The president of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/notre-dame-university" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Notre Dame University</a> disavowed two professors after they pushed pro-abortion messaging in a major newspaper.
Writing in the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-abortion-misinformation-health-policy-trap-laws-20221205-ildvxeb66bblfc2qml3xcvsfu4-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago Tribune</a>, Notre Dame professors Tamara Kay and Susan Ostermann defended abortion by attempting to debunk three “lies” told by pro-life advocates and policymakers. The two professors made spurious claims about abortion while leveling accusations at pro-lifers. Notre Dame’s president then wrote a letter to the editor disavowing their comments.
“During the last 50 years, lies and intentional misinformation have dictated abortion health policy in the U.S. Abortion has been demonized and characterized by utter falsities; it has gone under the radar for far too long,” the professors wrote. “Because lies have dictated health policy, it is even more important to correct them now that voters are choosing policy on the state level.”
The first “lie” the professors targeted was the idea that abortion bans prevent abortion. Instead, Kay and Ostermann claimed that abortion bans lead to more abortions, more unwanted pregnancies, and infant and maternal mortality. They offered no evidence to support the first two claims, but pointed to the fact that in El Salvador, which completely banned abortion in 1998, abortion complications are the second leading cause of maternal mortality and the third leading cause among adolescent girls; and that “[h]undreds of women have been jailed for abortion and aggravated homicide.”
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0&amp;_gl=1*v9j40z*_ga*MTE3MDIyNDM4Ni4xNjU4MzQzNjQx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY3MDQ1NjgzMS40NzAuMS4xNjcwNDU3MDE2LjYwLjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-54730">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA’S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US.</a>
The second “lie” the professors attempted to debunk was that abortions kill babies in the womb. To counter this idea, they claimed that 90% of abortions take place within 10 weeks of conception and fell back on the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/stacey-abrams-declares-it-is-a-fallacy-that-we-know-exactly-when-a-pregnancy-starts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claim</a> that at such an early stage, the developing embryo is neither a baby nor a fetus. Going further, they claimed that since a transvaginal ultrasound is required to detect the embryo, laws in several states that require an ultrasound before an abortion are immoral, and women who receive them before obtaining an abortion are victims of sexual violence, especially women in minority communities.
Next, Kay and Ostermann took at aim at claims that abortion is dangerous and that legislative exceptions for rape, incest, life-threatening fetal anomalies, or to protect the life of the mother only affect pregnant women. Instead, the professors claimed that abortions are perfectly safe; they then attacked Crisis Pregnancy Centers, which they labeled “anti-abortion rights propaganda sites,” and said that women who don’t abort their babies experience worse health and economic outcomes. They also claimed that doctors are affected by abortion laws because they create obstacles to health care for the woman or for administering abortifacient drugs used for other ailments.
Finally, Kay and Ostermann claimed that women are not having elective abortions up until birth; they instead claimed that abortions after 21 weeks “almost always a matter of life or death, and the pregnancy was very much wanted.”
In a <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/letters/ct-letters-vp-120722-20221206-zpg3tr2p5vaipa22wxhuffkgqa-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter to the editor</a> in the Chicago Tribune Monday, Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins disavowed the two professors, saying their article did not reflect the values of Notre Dame.
&#8220;Tamara Kay and Susan Ostermann are, of course, free to express their opinions on our campus or in any public forum. Because they chose to identify themselves as Notre Dame faculty members, I write to state unequivocally that their essay does not reflect the views and values of the University of Notre Dame in its tone, arguments or assertions.&#8221;
Kay was previously outed by Notre Dame’s conservative Catholic student newspaper, The Irish Rover, for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/professor-at-catholic-notre-dame-university-helps-students-access-abortions-despite-indiana-abortion-ban" target="_blank" rel="noopener">facilitating abortion</a> on campus, in violation of both Catholic doctrine and Indiana state law.

F5DC5EDA-DE52-4BAE-B036-93DAC0A268B9_1_201_a

Notre Dame University President Disavows Professors Who Promoted Abortion In Major Newspaper

Notre Dame University President Disavows Professors Who Defended Abortion In Major Newspaper

Abortion

Chicago Tribune

Notre Dame University

Pro-Abortion

Professors

Social Issues

U.S.

