A truck with electronic panels drives along a street near Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., on Dec. 12, 2023.Photo by Steven Senne/AP Photo

Michael Shellenberger: No, Claudine Gay's resignation from Harvard was not a result of a vast right-wing conspiracy

If media organizations don’t stop waving away genuine scandals as conspiracy theories, they will continue to lose legitimacy

by · National Post

Right-wing activists are responsible for the resignation of Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay, say mainstream news media organizations. Harvard President’s Resignation Highlights New Conservative Weapon Against Colleges: Plagiarism, read the Associated Press headline. Politico attributed Gay’s resignation to a “conservative activist’s crusade.” Both the New York Times and Washington Post published pieces suggesting that Gay resigned her position because of conservative pressure. And many other commentators suggested that racism played a role in Gay’s departure.

Jonathan S. Tobin: Claudine Gay debacle highlights the perils of DEIIn the end, not even the support of former U.S. president Barack Obama and one of his former cabinet members was enough to save Claudine Gay from being forced out as president of Harvard University. Nor did the initial support of the Harvard Corporation itself, the endorsement of much of the Harvard faculty or the student newspaper allow Gay to remain in office at one of America’s most prestigious academic institutions. After a month of controversy that began with her appalling testimony in front of Congress on Dec. 5, along with the presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania, and was prolonged by a series of revelations about her history of plagiarism, the drama concluded on Jan. 2 when she issued a statement declaring her intention to resign.Jonathan S. Tobin, National Post Wire Services, 03 Jan 2024Rahim Mohamed: Jews aren't 'weaponizing' antisemitism — they're often Israel's most vocal criticsFormer Harvard Hillel director Bernie Steinberg created a stir over the weekend, when he published an op-ed in the Harvard Crimson calling on defenders of Israel to stop “weaponizing” antisemitism for their own ends. The op-ed found a sizable audience in Canada when Amira Elghawaby decided to stoke divisions by sharing it on Twitter, rather than using her role as special representative on combating Islamophobia to tone down the rhetoric and speak out against hate.Rahim Mohamed, 03 Jan 2024