Ted Koppel: Despite verdict, Oberlin College President still “makes allusions to a pattern of racist behavior” by Gibson’s Bakery
The smear campaign against Gibson’s Bakery continues in interview during CBS Sunday Morning segment about the case.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case has been the almost obsessive demonization of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners by the college.
It started not just during the protests and pre-litigation interactions that gave rise to the lawsuit, but in the Answer filed by the defendants in response to the lawsuit.
I wrote at the time, on December 13, 2017, Oberlin College lashes out at Gibson’s Bakery, portrays itself as victim:
Oberlin and Raimondo seek to portray the College as the victim in this scenario, including the confessed shoplifters. I can’t imagine, based on what is publicly available, this will work.
This approach didn’t work.
The defense was tone deaf at best, something I mentioned numerous times during the trial: “from the start of this case I have questioned the aggressive and demeaning attacks on the Gibsons as a defense strategy,” and “I’m still shaking my head at the tone-deafness of the defense in belittling this family business.”
Jury verdicts in favor of Gibson’s Bakery and its owners reflected the weakness of the defense attacks: $11 million compensatory damages rendered on June 7, 2019, and $33 million in punitive damages rendered on June 13, 2019, after a separate punitive damages trial. The combined $44 million was reduced by the Court under Ohio’s tort caps to just over $25 million. The Court also awarded over $6.5 million in legal fees and costs against defendants on top of the damages. Defendants were required to post a $36 million bond to secure the judgment pending appeal.
Oberlin College has lawyered-up to fight the appeal, Oberlin College hires high-powered D.C. lawyers to appeal Gibson’s Bakery verdict. In response, Gibson’s Bakery files cross-appeal to restore full $44 million verdict against Oberlin College.
For now, the battle is being fought in the court of public opinion. And the college’s aggressiveness in attacking the Gibsons has not changed, with suggestions by the college, wink, wink, that the Gibsons probably are racist even if the college wasn’t allowed to prove it in court. As part of this effort, after the trial was over, the Judge rejected Oberlin College’s request to unseal Gibson Bakery store clerk’s Facebook records:
There have been many strange motions and actions in the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College case. A post-trial motion by Oberlin College to unseal Facebook records may be one of the more strange developments, and offers a window into the bitter feelings of college officials.
Allyn D. Gibson (Allyn D.) is the grandson of plaintiff Allyn W. Gibson (“Allyn W.”) and the son of plaintiff David Gibson. Allyn D., who was not a party in the lawsuit, was the store clerk on duty who caught an Oberlin College student shoplifting….
During the case, Allyn D.’s Facebook records were subpoenaed by Oberlin College, and had to be maintained in a confidential manner under a discovery agreement. The documents were then filed under seal by Oberlin College as part of its summary judgment motion as Exhibit G. The summary judgment motion was granted in part and denied in part, with the key claims surviving for trial.
In a pre-trial ruling, the court held the Facebook records could not be used as character evidence, but the court left open that if trial testimony made the records relevant, defendants could attempt to introduce them at trial. Allyn D. never testified at the trial, and defendants never offered the Facebook records as exhibits during the trial.
The Gibsons’ attorneys zeroed in on the purpose of unsealing the younger Gibson’s Facebook records:
It appears that Defendants are using their Motion as an improper collateral attack on the jury’s verdict. In essence, because Defendants are unhappy with the jury’s decision, they are seeking to unseal ADG’s private social media account, so they are able to publish these documents to the media without threat of the Court’s contempt power in an effort to continue the smear and defamation of Plaintiffs’ name and brand. Defendants’ attempted abuse of process should not be permitted.
* * *
Defendants’ sole motive in seeking to unseal the Confidential Materials is to continue the smear on Plaintiffs’ name and brand. They should not be permitted to do so.
Oberlin College appears to be unable to view the case from the perspective of the Gibsons, the community, or the jury. When I appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight on October 31, 2019, I described Oberlin College’s “almost sociopathic malevolence” towards Gibson’s Bakery:
WAJ: …. They are continuing to fight it. They have appealed it. They’re continuing to attack the bakery.
In fact, in a really extraordinary move after the trial was over, they tried to get unsealed Facebook records from one of the Gibson’s children. The clerk who stopped the students, who wasn’t a party, didn’t testify. And why release these Facebook records? Is because Oberlin continues to demonize this small family bakery, refuses to accept any responsibility for what they did to them, and shows no remorse and they’re appealing it. They’ve hired additional lawyers for the appeal. They’ve already spent, or their insurers has spent, $5 million fighting this little bakery and they just cannot seem to accept it.
