Mock Flier Creates Controversy Over Intolerance

One of the bigger controversies that overcame GW this year was the mock flier that purported to be from GW’s chapter of the Young Americans Foundation. OTHER media outlets who reported the incident failed to notice the joke and lacked any nuance in the story, immediately jumping to conclusions. This was one of the articles that didn’t.

More than 100 fliers posted around GW Monday mocked a conservative student group’s upcoming events and drew outrage for their offensive language.

The posters, which were headlined, “Hate Muslims? So Do We!!!,” claimed to promote Islamo-Fascism Awareness week, an actual week-long series of events sponsored by the Young America’s Foundation (YAF) that intends to denounce radical Islam.

However, the fliers are credited to the “Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness,” a fictitious and unregistered student organization. The fliers also include this post-script: “PS Seriously, do a google video search for ‘The Power of Nightmares.’”

“The Power of Nightmares” is a 2005 BBC documentary that compares the American neo-conservative movement to the radical Islamist movement.

The parody has sparked a discussion about tolerance at GW, prompting University President Steven Knapp to issue a statement reaffirming the GW’s commitment to racial and religious tolerance.

Clinton, Obama groups start on campus

[Originally posted at The Daily Colonial on 4/2/07]

By Riki Parikh
Associate News Editor

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama officially have a presence at GW. Student supporters of both Democratic presidential candidates met for the first time this weekend in the first campus political activity for the 2008 presidential election.

“GW Students for Barack Obama” met on Saturday in Phillips Hall to watch a Web cast of Obama from Iowa. The group’s meeting coincided with house parties around the country that featured the Web cast and an informational DVD about the candidate.

The 20 students in attendance were welcomed by Chapter Director Benjy Locks ’09, who started building the organization in February. The GW chapter is recognized by the national Students for Barack Obama campaign, a grassroots organization that hosted Obama at George Mason University in February. The group, which at the time was unaffiliated, recently became the official student outreach arm of the Obama campaign.

The Obama group became a registered student org earlier this month, said Locks, and since then has a list of 40 members. There are seven members on the E-board, including a communications director and a field director.

On returning to The Daily Colonial

I stepped down as editor-in-chief in December after two years of covering GW news almost every day. That’s just something you can’t let go. I missed both reporting news and being part of the unique experiment of online journalism.

So, in a move that Dr. Phil would probably admonish, I decided to stop trying to let go and just come back. As of today, I will serve as associate news editor. I will aide the news organization in gathering and reporting campus and metro news. I also hope to write a weekly column that provides informative news and analysis of what is happening at GW.

In addition, I hope to continue to develop the online platform that The Daily Colonial has used since it was created. The transformation of journalism from print to online has been remarkable to watch. We now see newspapers spending a great deal of time and money on reporting specially for their websites and even newspapers completely online. SMPA is even offering a class called “News Online” next semester.

As one of the first online student publications in the country – one of the few exclusively online publications on the Web – The Daily Colonial gives us a testing ground to try unique ways to present and report the news. We’re not bound by a paper that must be published at a certain time, so stay tuned for a more frequent use of the blog and online multimedia as well as a steady stream of news from our Web site.

It’s good to be back in the journalism game and we would love to hear your ideas or news tips to daily@gwu.edu. The Daily Colonial is here to serve you, so please share what you’re thinking and what you’re seeing.

News Analysis on Knapp

The George Washington University announced on Tuesday that Dr. Steven Knapp of the Johns Hopkins University will become the 16th president of the University, replacing Stephen Joel Trachtenberg after 19 years. Knapp will assume the position on Aug. 1, 2007.

Here is a news anaylsis I wrote for The Daily Colonial, on how Knapp’s leadership style differs from Trachtenberg. In my conversation with Knapp yesterday and in his public comments, there was a real sense that Knapp was ready to work together with the entire community. Trachtenberg is known for being quite steadfast and decisive, which is a great quality to have, but it is often times at head with several groups, notably the surrounding Foggy Bottom community.

In contrast, Knapp seemed willing to talk about issues with various members of the GW community, including the residents of Foggy Bottom. He said something that was telling: even though you may not decide in their favor, they’ll at least appreciate the fact that you sat down with them. An astute calculation that is very telling: while Knapp and Trachtenberg may be similar in their views on things (which they seem to be), the approach is different. And that will probably make a huge difference.