its upcoming jobs fair for 2013. Both were in attendance for the 2012 jobs fair. This is the same “news” organization that, in 2008, threw a birthday party for a Lebanese terrorist who had previously killed a police officer, a civilian and a 4-year-old girl.

Recommendations for Journalists

The Business and Media Institute has the following recommendations for journalists writing about Columbia School of Journalism.

• Extreme Bias Damages Credibility: The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics states that journalists should “remain free of associations or activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.” When citing or interviewing a Columbia alumni or faculty member, it is important to be aware of any left-wing connections he or she might have.

• Do Some Genuine Journalism and Investigate Major Donors: Left-wing billionaires donating millions of dollars to any organization should raise some eyebrows. Since 2000, Soros has given more than $500 million to liberal organizations in the U.S., underwriting almost every major liberal initiative. News outlets need to invest both time and effort to examine these connections.

Recommendations for Columbia University

The Business and Media Institute has the following recommendations for how Columbia can repair its reputation as a premier journalism school.

• Hire Conservative Professors: The SPJ Code of Ethics states that journalists should “Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.” Twenty-seven of the 40 Columbia University School of Journalism full-time professors work for left-wing publications, while only three work at the moderately conservative Wall Street Journal, and one is a Fox News contributor (who also writes for left-wing outlets). In order to remain balanced, Columbia should hire more neutral and conservative journalists.

• Refuse to Give a Platform to Those who Support Terrorists: Columbia needs to stop catering to the blatantly pro-terror news network, Al Jazeera. When Columbia University, as one of the foremost schools for journalism in the nation, not only entertains but promotes a blatantly anti-American and pro-terrorist news network, it undermines the nature of journalism.

Columbia University is home to the only Ivy League graduate journalism school, and one of only three graduate journalism programs in the United States. The iconic brick and stone buildings house a program envisioned by legendary wizard of journalism Joseph Pulitzer. The students who are accepted know that they are getting one of the most respected journalism educations in the world. Their school is also the custodian of the Pulitzer Prize, the most coveted award in the field.

The influence of the Columbia University School of Journalism (CUSJ) is extensive. Alumni have gone on to hold significant jobs at prominent media outlets including all three broadcast news networks (ABC, NBC and CBS), CNN, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Bloomberg and NPR.

And that fact should worry anyone who values objectivity and balance in journalism. The school uses its position as a leading journalism institution to promote a liberal agenda that has sweeping impact on the news Americans consume.

Columbia recently saw a change of leadership when Steve Coll, former president of the liberal, Soros-funded New America Foundation, was named the new president of the Journalism School. He takes over the presidency for New Republic writer Nicholas Lemman. Coll has big plans for the school. “The Journalism School has a chance across the next decade to extend its leadership as an institution with worldwide influence,” he said in the press release for his appointment at the school.

But Coll’s résumé is mild compared to some of the professors on the staff. Todd Gitlin, a professor and chair of the journalism Ph.D. program, was one of the founders and first presidents of the radical left-wing group Students for a Democratic Society. Lately, Gitlin has been an outspoken supporter of the “amazingly intense,” “sweet tempered” Occupy movement. He is also listed on the journalism school’s site as a “faculty expert” on both ethics and American politics.

Victor Navasky, head of the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review, came to the school from The Nation. Navasky worked as editor of the hard-left magazine, where he still serves as Publisher Emeritus. Professor Betsy West was fired from CBS for her involvement in “Rathergate.” She now teaches “Video Storytelling” at Columbia.

Columbia rewards those who share a similar bias. Al Jazeera was not only presented with the highest award the school could give, but granted a fellowship as well. The pro-terror news network has repeatedly criticized Israel and even threw a birthday party for a Palestinian terrorist. To add to its blatant endorsement of the Qatari royal family-owned news network, Columbia hired an Al Jazeera anchor as an adjunct journalism professor. It also has invited several other Al Jazeera employees to speak as guest lecturers.