TUCKER: Shafting the little people. Oberlin, meanwhile for our viewers who aren’t aware of what it is, is like kind of the stereotype of the annoying liberal rich kid school. I mean, it’s not actually like a real college, but it’s incredibly expensive and they have a lot of money. Why don’t they just pay?
WAJ: Well, because you know, they have a reputation of being a little kooky lefty sort of school, but they’ve really shown a very cold heart here. They have been completely heartless towards this bakery. They have no empathy towards the bakery. It’s almost a sociopathic sort of malevolence towards this bakery because the bakery stood up to them. And it’s really bizarre. I don’t know what’s going on there, but I know a lot of alumni are very upset about it. And I would be too, if I were an Oberlin alum, because the value of your degree has been diminished by multiple administrations at Oberlin who simply want to crush this little family bakery and it makes no sense in any real world.
At the time of the Tucker appearance, I was not aware that CBS Sunday Morning had been preparing a segment by Ted Koppel about the case. A reader alerted me on November 1 to an article in the Chronicle-Telegram about the upcoming segment:
Award-winning broadcast journalist Ted Koppel was in Oberlin in early October conducting interviews for a CBS News Sunday Morning special on the November 2016 protests that led to a court case and $32 million judgment against the college last spring.
Interviews expected to be included in the program were done with Gibson’s Bakery owner David Gibson, his attorney Lee Plakas, Chronicle-Telegram reporter Dave O’Brien and members of the Oberlin community.
Video of Koppel’s video report is below, A protest against racism, and a $31.5 million defamation award.
[CBS News]
In fairness to Koppel, at one point he did point out the involvement of college employees, particularly in handing out defamatory flyers, as an issue in the case.
[CBS News]
What jumped out at me was the interview with Carmen Twillie Ambar, Oberlin College’s president, who took over after the events at issue. In the interview, Ambar repeated what has become a core part of Oberlin College’s post-trial public relations campaign, the suggestion that Gibson’s Bakery may actually have engaged in racial profiling. It was couched in the interview as a perception issue, that students and faculty had a perception — their own truth and lived experience — of racial profiling.
Koppel seemed genuinely surprised by Ambar’s statements as to perceptions:
KOPPEL: …. But to this day, the president of Oberlin makes allusions to a pattern of racist behavior, if not the specific incident that set things off three years ago.
AMBAR Well, the students pled guilty to the shoplifting. Um, there has been some debate about whether it was shoplifting or false ID.
KOPPEL: It was both.
AMBAR: Right. Well, I think that, that one of the things that the college has always said is that the college has not, doesn’t condone shoplifting, doesn’t condone bad behavior by its students in any way, shape or form. But what led up to the protest, and I think that’s sort of kind of the core issue here, was some series of things that happened before. Some perspectives about people’s experiences in the store.
KOPPEL: Tell me about, tell me about those then. And be specific. What specific incidents are you referring to that happened before?
AMBAR: Right, well, I think that the specific incidents would be, the perception by faculty and students and staff and other people in the town that there had been disparate treatment with respect to people of color in the store. The way I would phrase it, kind of different lived experiences.
DAVE O’BRIEN: This is all basically anecdotal evidence that people …
KOPPEL: Dave O’Brien covered the trials for the local paper, the Chronicle-Telegram
O’BRIEN: People commenting on a, on social media saying I had a, um, I, I felt, I felt uncomfortable in there. I felt like I was targeted because of the color of my skin.
There was no evidence presented in court supporting the claim of a long history of racial profiling, because no admissible evidence was offered.
Subjective feelings, perceptions, own truths, and lived experiences are not evidence supporting the truth of the matter asserted.
There was an interesting portion when Ambar clearly was uncomfortable, when Koppel pressed her as to what her reputation was worth:
KOPPEL: (Narration) What is a reputation worth? (Question to Ambar) You’re a very distinguished academic. What’s your reputation worth?
AMBAR: My reputation is important.
KOPPEL: It’s worth a lot, isn’t it? (Ambar shakes head Yes) I mean, if your reputation was destroyed overnight, you could hardly put a price on that could you.
AMBAR: Well, I certainly believe that reputations are important, but here’s what’s also true, and it’s the jury system that we have, right? And the legal system that we have. That we go through a legal process that makes that determination. And what the institution has said is that we believe that this determination was excessive.
Oberlin College still doesn’t get it.
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Comments
Sociopathic or simply bad people.
Evil ideology turns ordinary people into monsters…and gives bad people an excuse to do even more evil than they otherwise would.
Hear! Hear!
Time to sue the Democrat Party run colleges out of existence.