The Chicago Tribune, in an <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-kid-friendly-drag-performances-20220726-nqvwbz3qbvamvpdf3wd6msbl6e-story.html?utm_source=newsletter&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Don%27t%20miss%3A%20News%20%2B%20Business&amp;utm_content=5701658975118">article</a> about “kid-friendly drag performances,” compared them to productions created by Disney.
The Tribune posited that “extremist groups have seized” on such events and described them as inappropriate and harmful to children.
“Kid-friendly drag performances are modified to be appropriate for children — more akin to Disney than anything risqué,” The Tribune celebrated.
The Tribune cheered a drag queen named Muffy Fishbasket, who calls himself  Miss Muffy for performances in front of kids, saying he appeared at Andersonville’s Midsommarfest in June, “eliciting laughs and giggles from the crowd of children and adults.”
Noting “Kid-friendly drag performances and story hours” that have been around Chicago and suburbs for some time, the Tribune wrote enthusiastically, “The events, replete with colorful costumes and makeup, offer children a chance to see free expression and broken-down gender norms, according to those who host them.”
Muffy Fishbasket told the Tribune he has been asked by children why he wears “girl clothes.”
“I say, ‘They’re not; they’re my clothes,’” he declared. “It’s taking away these gender normatives that just don’t even need to be there.”
This week, Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis’ administration <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/music-news-reviews/article263872577.html">filed a complaint</a> against a Miami bar, asserting that the bar’s Drag Show Brunches exposed minors to “sexually explicit drag shows.” The complaint stated, “The nature of the performances described above, particularly when conducted in the presence of young children, corrupts the public morals and outrages the sense of public decency.”
DeSantis noted that Florida’s Department of Business and Professional Regulation visited the bar, adding, “What they found was not only were there minors there for some of these, and these are sexually explicit drag shows, the bar had a children’s menu.”
“There was a video out of Dallas where they had all these young kids, putting money in the underwear of these drag queens,” DeSantis <a href="https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/07/27/florida-gov-ron-desantis-takes-aim-at-wynwood-restaurant-r-house-for-popular-drag-show/">remarked.</a> “Having kids involved in this is wrong. That is not consistent with our law and policy in the state of Florida.”
Diamante Habibi, a New York drag queen, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/04/drag-queens-targeted-us-far-right">The Guardian</a>, “The drag queen story hour is super important for kids. You need a creative person to bring an imaginative state to the kids and we’re able to do that in a way that’s safe for them and entertaining for everyone.”
Disclosure: The Daily Wire has announced plans to develop children’s entertainment content.

The Chicago Tribune Building Ahead Of Tribune Media Co. Earnings Figures

‘More Akin To Disney Than Anything Risque’: Chicago Tribune Celebrates Drag Shows For Kids

Drag Queens

A conservative college student attempted to take on the Chicago political machine and lost &#8212; but the way he lost may result in more than 2,600 residents charged with a felony.
David Krupa, a 19-year-old freshman at DePaul University, decided to run for alderman of Chicago&#8217;s 13th ward and take on current alderman Marty Quinn. But Krupa wasn&#8217;t just going up against Quinn. He was actually going up against Illinois state House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, the state&#8217;s most powerful politician, referred to as Boss Madigan, <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-met-chicago-13th-ward-alderman-race-kass-20181206-story.html">according to Chicago Tribune reporter John Kass</a>.
Krupa drives a forklift and is studying political science and economics. He needed 473 valid signatures from residents of the 13th ward in order to run for alderman. He got 1,703. In a strange &#8212; and corrupt &#8212; turn of events, before Krupa could file his signatures, 2,796 ward residents signed affidavits revoking their signatures to Krupa&#8217;s petition.
&#8220;Revocations are serious legal documents, signed and notarized. Lying on a legal document is a felony and can lead to a charge of perjury. If you&#8217;re convicted of perjury, you may not work for a government agency. And I know that there are many in the 13th Ward on the government payroll,&#8221; Kass wrote.
Jim Allen, an election board spokesman, told Kass the board receives &#8220;a few revocations here and there in very rare electoral board cases over the years,&#8221; but said no one could remember ever receiving this many in the past.
Just 187 of the signatures on Krupa&#8217;s original petition matched with those of the revocations, meaning 2,609 people committed fraud by signing an official legal document saying they had signed the original petition but hadn&#8217;t. One has to wonder what these ward residents were told to get them to sign such a document. This reporter can&#8217;t imagine they were told the whole truth about what they were signing.
Michael Dorf, the election attorney representing Krupa, called the case a &#8220;clown car of felonies&#8221;
&#8220;This is clown school and election fraud. This is going way, way beyond the line. David is a huge underdog. Go ahead and beat him on Election Day, or do subtle fraud, like taking away yard signs, but when this number of false affidavits are filed, you&#8217;re talking fundamental fraud, epic fraud,&#8221; Dorf told Kass.
Current alderman Quinn probably could have beaten Krupa easily, so the level of fraud committed to keep the college student off the ballot is stunning. As Kass points out in his article, it is unlikely any repercussions will be felt, as the matter could be referred to Democrat Kim Foxx, Cook County State&#8217;s Attorney, who wouldn&#8217;t dare go against Boss Madigan. Incoming Attorney General Kwame Raoul also accepted $1 million of &#8220;Madigan political money,&#8221; according to Kass. Oh, and current Illinois AG is Lisa Madigan &#8212; the daughter.
&#8220;I&#8217;m from Clearing,&#8221; Krupa told Kass. &#8220;All I want to do is get on the ballot to address the serious issues we have, from public safety to taxes. People don&#8217;t want to say things out loud here. People who&#8217;ve challenged the 13th Ward get intimidated. You know the neighborhood.&#8221;

