Columbia newspaper silent after College Republicans doxing
The Columbia University student newspaper has declined to cover Antifa harassment towards the school’s College Republicans chapter despite both negative and positive coverage of the group in the past.
As Campus Reform previously reported, the NYC Antifa branch posted flyers of seven Columbia University College Republicans (CUCR) board members around campus, with each flyer containing their names, a photo, and a directive to readers that “if you see [name of board member], let him know what you think…”
[RELATED: Antifa targets Columbia College Republicans]
Although NYC Antifa claimed responsibility for posting the first round of flyers, it appears that at least some Columbia students were involved as well, since flyers have been spotted in areas of campus only accessible to students.
“‘Let him know what you think…’ is a bit ambiguous and could reasonably be interpreted as ‘if you think this guy deserves to be beat-up, go for it,’” CUCR member Joey Siegel told Campus Reform, with CUCR President Ari Boosalis expressing similar sentiments.
“We’re living targets on this campus,” Boosalis recently told Fox News. “The scary thing is that we don’t know what these people will do to us. If I walk outside I could get attacked by any person.”
[RELATED: Students storm library, shut down College Republicans meeting]
However, despite the concerns over potential Antifa violence, The Columbia Spectator has neglected to cover the doxing, a decision that CUCR president Boosalis argues is in line with the newspaper’s history of “biased coverage.”
“It’s not surprising that they didn’t cover us getting targeted by Antifa, they’ve published a lot of op-eds and news against CUCR in the last two weeks,” Boosalis told Campus Reform. “How could The Columbia Spectator miss out on a national news story? It only comes down to one conclusion.”
The Spectator has, however, covered numerous stories involving CUCR as of late, such as an October 30 story on how students demanded that the Republican club be defunded.
On the other hand, it provided coverage of the Mike Cernovich event at Columbia a day after it occurred, reporting that more than 250 students protested his speech, with a follow-up story two days later on how disruptors of the event faced no consequences.
Last month, The Spectator published a story smearing CUCR as “far right” because of its invitation of Mike Cernovich and Tommy Robinson.
[RELATED: College Republicans under investigation for ‘thought crime’]
Boosalis, who has has closely observed coverage of CUCR for the past two years, argues that The Spectator has “shown bias in the past,” and the lack of coverage of the Antifa harassment “shows continued bias against our club, especially this year.”
“The Spectator has used our name and slandered it in order to push views and boost ad revenue,” Boosalis told Campus Reform.
Campus Reform reached out to The Spectator multiple times for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen
