OC Register and UC Irvine Administration Form Convenient Alliance against Bloggers

The UC Irvine administration is in full crisis management mode following the dust up over allegations of abetting an environment of anti-Semitism, and has summoned MSMer Marla Jo Fisher of the Orange County Register to attack bloggers for allegedly misinterpreting and over-inflating the actions of the Muslim Student Union. Fisher, whose sloppy piece of reporting entitled “UCI Deals with Claims of Anti-Semitism” which appeared in the Register on Sunday, advanced the administration’s claim that campus “outsiders” are adding fuel to the fire in a campus war of words between Jews and Muslims. The following excerpt is her description of a Republican from San Diego who dressed as a Muslim at one of MSU’s “Apartheid Week” events:

Gibson's masquerade, authentic enough to spur campus police to disarm him of fake bombs strapped to his body, is an example of how real events at UC Irvine have spun off into their own sometimes fictional existence, spawning street theater and reverberating worldwide on dozens of blogs.

Events at UC Irvine are no different than at many other schools. A recent University of California study found 85 percent of UCI students agreed there was respect for all students, regardless of race or religion – roughly the same percentage as at other UC campuses.

Yet UCI has achieved a blog-inspired reputation for anti-Semitism – a notoriety that many campus observers say is unfair and unwarranted.

Not only does Fisher’s piece discredit her as a journalist and makes her appear as the schools de facto PR representative, but does injustice to those students who have grave concerns about MSU’s anti-Semitic activities, and the administration’s indifference towards it.

One student not mentioned in the article, Reut Cohen, maintains the most comprehensive documentation of MSU’s activities at her site reutrcohen.blogspot.com, and does a pretty good job of gaining video coverage and citing MSU’s constant and ignored violations of UCI’s campus code. Despite being intimidated and spat upon by MSU students, she has obtained extensive coverage of such incidents as the shout-down of Jewish speaker Daniel Pipes which Fisher called peaceful, and has even appeared on Neil Cavuto’s Your World with ex-PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat.

Marla Jo Fisher also failed to mention my post and video recording here at OC Blog which evidently reveals MSU’s thugs threatening, harassing, and hustling me outside of UCI’s Crystal Cove Auditorium, and subsequently following me to my next class.

Instead of putting full concentration in their duties in addressing student needs and concerns, paid public officials like Sally Peterson (pictured), the Dean of Student Services and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, have engaged reporters like Fisher to hide and distort UCI’s problems instead of dealing with them. Hence, it predictably took Peterson two weeks to respond to my grievance with the Muslim Student Union and the administration’s conduct in dealing with the conflict that night at Crystal Cove.

And just to inform you Marla Jo, the task of an ethical and competent journalist is to gather facts and reveal the truth. If you are going to write about the blogs and their impact on this story at least try to understand the function of new media and its ability to gather facts better, faster, and often times more fairly than older mediums of communication. Also read and listen to our side before branding us as outsiders, because we are closer to the front line than you are.

Comments

[Dan Chmielewski]

Wow, just a tad overeaching on the concept of an alliance between UCI and the Register. I tend to believe the traditional media, as far as this story goes,are a little less unbiased than the blogs are.

[It's Hot in Here]

SCATHING!

[redperegrine]

Maybe, Dan, but the media, especially the local MSM are notorious (to me at least)stooges for established institutions - particularly local government, educational hierarchies, and philanthropies.

Alternative information sources - like the OC Weekly and the blogs may be "less unbiased" (maybe not), but they are far more likely to be less pussilanimous and more skeptical than the the MSM.

[The Mechanical Eye]

And yet, often, outsiders are the problem -- the problem being that UCI students are the ones inviting them.

Both the MSU and opposing groups revel in choosing the most controversial speakers they can find, and later wonder why everyone's so mad afterwards.

Don't whine about the dreaded "MSM" on this one -- there's a problem at UCI, and its mostly self-inflicted by students.

DU

[News Junkie]

Dan - The problem is that the MSM spends so much time trying to convince its audience that it's unbiased when in fact it's not. The blogs on the other hand tell you exactly where they are coming from. When you visit Red County there is little doubt that you are reading about events from a right-of- center point of view. Read the Liberal OC and expect a left-of-center point of view.

The problem with stories like Fisher's is that one spends more time trying to figure out her agenda or her "angle." It seems to be a matter of trust. Saavy news consumers like the readers of this blog simply don't trust the MSM and approach each story with a healthy level of skepticism.

UCI Administrators need to pull their collective heads out of the sand. They are way behind the curve on this one.

[El Liberdator]

Mechanical Eye,

The speakers can say whatever they want, its our right as students to critique them.

I'm just annoyed at administrators using the MSM to downplay and sugar coat the events at UCI, all while ignoring and putting off student concerns.

[F. Lee Bailey]

This is an email I received by the writer of the article several weeks ago in response to my complaint about her coverage of UCI:

"Actually, I spent quite a bit of time on campus this week observing what was going on, along with UCI administration's Free Speech and Advocacy Team that was there every minute to ensure everyone concerned was safe and able to exercise their rights of free speech as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the principles of academic freedom. I saw people arguing with each other but it went both ways. I also saw numerous attempts by various parties to disrupt the Muslim events that were quelled by campus police.

Were you there? I say this because if you rely on blogs and a few snippets of video for your information you are not getting the full picture. I'm sure you know as a lawyer that events are not always as they are portrayed by one side or the other."