We could have ended property with all the Trillions government public education has squandered.
“Time to sue the Democrat Party run colleges out of existence.”
Where are the alternatives? Conservatives first ignored education, leaving a few who took an interest in it within those citadels, into which Leftists marched. Once a critical mass was reached, the few conservatives were made into dhimmis.
Technology – more than ever – makes home schooling and charter schools more effective, including more cost effective.
There is even home schooling college now.
it’s also possible the monsters make the ideology evil.
More like: bad children.
Affirmative action + narcissism = the likes of this idiot, and in particular, the obamas.
She’s a product of American higher ed, from start to finish.
Therein lies the problem.
Therein also the “problem” of lies…..and more lies….and non-stop lies….
“A partial truth is the perfect lie.”
She is typical of what affirmative action often produces. She has the gift of gab but was short changed in the reasoning area. I suspect that Soros is bankrolling this fiasco.
I wonder why they dragged Ted Koppel out of dry dock for this late 2016 interview? Poor Ted looks like a rheumy-eyed old hound dog.
The screen grab shows Ambar presenting that peculiar ‘stone-faced’ affectation common to American red guard Maoists.
Diversity and exclusion. The insidious progress of bigotry in plain sight.
” reputation? “–would imagine the board of regents fervently rueing the actions of an obvious afac hire that’s cost them over forty million dollars–all that virtue signalling is sure expensive
Oberlin continues to maliciously slander the Gibsons.
Can’t they sue a second time?
I’m thinking ‘yeah’, though I am no lawyer, their defamation crusade continues, now insinuating a ‘racist pattern’ that doesn’t exist. A new lawsuit?
I’m not sure about suing a second time, but it should certainly go toward appeal of the judgment – both Oberlin’s claim that it’s a 1st Amendment issue and to Gibson’s desire to remove the tort caps. Continuing to defame someone after a jury has entered a judgment can make appeals judges really testy, by all accounts.
Sue Koppel personally, just on general principles, and to make a fair warning example out of him.
Koppel was about 80:20 here for our position. The jury is still out as far as CBS’s ultimate goals, being a part of the MSM, but they did not do Oberlin any favors, or should I say, they presented it in a way which allowed Oberlin to disservice themselves spectacularly. Koppel may not have intended to get it right, but he did. Also, this was done at the beginning of October, so it wasn’t like it was a live show where an individual made a huge SNAFU that they couldn’t correct. CBS chose to broadcast the message that we saw. That should have Oberlin very very worried.
They may actually believe they are the victim…..they may not be capable of introspection. The fanatical adherence to their beliefs may taint anything going against them. Of course, to admit anything else is to lose totally.
These are adults. They are responsible for what they do and say.
I have witnessed that sort of delusion myself, as has my boss, as have others: Black woman drives into side of car and screams that racism means she’ll be found guilty. Black woman almost hits me exiting a garage and yells at me for being a damn white man. Black man abuses neighbor clerk for prices in shop and complains about racism when called on his misbehavior. And so on.
“…because Defendants are unhappy with the jury’s decision, they are seeking to unseal ADG’s private social media account…”
In some corrupt circles, my comment above would “prove” that I am not just a racist but a white supremacist.
Affirmative action needs to be killed, and all new hires need to be tested to verify that they actually earned a degree.
they may not be capable of introspection
Sadly, this is common of way too many people in our day.
Some possible explanations. One, a Hutu/Tutsi cycle of redistributive and retributive change. Two, which is clearly true, noble cause corruption (e.g. diversity racket). Three, diversity (i.e. color judgment) including racism, sexism, classicism, etc. breeds adversity. Four, sociopolitical constructs or congruence (“=”) are exclusive (e.g. Pro-Choice quasi-religion or “ethics”). Five, they are ignorant of the logical implications and progress fostered by what they believe and advocate that have been overlaid with colorful euphemisms. #HateLovesAbortion
Ambar’s a distinguished academic? In what sense? Koppel is a simple-minded tool.
Of course she’s not. No one watching her performance will be shocked when they see a clear AA hire relating everything to racism.
I agree that affirmative action hire Carmen Twillie Ambar is not a particularly impressive academic. I make no apologies about framing the issue that way. It’s clear considering how, shades of the big deal Harvard made about Elizabeth Warren being their first “woman of color” faculty member, that she was not hired for her curriculum vitae but to be Oberlin’s “historic first African-American President” plus she’s a woman to boot. She’s an over-credentialed, arrogant idiot, and that’s exactly how she came across in the segment. It was a stroke of genius to interview the juror who is a black lady who agreed with the rest of the jurors that the Gibsons were right and Oberlin is completely wrong.
