Terrorist’s Aborted Visit A PR Fiasco For Boston College
by Brian Maloney, March 30th, 2009 at 06:10pm
After an on-again, off-again plan to bring radical terrorist / Obama associate William Ayers to campus generated a considerable amount of negative publicity, Boston College administrators and students alike look downright foolish tonight.
Until the media spotlight became a bit too bright, BC higher-ups seemed unwilling to admit they were even aware of the Ayers visit, while it also isn’t clear to what extent student groups went through the proper channels to organize the event.
Now, under pressure from talk radio, newspapers, local police officers (who believe Ayers had a role in the killing of a Brighton-based officer in 1970) and the general public, it’s finger-pointing time on campus.
At this point, it appears there will be no speech at all, not even one delivered by satellite and / or off-campus. But this has changed so many times that I may very well be wrong about this. It is confusing to say the least. From a Globie update late this afternoon:
Patrick Rombalski, BC’s vice president of student affairs, said in a statement that administrators cancelled the lecture “out of concern for the safety and well-being of our students and respect for the local community where the alleged actions of the Weather Underground continue to reverberate today.”
Student groups had announced last night that administrators had agreed to allow Ayers to deliver his lecture from Chicago at 6 p.m. via satellite, but administrators today said they had never approved the talk.
Boston College said it had received hundreds of complaints about Ayers since Boston radio host Michael Graham discussed Ayers’ visit on air during his Friday program. Many of the complaints were Boston police officers who threatened to protest the event, said college spokesman Jack Dunn.
Many local critics cited the Weather Underground’s alleged involvement with the murder of a Boston police officer, Walter Schroeder, during a 1970 bank robbery in Brighton.
“The emotional scars of the murder of Boston Police Sergeant Walter Schroeder, allegedly at the hands of the Weather Underground, which left nine children fatherless in the shadows of this campus, was an issue that we could not ignore,” Dunn said in a statement. “Our student organizers, who are in their early 20’s, cannot fully understand the reaction that this painful chapter in our history evokes in this community.”
For his part, Graham is relishing the second wave of publicity he’s received locally in recent weeks, especially since this one doesn’t involve his mug shot.
But this issue had been out there for a couple of weeks, did any other local host have the good sense to jump all over it? It was truly up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the worst coverage seen of the controversy emerged from student newspaper BC Heights, which whitewashes some of the controversy, leaving out his Obama ties and playing up Ayers’ phony “education theorist” credentials.
In the last post, I told you about our November confrontation with Ayers over his Sirhan Sirhan book dedication. That came after sitting through a mind-numbingly awful hour-long speech on “education theory” which contained almost no substance of any kind other than constant reassurances that he “loves children”.
I didn’t get the sense that anyone in the audience was attending for this reason, it was his radicalism and Obama ties that clearly drew several hundred to the DC church. That was made clear during the Q & A session afterward and subsequent book signing. The education issue is obviously a smokescreen.
The bottom line is that Ayers is little more than a garden-variety terrorist and full-fledged creep who got a second 15 minutes of fame thanks to his friendship with budding dictator Barack Obama. The real question is why anyone in politics or the academic field would want to be associated with this pathetic has-been.
Ayers image: This Ain’t Hell blog
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized
7 Comments Add your own
1. Joe from Brighton | March 30th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Common sense wins out-a terrorist is kept out of the neighborhood where his comrades’ actions killed a police officer in Brighton in 1970.
The BC moonbats from Hell must be very disappointed.
2. Circlet Soft | March 31st, 2009 at 8:15 am
Personally, I think it’s completely up to any college or university to succumb to public pressure or not. That is, this is not a “Constitutional” free speech issue.
And I am not much of a Bill Ayers’ fan.
But I would like to think that, of any part of our society, that academia would stand tallest in the face of public outcry and would resist the will of the mob.
That is not the case in this day and age, apparently.
Witness the lack of conservative thought in most major universities (and I am saying this as a progressive). I think all of our young folks would benefit from a rigorous discussion of all topics. They’d learn to think for themselves (then would naturally end up on “my” side - hahaha).
3. WRKO Stafer | March 31st, 2009 at 9:05 am
It seems like Brian’s previous post on Ayres covered this topic. I don’t see the need for back to back ones. Yesterday’s papers Brian. Come on, throw something at us we can really get into.
4. piratetoby | March 31st, 2009 at 9:26 am
Softy,
I agree. Colleges and universities do have the right to reject or select activities, speakers, or whatever it might me.
However, one of the fundamental principles of learning and higher education is to teach critical and independent thinking. To encourage all sides, and then allowing the students to make their own decisions.
I’m not a fan of Ayres either, but would have loved to have listened to a man who has been living in obscurity for many years, in academia himself, who could have ruined Obama’s presidential campaign by mere (and a very limited) association. THAT IS OVERLOOKED BY THE ENLIGHTENED ACADEMIA AT BOSTON COLLEGE?
Where is the outcry from the faculty? Is everyone over at BC so beholden to the public and a tragedy that happened near the campus 40 years ago, that they’ve lost their voices? So beholden to alumni and donors that money will dictate their decisions?
Just a sad state of affairs.
5. piratetoby | March 31st, 2009 at 9:29 am
Stafer,
Yes, you’re right. C’mon Brian, throw us a bone. We’re chomping at the bit down here.
6. piratetoby | March 31st, 2009 at 10:28 am
Stafer,
Where the hell have you been hiding? Until Bri tosses us some raw meat, let’s slink away towards the gutter…..
Now that Magpie and the Big Guy have been “outed”, so to speak, what’s the deal? Are they a couple? Or were they outed AFTER it was over?
This info. is ever so important when listening. Inconsequential remarks on the air take on a whole new meaning between people gettin’ it on. Like listening with different ears.
So, what’s the skinny, McStaff?
7. Circlet Soft | March 31st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Unrelated to saving wrko, but what up with that Globe article yesterday saying we pay the 2nd highest amount in the nation (per capita and per mile) for our fire department in Boston?
Odd, esp. given that Boston is not really a big city.
Howie’s friend Mayor Menino has his hands full, it looks like.
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