Looks like she was there with the administration's "Free Speech and Advocacy Team", whatever that is. As I explained to her, she is clueless.

[Pat]

Is it "overreaching" when OCR reporters and editors attend an all day sensitivity training session sponsored by CAIR? Ms. Fisher learned her lesson, apparently.

No mention of the Muslim radicals who appear regularly there and their hate speeches--just the Jewish ones.

[Marla Jo Fisher]

Hi. My story has been moved off the home page, it can be read at the above link. Thanks for linking to it and for discussing this important topic. For your information, I was attending the MSU events on my own and was not allied with any particular group, as implied by one of the commentators. I spent a great deal of time and effort researching this story over the past months so I am pleased that people are reading and discussing it.

[Marla Jo Fisher]

Oops I guess the url I posted did not appear publicly. Here it is: http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/countywide/article_1724512.php

[Dan Chmielewski]

I think you're confusing reporters like Marla with editorial writers like Greenhut. I thin Marla did a nice job of reporting what she saw and has a good cross-reference of points of view. Its not her job to point out who's right or who's wrong.

And as for your suggestion to read the Liberal OC.com; thanks for the tip. I think I will

[Student at UC Irvine]

The administration at UC Irvine needs to investigate complaints instead of complain about the blogosphere giving them a bad reputation. Obviously they've earned that reputation.

The OC Register doesn't have a great reputation with being fair regarding UC Irvine either. They refused to write a story regarding the fact that there is an on-going government investigation at the university. The OC Register has a tendency to equate the Jewish groups to the Muslim groups, even though no single Jewish student has harassed a Muslim student (although the statistics of Muslims attacking Jews, Conservative or pro-Israel students is at a much higher ratio).

Shouldn't the administration be worried that the Muslim Student Union renamed the school? Now everyone refers to the campus as "UC Intifada" instead of "UC Irvine" thanks to MSU t-shirts and memorabilia.

[clprevatt]

Student at UCI;

The OC Register has a tendency to equate the Jewish groups to the Muslim groups, even though no single Jewish student has harassed a Muslim student (although the statistics of Muslims attacking Jews, Conservative or pro-Israel students is at a much higher ratio).

Can you please give us some evidence to back up your claim?

Shouldn't the administration be worried that the Muslim Student Union renamed the school? Now everyone refers to the campus as "UC Intifada" instead of "UC Irvine" thanks to MSU t-shirts and memorabilia.

How and when did the MSU rename the University? Who is calling UCI the "UC Intifata"? Again, evidence?

[Pat]

The problem IMO is not so much Ms. Fisher, but the Register's editorial stance. This article is another one of their Sunday advocacy pieces: not straight news, not op-ed. And every Sunday we are instructed that there are no problems in OC except racism (and religion-ism). The DA is possibly charging juveniles as adults because of racism, the State is at fault for possibly tainted Mexican candy, the Jewish students at UCI are just as bad as the MSU. Just google the facts and sources in these types of articles and you will find out the rest of the facts to reach your own conclusions.

The Register is emulating the LA Times with this type of journalism, with the same results. It's not the internet that's destroying papers...

[UC Irvine Student]

UC Intifada shirts:
http://bp2.blogger.com/_4vIqiO5qQXM/RkPOGra7fgI/AAAAAAAAAJw/oPwEUY4OojY/s1600-h/P5100005.JPG

List of MSU events (notice how one of the events, which featured Amir Abdel Malik Ali who praised terrorism, is titled "The UC Intifada"): http://www.msu-uci.com/static/azfront.jpg

Reut Cohen wrote a complaint to the administration regarding the use of UC Intifada, which is clearly a play on words and violates UC policy.

See the letter here:
http://reutrcohen.blogspot.com/2007/05/recent-letter-msu-violates-uci-code.html

As for the Orange County Register, simply read articles on the Jewish/Muslim issue. The articles are seldom neutral. They have more of an op-ed spin.

[Reut Cohen]

Fisher's article reportedly welcomes discussion. Every comment that disagrees with her stance and affirms that there is a serious problem at UC Irvine has been removed from the article's page. Ironically none of the comments that could be perceived as hostile or rude have been removed (such as those that the Jews are the problem at UCI). I could care less if people are posting that the Jewish students have an interest, etc. That's there right. But maybe comments from actual students, you know, people who actually attend UCI should be left up so that readers can be introduced to another side?

The OC Register has proven repeatedly that it is not an objective source of information. Fisher claims to have been present at all of the MSU events. Well, about a handful of student bloggers were also present at all of the events and actually taped at the events. The blogger who is accused of not being student by Dean Sally Peterson graduated around December 2006/January 2007. This blogger, moreover, documented incidents at UCI for years while he was a student. A few bloggers who were not mentioned by name in the article live a couple minutes from campus or work at UCI. El Liberdator and myself are actually students. We're on campus every single day.

We're definitely at the front lines.

[Nobody]

Per UCI Acting Director of Judicial Affairs Edgar Dormitorio - the same guy who threw you out of the Amir Abdel Malik Ali event:

"Currently there is no policy related to recordings in indoor venues. As a courtesy to registered student organizations, we have assisted groups when they have made requests to prohibit recordings during their programs. We are in the process of reviewing this practice that has been in place for the past several years . You should be aware that there are many other campuses, including UC sister campuses that have the same practice. Once the review of this practice is complete, student organizations will be informed of the outcome of the review."

Which UC sister campuses? Certainly not UC Riverside - Al Awda moved their conference because otherwise they'd have to permit "Zionists" to record their conference events.