The rest of Columbia shares the ideology of the Journalism School. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spewed his Holocaust denial in the university’s lecture halls, and left-wing billionaire George Soros delivered an anti-Bush, anti-American rant at in the form of a commencement speech. Columbia’s obvious embrace of liberal views reinforces that proclivity in the journalism school, which promises to offer “a curriculum as pluralistic and polyphonic as New York itself.”

The Media Research Center’s Business and Media Institute has extensively researched Columbia University School of Journalism, including its faculty, alumni, student publications, funding, guest lecturers, influence, endorsements and awards. BMI found that there was a significant left-wing bias prevalent at the school.

http://mrc.org/special-reports/special-report-columbia-university?page=2

His other contributions:

Any studies coming out of these universities should be viewed with a sceptics eye!

Eighty-year-old George Soros is a Hungarian-American hedge fund manager who became known as “the Man Who Broke the Bank of England” after he made $1 billion in 1992. Soros graduated from the London School of Economics in 1952. After graduation, he started his career in the London merchant bank of Singer & Friedlander. In 1956, he moved to New York City and his career took off. He earned large profits from investments and currency speculation. According to Forbes, George Soros is ranked 35th on the list of the world’s richest people, with an estimated net worth of $14.2 billion.

George Soros returned an average of 30.5% per year between 1969 and 2000. In 2007, Soros came back from retirement after the quant liquidity crunch and managed to generate a 32% return for the year. Soros even managed to return 8% in 2008, the worst year for most hedge funds. Soros also returned 29% in 2009, earning $3.3 billion in fees and investment gains.

http://www.insidermonkey.com/hedge-fund/soros+fund+management/2/

It’s difficult to make a fortune but even more difficult to maintain it. These billionaires are working on strategies to maintain their billions with minimal effort therefore everything they do must be looked at with a jaundiced eye.

Eugene Gendlin!

Soros bribes and governments listen.

CREW’s Left-Wing Funders

CREW is funded by a long list of left-wing organizations and foundations.

George Soros’ Open Society Institute gave $250,000 to CREW in 2008, which reported revenue of $3 million and a staff of 13 employees that year. Soros is a well-known funder of left-wing nonprofit groups. Other beneficiaries of Soros’ money include:  the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, America Coming Together, and MoveOn.org.

The Democracy Alliance made an early donation that helped breathe financial life into CREW. Members of this collaboration of liberal activists and labor unions, include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Rob Reiner, Norman Lear, and Drummond Pike (of the progressive Tides Foundation).

As one of CREW’s largest donors, Democracy Alliance has an unmistakably partisan agenda. It was founded in 2005 by a collective of at least 80 millionaires and billionaires for the purpose of moving America to the left ideologically.

Democracy Alliance founder Rob Stein told a Democratic Party national convention panel in August 2008 that the Alliance “over the past 30 months has put about $110 million into 30 groups.” Recipients of these grants read like a “Who’s-Who” of liberal activists:

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan was a regular guest on Al Franken’s Air America talk show.

Following the 2010 election, the Democracy Alliance held a conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, DC. One attendee told a Politico reporter who managed to get in, “The agreement is that everything that goes on here is confidential.” In attendance were many Democratic donors and left-leaning activists. Also in attendance was CREW’s Melanie Sloan. CREW was also reportedly one of the organizations represented at the conference. Sloan refused to comment on her participation.

In addition to Soros, Democracy Alliance members who fund CREW include Tim Gill (the Gill Foundation), Albert Dwoskin (the Dwoskin Family Foundation), Drummond Pike (the Tides Foundation), and Stephen Silberstein (the Stephen Silberstein Foundation).

The Tides Foundation has donated nearly $200,000 to CREW over the years. Tides was founded by philanthropist Drummond Pike and funds many leftist groups. Pike is also a member of the Democracy Alliance. According to its website, Tides sponsored 677 projects between 1996 and 2006, with combined revenues of $522.4 million.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) gave $75,000 to CREW in 2006. SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger is also the vice-chair of the Democracy Alliance.

In 2008, CREW received nearly $1.8 million—more than half of its total revenue—from 14 foundations, all of them known for funding left-leaning political causes:

• PBL Fund ($396,354)
• Bohemian Foundation ($250,000)
• Open Society Institute ($250,000)
• Dyson Foundation ($200,000)
• Gill Foundation ($150,000)
• Marisla Foundation ($100,000)
• Leland Fikes Foundation ($100,000)
• Stephen M. Silberstein Foundation ($100,000)
• Arca Foundation ($75,000)
• Wallace Global Fund ($50,000)
• Baytree Fund ($35,000)
• Tides Foundation ($35,000)
• Lotus Foundation ($30,000)
• Dwoskin Family Foundation ($25,000)

Pay-for-Play?

CREW insists that its donors do not play a role in determining its agenda. But the organization has attacked politicians and organizations that are foes of its contributors.

Cuba: The Arca Foundation gives significant funding to groups advocating opening ties to Cuba and reducing travel restrictions to the communist nation. Since 2004, CREW (an Arca grantee) has filed four complaints with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging improper campaign contributions by the US-Cuba Democracy PAC, a political action committee that supports a tough stance against Fidel Castro’s regime.

Gay rights: A major priority of the Gill Foundation is supporting organizations that advocate for LGBT rights. CREW, a Gill Foundation recipient, targeted former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), one of the chief political foes of the gay rights movement. Just three days before election day in 2004, CREW filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice claiming that Musgrave was illegally running her campaign out of her district office. The U.S. Department of Justice never officially acted on the complaint.

Not surprisingly, CREW has never criticized its own donors or their causes.  Corruption charges have dogged American labor unions, for example, but CREW has never filed a single complaint against a union.

CREW demands that nonprofit groups disclose the sources of their funding, but it hasn’t provided a complete list of its own  donors.

Following the 2010 elections, CREW posted a blog entry on its website criticizing Karl Rove’s fundraising group, American Crossroads, for refusing to release a list of its donors. CREW opined, “This is not a partisan issue—both left and right-leaning groups are reaping the benefits of non-disclosure under the 501(c)4 status and it’s time this nonsense comes to an end.” But CREW itself has reaped the benefits of non-disclosure under its own 501(c)3 status.

CREW has previously criticized other groups for not disclosing their donors. CREW went after public relations and research firm Berman and Company (a co-author of this report) for allegedly acting at the behest of its funders. And CREW filed a complaint with the IRS against the Center for Consumer Freedom, requesting that CCF disclose its donor list. According to the complaint, “We believe that a thorough investigation of the sources of [The Center for Consumer Freedom's] revenue will disclose the nearly exclusive funding by industry forces for whom CCF does their bidding.” (The IRS’s subsequent audit failed to find any substantive issues with CCF’s tax-exempt status.)

CREW also pushed hard for Congress to pass the DISCLOSE Act, which would have required nonprofit organizations to disclose their donors if they engaged in political activity. Following the 2010 mid-term election, CREW’s blog declared, “Yesterday voters were resoundingly disgusted with the barrage of television ads, mostly negative and extremely misleading, by shadowy outside groups.”

At the same time, CREW has never released an itemized list of its donors. Melanie Sloan has admitted that certain groups, such as the Open Society Institute, fund CREW. Researchers have unearthed other CREW donors by cross-referencing tax filings and other documents from other left-leaning foundations and organizations. But much of CREW’s funding remains undisclosed.

http://www.activistcash.com/citizens_for_responsibility_and_ethics_in_washington_CREW/funds.htm

The answer to our governmental problems? Our elected representatives should be elected to serve for a maximum of 12 yrs. After that they go back to their regular jobs!

Use the search engine at this site for further info – here’s just a little of the information at this site:

http://mediachecker.wordpress.com/?s=fabians

http://mediachecker.wordpress.com/?s=soros

I’m not a natural born citizen of the USA, that being said, I love the Constitution and Bill of Rights of this great country which is being abolished before our very eyes on a daily basis. Not just under Obama but many of the other presidents in the past from both parties.