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A Word About Ward
0

ne of the
worst things
about being
sick is to stay home
and use television as
the main source of
entertainment for
each waking hour.
And if you hap-
HARRY
pened to be sick
KI RS BAUM
and tuned to FOX
Columnist
News last week, you
couldn't avoid the
Ward Churchill "saga."
Churchill, a University of Colorado
professor, has been in the cable news
crosshairs for a few weeks now,
because of "Some People Push Back.
On the justice of Roosting
Chickens," a paper he wrote about
the 9-11 tragedy in 2001.
"The most that can honestly be
said of those involved on Sept. 11 is
that they finally responded in kind to
some of what this country has dis-
pensed to their people as a matter of
course," he wrote. "That they waited
so long to do so is, notwithstanding
the 1993 action at the WTC [World
Trade Center], more than anything a
testament to their patience and
restraint."
As for the innocent civilians who
were killed that day, he wrote: "True
enough, they were civilians of a sort.
But innocent? Gimme a break. They
formed a technocratic corps at the
very heart of America's global finan-
cial empire.
c,
... they were too busy braying,
incessantly and self-importantly, into
their cell phones, arranging power
lunches and stock transactions, each
of which translated, conveniently out
of sight, mind and smelling distance,
into the starved and rotting flesh of
[Iraqi] infants," he wrote.
"If there was a better, more effec-
tive or, in fact, any other way of visit-
ing some penalty befitting their par-
ticipation upon the little Eichmanns
inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the
Twin Towers, I'd really be interested
in hearing about it."
Pretty sickening stuff, but why did
it take so long for Churchill's name
to appear in the news when he pub-
lished this rant so many years ago?
Churchill Was supposed to appear

Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com .

at a speaking engagement at
Hamilton College, a small private
liberal arts school in Clinton, N.Y.,
when someone contacted someone at
FOX News about his background.
The outcry was instantaneous and
the Feb. 3 speech was canceled due to
death threats.
He appeared five days later at his
home campus to a crowd of 1,100,
including enough security personnel
to protect a president.
Churchill, whose Native American
background is also coming into ques-
tion, recently resigned as chair of the
school's ethnic studies department.
Now, I am in no way supporting
this lunatic whose screed could be
easily dismissed in almost any
debate.
What I'm saying is that this nut
from University of Colorado,
Playboy's sixth-ranked party school in
2002, has been spouting off to small
groups of like-minded people for
years, and a discussion of academic
rights and free speech should have
started much sooner.
FOX News commentator Bill
O'Reilly has allowed this nonsensical,
unimportant, legend-in-his-own-
mind Ward Churchill to play the role
of victim on a stage much bigger
than what he deserves.
O'Reilly, who has covered this
story nonstop for two weeks, is ques-
tioning why network news hasn't
done the same.
During his "Talking Points" seg-
ment Feb. 11, O'Reilly said the
Churchill story was full of emotion,
free speech implications, taxpayer
involvement, and it has a villain. "It's
very interesting on a number of lev-
els, but not for the nightly news
broadcasts," he said, citing CBS and
NBC News' "one short report" and
nothing from ABC News. "If ever
there was an explanation of why [the
networks] are a losing audience and
FOX News is gaining, this is it."
No, Bill, you're gaining for differ-
ent reasons. The networks have 20
minutes to get their news into
homes. Cable news can spend count-
less hours on the same tired subject.
The networks missed their chance to
make this a big story when a lunatic
professor published a rant several
years ago.
And besides, why send a tank to
kill a fly? O

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Orchard Lake. Rd. South of Lone Pine Rd.

West Bloomfield, Michigan

248.683.1010

087

938C90

festi,Qat D ane ,

vit's

2005

Intermediate Modern Dance Technique with Yoga & Pilates
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Member, Ann Arbor Dance Works, MA in Dance from University of Michigan
Experienced teacher and performer

ittursd,ays from, 9:30-11 a.m. • Zell Dance Studio

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*1N

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2005

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