THE CHICAGO WAY: Thousands Of Residents Commit Fraud To Keep College Student Off Ballot

Chicago

Democratic Party

Residents of Chicago can&#8217;t even have a picnic without people getting shot.
On Saturday evening, three people were shot and another beaten at a back-to-school &#8220;peace picnic&#8221; held on a playground at Seward Park on the city&#8217;s North Side.
The event was intended to promote peace and a sense of community, organizers said.
&#8220;It&#8217;s senseless and should have never happened,&#8221; event organizer Raymond Hatcher told reporters, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/08/19/chicago-peace-picnic-turns-violent-3-people-shot-another-is-beaten.html">Fox News</a> reported. &#8220;We were doing well. Everything was going swell and then a group of guys who were not associated with us, came to the event intoxicated.&#8221;
<blockquote>
Nineteen-year-old Trayvon Hatcher came with his two nephews to the park on Saturday.
&#8220;Everyone was trying to get away,&#8221; he told reporters.
Hatcher said when he heard the shots, he grabbed his nephews and left.
</blockquote>
On Friday, a 3-year-old boy was shot, one of 25 people shot in Chicago over 14 hours from Friday into early Saturday, the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-chicago-shootings-20180818-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a> reported. It all happened again Saturday into Sunday, when 23 more people were shot, one fatally, the Tribune reported.
Two weekends ago, 71 people were shot, 12 fatally, in a single weekend. &#8220;The violence reached a peak Sunday, when 30 people were shot during a three-hour span between midnight and 3 a.m. Eight shooting incidents that morning had three or more victims. A single shooting in Gresham wounded eight people, including four teenage girls, as they stood in a courtyard,&#8221; the <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/weekend-toll-70-shot-11-fatally-in-chicago-gun-violence/">Chicago Sun Times</a> wrote.
After that bloody weekend, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff to Barack Obama, said, &#8220;There are too many guns on the street, too many people with criminal records on the street, and there is a shortage of values about what is acceptable.&#8221;
He said what needs to change is &#8220;the culture that condones rather than condemns.&#8221;
&#8220;All of us know that this is not Chicago &#8212; what we saw &#8212; therefore all of us who love this city and call it home have a responsibility to heal our neighborhoods,&#8221; he said.

