BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Thursday, August 07, 2003
The Bulger aftermath, and
questions for Chancellor Lombardi. After having spent a good part
of the morning reading almost every word the Globe
and the Herald
have to offer on the resignation of UMass president Bill Bulger --
and having glanced at coverage in the New
York Times and
Washington
Post as well -- I have
come to a sad conclusion:
I've got nothing to say, beyond
what I've
already said.
Bulger's $960,000 get-out-of-town
package seems excessive, given that his pension should run about
$200,000 a year. He might have been talked into taking less rather
than staying to face a newly constituted board of trustees with Alan
Dershowitz screaming at him through every meeting.
Still, the man was under contract,
and it wasn't going to be cheap to make him go away.
But with the Bulger matter having
been so thoroughly chewed over, let's shift to a sidebar: the story
that UMass Amherst chancellor John
Lombardi may be named
president -- interim, permanent, or both.
The Globe's Marcella
Bombardieri reports that
Lombardi -- who's been at Amherst for a year -- did a terrific job
during his nearly 10 years as president of the University of
Florida.
What Bombardieri does not report is
that Lombardi failed to distinguish himself, to say the least, in a
troubling academic-freedom case that came up last fall.
Economics professor M.J. Alhabeeb,
an Iraqi native and a staunch opponent of Saddam Hussein, was paid a
visit in his office by an FBI agent and a campus cop after they
learned that he was against President Bush's plans to invade
Iraq.
Alhabeeb pronounced the matter "not
a big deal." But the fact is that a naturalized American citizen was
informed upon and questioned because of his political views and his
national origin.
Yet when the faculty senate met to
discuss the matter, the Springfield Union-News quoted Lombardi
as saying:
I have had, at some time
or another, had my friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors
asked about my activities, views, and politics in order to get one
job or another. When we are talking about the FBI on campus asking
questions, we ought to be clear about which activity we
have.
Lombardi also urged that the UMass
community "not be distracted over cases that are not fundamental
attacks on free speech."
For his spineless performance in
the face of a challenge to academic freedom, Lombardi was recently
singled out for a Boston
Phoenix Muzzle Award.
It's something he ought to be
called to account for before anyone starts talking seriously about a
promotion. The Dersh would be just the one to ask Lombardi the
questions that need to be asked.
The next Sony?
BusinessWeek has a fascinating piece by Jane Black on
Apple's
ongoing attempt to reinvent itself
-- from a boutique computer maker that, despite its cutting-edge
reputation, is slowly fading away to "a high-end consumer-electronics
and services company à la Sony."
Her examples: the to-die-for
iPod
portable music player (the envious take note: Mrs. Media Log got me
one for Father's Day) and the iTunes
Music Store.
Thanks to FarrellMedia
for pointing this out.
New in this week's
Phoenix. I've got a problem with the Vatican's recent
statement on same-sex
marriage -- and its demand
that democratically elected politicians toe the line.
Also, a
Harvard study shows that
the so-called liberal media are far more tolerant of conservative
arguments than the conservative media are of liberal ones. But
you
already knew that.
posted at 9:13 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
