CMC's PR Office: Biased in Favor of Democrats?

That's right: the website is clearly biased for Democrats.

An alum contacted me earlier today with the following message.

So, the kids only workded [sic?] for Obama over the break? I don't think so. You might have said "Students work for presidential candidates over the break". I am disappointed in your obvious bias and lack of care and concern for the whole Claremont community. It is clear that you are getting close to creating a hostile environment for those with beliefs different from yours. The school needs to be more careful about breaking federal bias law.

The initial title was "Students Campaign for Barack Obama Over Break." After this alum complained, they changed the title to "Students Campaign for Presidential Candidates Over Break." Good for the alum for checking the bias. Unfortunately, that bias has gotten more pronounced over time.

During the entire election season, there were no articles on any of the Claremont McKenna students or alums working for John McCain or Republicans, despite the existence of such groups and individuals.

John "Michael" Whatley, President of the Claremont College Republicans, has told me that he's sent lots of information on the activities of his Republican club to Claremont McKenna's public relations arm, only to be ignored. When he and other members of the club attended the Res Publica dinner, fellow member, Laura Sucheski, received a check from an alum of $500, which was subsequently put to good use.

We know that the website is biased, especially after this year. The webmaster wrote a feature on the awarding of the Port Side's non-monetary award, but nothing of the $10,000 Breidel award of Elise Viebeck, editor emerita of the Claremont Independent.

They wrote nothing of the Claremont Republicans going door to door for Congressman David Dreier, who won a tough reelection campaign or the failed congressional run of John Lerew, CMC.

Instead they chose to cover such alums as Clark Lee '04, who has served as the Los Angeles County Democratic Party (LACDP), Steve Grove CMC '00, who serves as political director of YouTube, or Taryn Benarroch '05, who was named Deputy Field Director for Barack Obama's Orlando/Central Florida campaign office.

Why not cover the ones actually involved in the political process? Maybe the P.R. department has the same problem as the student body, 75% of whom said they were voting for Barack Obama.

So much for the old bell curve argument -- that CMC has an equal percentage of conservatives and liberals. CMC's, like its PR department, has been lurching to the left and conservative students aren't welcome much anymore.

5-C- Bias Incidents Should Be Properly Ignored

Greg Zahner, columnist for The Student Life complains that "the bias incident reports are a failure because they make the bias incidences the problem of the targeted group. To turn these failed responses into something meaningful, the administrators need to make bias incidences the problem of the perpetrators and the problem of the entire campus community."

Sorry, but people unwilling to hear the words "fag" or "Hillary is a foxy lesbian," have little to no place at a college community. The freedom of speech includes the freedom to offend. That doesn't happen to be my opinion; it happens to be the law.

Zahner's right, the bias-incidents are the problem of the targeted group and that's how they ought to remain. All of us shouldn't be forced to take the "social justice training" he extols.

Unfortunately, Zahner doesn't look at the real reason so many of us ignore the emails.

Maybe the reason so many of us find the bias-related incidents so ridiculous is that the administration has been unwilling to address real crimes committed against conservative and libertarian students with so much as a peep. These crimes include destruction of property and
the hacking of email accounts. And yet they are rarely if ever investigated.