3 People Shot, Another Beaten At Chicago ‘Peace Picnic’

Barack Obama

Rahm Emanuel

Violence

Porn &#8220;star&#8221; Stormy Daniels says her claims that she had an affair with President Trump are not political, declares she&#8217;s a Republican, and even muses about whether she should run for president in a lengthy interview with the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-stormy-daniels-20180616-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a>.
<blockquote>
&#8220;This didn&#8217;t start with a political agenda,&#8221; she told the Tribune on Saturday afternoon as she lounged on a seat of her tour bus in a parking lot in Rosemont. &#8220;I think it&#8217;s really funny that most people don&#8217;t even know that I&#8217;m Republican.
&#8220;They make it political in the same way that they have to put porn star in front of my name,&#8221; she added. &#8220;If I was a librarian, it wouldn&#8217;t be: Librarian Stormy Daniels.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Daniels, 39, was in the Windy City for a three-night, five-show stand at the Admiral Theatre as part of her nationwide stripping tour dubbed the &#8220;Make America Horny Again&#8221; tour. Daniels claims she had sex with Trump after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006. &#8220;The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump&#8217;s lawyer Michael Cohen arranged a $130,000 payment to Daniels, sent before the 2016 election to keep Daniels from revealing an alleged sexual encounter,&#8221; the Tribune says.
In the interview, Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, said she didn&#8217;t vote in the last election (shocker). And she goes on to say she &#8220;might win&#8221; if she ran for president.
<blockquote>
She said she thinks every day about the legacy she could leave for her daughter. She wants to inspire other people to stand up for other people, she said.
&#8220;What about the bigger picture?&#8221; she said.
The White House did not respond to Tribune requests for comment Saturday evening.
Daniels does not think she alone can shut down the Trump presidency.
&#8220;Do I have the power?&#8221; she asked. &#8220;Absolutely not.&#8221;
And then she added: &#8220;I think that they&#8217;ll be their own downfall if that happens.&#8221;
Daniels said she has no plans to run for office. It&#8217;s ridiculously expensive to run a campaign and the person best suited to represent the people probably would never get elected, she said.
But at the end of the interview, she said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know, should I run for president?&#8221;
A laugh. And then: &#8220;The terrifying thing is I might win.&#8221;
</blockquote>

‘Republican’ Stormy Daniels: ‘Should I Run For President?’

Donald Trump

Stormy Daniels

In a shocking report released over the weekend, <a href="http://graphics.chicagotribune.com/chicago-public-schools-sexual-abuse/index.html">the Chicago Tribune revealed</a> that Chicago Public Schools has investigated more than 500 incidents of &#8220;sexual misconduct&#8221; within the school system, and more than 100 of those incidents involved an adult preying on minor children.
The Tribune&#8217;s story includes an interactive map that describes each one of the 108 cases of sexual misconduct involving an adult in charge of a student, and reporters identified at least 72 individuals — most of them CPS employees — responsible for the overwhelming number of allegations.
In some cases, Chicago Public Schools let abuse go on and complaints pile up for years before taking action. And the problem was endemic: incidents occurred across the city, in both rich and poor, white and minority neighborhoods, in nearly every school in the system.
Illinois — and federal — law requires that schools investigate complaints of sexual abuse and report the incident to child protective services. But in most cases, the Tribune found, &#8220;teachers and principals failed to alert child welfare investigators or police despite the state’s mandated reporter law.&#8221;
Even when administrators took swift action, students were harmed. &#8220;[T]hey subjected young victims to repeated interrogations, inflicting more psychological pain and defying basic principles intended to preserve the integrity of an investigation.&#8221;
In one case, administrators ignored complaints about a choir director for more than two decades before finally taking action in 2014, only to have the security guard resign just hours before CPS released a &#8220;devastating&#8221; report on his actions.
The Tribune also found that CPS failed to perform basic background checks on support employees, &#8220;expos[ing] students to educators with criminal convictions and arrests for sex crimes against children.&#8221; When those same educators resigned after investigations that revealed criminal misconduct, CPS didn&#8217;t report what they&#8217;d discovered.
Part of the problem was that Chicago police authorities are busy handling more pressing issues. Chicago&#8217;s students not only suffer violence from their teachers, but within their neighborhoods as well. But the Tribune found that CPS bears quite a bit of responsibility because they both conducted the investigations into their own employees&#8217; alleged misconduct, and then employed their legal department to block inquiries into what was being done about problem staff.
&#8220;Experts say CPS creates a conflict of interest by assigning its Law Department to investigate allegations of abuse and then drawing on the investigative files to defend the district if the victim sues,&#8221; the Tribune reports.
When the Tribune approached CPS with its findings, CPS responded by suggesting they had room to improve.

