Anti-Semitism and Blatant Disregard for Journalistic Integrity

The New York Times had an interesting Editors' Note on their corrections page this morning. If you're not sure what they're talking about, it is a retraction to a story on an investigation into anti-Semitism and verbal abuse by Columbia University professors towards Jewish students. One student was told that her eye color showed that she could not live in Israel, and another was removed from class for defending the state of Israel after his professor made pro-Palestinian remarks. Columbia's internal investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the faculty, and the New York Times made a deal with Columbia administrators not to interview the students involved or any Columbia student with conflicting opinions about the incidents in return for getting an advance copy of the investigation's findings.

Yes, that means that the Times ignored an entire aspect of the story in order to report on it first. They must have felt that, at the time, getting the report from the panel that concluded there was "no evidence of any statements made by faculty that could reasonably be construed as anti-Semitic" was more important than hearing from the student who was told she had no claim to the land of Israel because her eyes are green.