THE EXEMPTION – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:   I find it fascinating, in the wake of all the chatter following the Arizona shooting, that one institution in American life gets off without so much as a mention – the American university. 

And yet, our colleges and universities have too often been centers of extremism, extremist thought, and social policies that are a danger to democracy.

The journalists who have fouled the landscape in recent days were trained in colleges and universities, yet the kind of training they received is never mentioned.  Universities have a kind of exemption.

About six years ago a distinguished civil-liberties lawyer told me how worried he was by what was being taught in colleges.  Those students will be our leaders in 20 years, he said.  He was referring to the contempt for democracy displayed by practices like "speech codes," still in place in many institutions, despite court challenges.  Speech codes are presumably installed in colleges and universities to prevent "hate" speech, but the definition of "hate" speech often turns out to be highly selective and politicized.  You can't "hate" one group, but another is an entirely appropriate target, depending on this year's trends on the political left.

Fast forward to Arizona.  Already there are calls to moderate our political discourse, but the calls are directed almost exclusively at the right.  It's kind of a repeat of the "speech code" experience many journalists had at college.   

And what are we to make of universities in Illinois who will hire a Bill Ayers, friend of Barack Obama?  Ayers wrote a book dedicated to the murderer of Robert Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan.  What are students to draw from that?

Journalists, and political leaders, do not drop out of the sky.  They come from somewhere.  They have backgrounds.  And those backgrounds often include instruction by highly partisan professors of the left, and indoctrination in a world view that students bring into journalism or politics.  When a budding journalist is taught that there's no such thing as "truth," that truth is just a "cultural construct," what kind of journalist will he or she become? 

We are often reminded of the story of Pauline Kael, the distinguished New York film critic, who, after the 1972 presidential election, exclaimed that she was surprised that Richard Nixon had won because she didn't know anyone who voted for him.  Her background, her culture, did not permit her to understand or even recognize anyone who disagreed with her.

Maybe we should start a national discussion about higher education, what it's for, and what it actually provides.  But don't hold your breath.  There are too many honorary degrees and commencement-speech invitations out there for journalists to stick their necks out and ask questions.  

Someone better start asking, for the future of this country may depend on the answers.

January 11, 2011