SHOCK REPORT: Chicago Public Schools Had More Than 500 Incidents Of ‘Sexual Misconduct,’ 100 Involving An Adult

Education

Sexual Assault

Sexual Misconduct

Poet and author <a href="https://www.dianagoetsch.com/">Diana Goetsch</a> penned a rather disgusting op-ed in the <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-patriotism-0714-md-20170713-story.html">Chicago Tribune</a> in which she referred to America&#8217;s national anthem as &#8220;a pompous battle number.&#8221;
The column, titled Why Colin Kaepernick is still looking for a job, features Goetsch arguing that Kaepernick hasn&#8217;t been signed by an NFL team because of his national anthem protest, which may be true although <a href="http://www.espn.com/nfl/qbr">his performance in 2016 was not as great</a> as his defenders make it to be. 
Where Goetsch truly went off the rails was her trashing of the national anthem:
<blockquote>
While fans do it out of habit or peer pressure, saluting the flag before a football game makes about as much sense as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before seeing a movie or walking the dog. NFL games are contests between privately owned companies that exist for the profit of their owners. All appearance otherwise is marketing, which includes the pink equipment players are encouraged to wear during Breast Cancer Awareness Month; the red, white and blue NFL shield; or the branding of football as &#8220;America&#8217;s game.&#8221;
</blockquote>
It was only downhill from there, as Goetsch actually called the honoring of military veterans on game day as &#8220;propaganda&#8221;: 
<blockquote>
 A Senate Joint Oversight report on &#8220;Paid Patriotism&#8221; found that between 2011 and 2015 the Pentagon paid $5.4 million to 14 NFL teams in exchange for military &#8220;tributes.&#8221; The propaganda comes from all angles &#8212; stadium parachute drops, &#8220;hometown heroes&#8221; lit up on the Jumbotron, player cameos at soldiers&#8217; homecomings, cheerleader photo ops with wounded veterans. Taxpaying fans, the targets of these &#8220;heartfelt&#8221; gestures, were unwittingly paying the bill for them until the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act outlawed the practice.
</blockquote>
After smearing the sport of baseball for embracing the mantra of America&#8217;s &#8220;national pastime&#8221; as a way to avoid antitrust laws, Goetsch then degraded the national anthem.
&#8220;Unlike the magisterial &#8216;America the Beautiful,&#8217; &#8216;The Star-Spangled Banner&#8217; is a pompous battle number,&#8221; wrote Goetsch. &#8220;Spurred by a petition bearing 5 million veterans&#8217; signatures, Congress designated it the national anthem in 1931, but it wasn&#8217;t until 1942, and our entry into World War II, that it was played on loudspeakers daily before games.&#8221;
She then claimed that players typically remained in the locker room until the Pentagon began paying NFL teams to have players stand on the field during the anthem, causing her to come to the conclusion that Kaepernick hasn&#8217;t been signed because NFL teams are afraid they&#8217;ll lose money over it.
Firstly, Goetsch&#8217;s claim that football players didn&#8217;t stand for the anthem until the Pentagon started giving money to NFL teams seems a little dubious: according to <a href="http://www.snopes.com/nfl-sideline-anthem/">Snopes</a>, the Pentagon did pay various sports teams from 2011 to 2014 to provide displays of patriotism, although it&#8217;s unclear how far back this goes and if there&#8217;s a direct correlation between this funding and players standing on the field for the national anthem.
But even if that was the case, so what? As <a href="http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news/sports-patriotism-national-anthem-protests-athletes-colin-kaepernick/1u5n4asb5tujz138i101evbdju">sports psychology professor Kevin Burke argued</a>, playing the national anthem before sports games provides &#8220;a sense of community and connectedness that is attractive to our souls.&#8221; That explains why so many football fans were <a href="https://mises.org/blog/nfl-teams-are-right-blackball-colin-kaepernick">irked</a> by Kaepernick&#8217;s stunt:
<blockquote>
 According to Gallup, over 70% of NFL fans objected to his protest. While a majority of those polled did not think the league should punish the quarterback for his action, polls found that a third of NFL fans were less likely to watch the product because of Kaepernick. Incidentally, 2016 was a down year for ratings. It would be wrong to pin the decline entirely on the shoulders of the former 49er &#8212; it&#8217;s possible election season played a major role &#8212; but any hitch to the ratings machine of the NFL is going to get the attention of every league owner.
</blockquote>
Just as Kaepernick has a First Amendment right to protest the national anthem, NFL teams have the First Amendment right to choose not to sign him if they feel like his prior actions will negatively impact their product. That&#8217;s how a free market works, whether Goetsch likes it or not.
But most importantly, for Goetsch to refer to the anthem as &#8220;a pompous battle number&#8221; isn&#8217;t just appalling, it&#8217;s historically inaccurate. <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-story-behind-the-star-spangled-banner-149220970/">Francis Scott Key</a> penned the anthem after witnessing the American flag prevail over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 when it initially seemed to him as if Britain was going to win the battle.
That&#8217;s what <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/18251/our-national-anthem-ben-shapiro">our national anthem</a> is all about: even during the country&#8217;s darkest moments, America, the beacon of hope and freedom, finds a way to prevail in the end. That&#8217;s why everyone stands for the national anthem before sporting events; it&#8217;s a reminder that we are lucky to have the freedom to be able to attend such an event and we should honor those who died to preserve that freedom for us.
Shame on Diana Goetsch for referring to the national anthem as &#8220;a pompous battle number.&#8221;
<a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter.</a>

DISGUSTING: Chicago Tribune Op-Ed Degrades National Anthem As ‘A Pompous Battle Number’

Colin Kaepernick

Even the Chicago Tribune, which had been a staunch conservative paper for roughly 160 years before it took a hard swing to the left in 2008, when it endorsed a Democratic candidate for president (Barack Obama) for the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-10-19/news/chi-tribune-2008-presidential-endorsement_1_endorsement-obama-first-african-american-president">first time</a>, then reiterated that endorsement in <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-10-26/news/chi-obama-endorsement-chicago-tribune-20121026_1_president-obama-barack-obama-tax-cuts">2012</a>, somehow came down on the side of conservative Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro after DePaul University threatened his arrest if he set foot on campus.
On Thursday, the Tribune issued an <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-depaul-speech-schapiro-edit-1118-md-20161117-story.html">editorial</a> decrying DePaul&#8217;s actions. The editorial started by reciting the events that occurred leading up to Wednesday night&#8217;s confrontation between Shapiro and security officers mandated with keeping him off campus. The Tribune then reported:
<blockquote>
Shapiro knew how to respond outside the event hall as a video camera rolled: &#8220;If I attempt to enter that hall, right there, just to hear somebody speak, or if I attempt to ask a question or engage in free speech, you will have me arrested?&#8221; he asked a security official. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad in a city that has some 4,000 shootings to this date, you have 30 members of security just for a 5-9,165 (pound) Jewish guy.&#8221;
Bystanders laughed at his self-deprecating remark. Shapiro certainly can play to a crowd and make a point. It&#8217;s a shame he wasn&#8217;t permitted to perform for a full audience. Why couldn&#8217;t he? Because DePaul remained tied up in knots over the question of how to manage speaker events that may offend some members of the school community.
</blockquote>
The Tribune noted that Shapiro is no fan of Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, the new White House counselor, adding, &#8220;Hmm, maybe there is something serious to explore in the political clash between right and left. Shapiro, no fan of Bannon, would have been a very interesting lecturer for engaged students to hear a week after the election. But nope, too risky for DePaul.&#8221;
The Tribune acknowledged that DePaul, as a private university, &#8220;controls campus access and can approve or refuse guests as it sees fit. This isn&#8217;t a First Amendment right to assembly issue; it&#8217;s an issue of academic exploration &#8230; In this case, DePaul had a few days&#8217; notice and could have allowed Shapiro to appear with adequate security on hand. That would have served the interests of students and made a powerful statement about a university as a marketplace of ideas. Students would have heard Shapiro, engaged him and reached their own conclusions about the values and merits of the conservatism in the era of Trump.&#8221;
<blockquote>
&#8220;This isn&#8217;t a First Amendment right to assembly issue; it&#8217;s an issue of academic exploration.&#8221;
Chicago Tribune
</blockquote>
The Tribune concluded:
<blockquote>
True, there is a lot of confusion today about the country&#8217;s political direction. There is polarization, there are hard feelings. That&#8217;s part of life in a democracy. Learning how to confront political differences in a civilized manner is a tough lesson to embrace. Unfortunately, DePaul missed another chance to play the role of enlightened teacher.
</blockquote>

Chicago Tribune Slams DePaul University For Banning Shapiro

Ben Shapiro

DePaul University

Menu