Therefore I can’t fault Koppel for saying she’s a “distinguished academic.” He wanted to complete the interview and if he engaged in some empty flattery to accomplish that I can certainly understand why. He may actually agree with me that she’s an affirmative action hire but if he made that clear she would have gotten up and walked out.
Basically I think Ted Koppel kept handing her shovels and she kept digging her hole deeper.
I could tell that Carmen Twillie Ambar (I will forever think of her name actually being, “Conway Twitty Armbar”) was not a “distinguished academic” just from seeing that screenshot pic of her from the Koppel interview. Seriously. And it has nothing to do with her skin color — her dullness is obvious in her face.
I have to admit openly coughing when he said that. I know a lot of distinguished academics. She is not even in the ballpark.
I have to imagine that her performance in the interview made A LOT of alumni really uncomfortable. I think that Ted wanted to work with her but she brought nothing to the game. I haven’t felt that uncomfortable since the last Qyntel Woods interview.
Presumably, the same alums who appointed the Board who hired that fine individual.
Therein lies the major problem. The board is not accountable to anyone. The alumni only elect 6 out of 30 seats, and I believe it is for 6yr terms so only 2 new people every 2 years. A core of true believers can take the place down the tubes with no recourse except witholding donations.
by claiming the judgement was excessive was an admission of guilt of the charged behavior.
Yea, it sounds about like someone saying; “Yes, I deserved to have my butt kicked, just not quite so thoroughly.”
Good point. It also looks foolish to complain about an excessive judgment when Oberlin spent $5 million on attorney fees. Attorneys usually give clients a pretty good estimate of how much their case will cost, which tells me that Oberlin was willing to spend that much. If you are willing to spend $5 million on attorney fees, you are anticipating a potential judgment against you of much more.
Had Oberlin given Gibson’s Bakery a written admission that racism wasn’t behind Aladin’s arrest, the suit would never have been filed. Ironically, Aladin submitted a written statement at his trial attesting that racism wasn’t behind Gibson’s charging him with shoplifting.
As a follow-up Koppel should have asked her: “If you think the judgment was excessive, what would have been a fair amount?”
I have never seen a more mean-spirited, ignorant bunch of people than those who run Oberlin–I hope that the appellate court upholds the verdict and overturns the limitation on damages, and reinstates the entire jury award–they deserve nothing less.
They are just your typical angry leftist.
There may be ones who are more so. They just haven’t been sued yet.
And,in addition to winning this round, I would like to see them sued again.
Is Ambar retarded or am I? Her last comment was such a word salad that I cannot begin to comprehend the point she is attempting to make. After all, many things are true–fish live in water, taxes are inevitable, a jury decides facts, etc., etc. If she is simply trying to put a value on a reputation then just do it. But I am just a software engineer (not even a real engineer) so I am familiar with much of this going over my head.
Than mash-up of words is what Jack Marshall (Ethics Alarms) calls “Authentic Frontier Gibberish”.
She was totally exposed when, after stating that there was a history of “racism” at Gibson’s, Koppel asks for a concrete example or two… the best she could do was “I thinks…” and “people say…” She was not even at the helm of Oberlin when the seminal event occurred, let alone around to know anything about the Gibson’s behavior in the past. Classic AA beneficiary is too kind a title. Some might say “post turtle”.
One of my grandsons is hot on being a software engineer, I keep telling him he should get a real engineering degree and the write software. My degree is in electrical engineering, but I was doing early microprocessor designs at a time when there were few people competent to do the software. Also, due to microprocessor resource limitations I had to offload some things to hardware. Sometimes the issue was CPU horsepower and sometimes available memory. Having analog, digital and software background meant that I cruised through recessions with no pain.
Looking back at everyone interviewed in the story, the juror came across as the most impressive. She and the rest of the jury saw right through what the college’s defense team was trying to sell. It is little wonder why the college tried so hard to get a change of venue, the locals know all about the college, and the reputation of the Gibson family.
I was somewhat surprised that Koppel didn’t ask Ambar about the reports of requests from the College to bypassing the local police and reporting shoplifters to the college instead.
The College had ample opportunity to settle this long a go and move on and failed to do so, the jury spoke up, pay the family.
Concur. Ambar says Oberlin doesn’t condone shoplifting or “bad behavior.” But the fact that they tried to extort Gibson’s to comply with a special procedure that involves protecting students from legal consequences but instead report theft to the college demonstrates that they do condone theft.
Also, I recall another detail. The when college administration representatives asked to see the fake ID, the police only intended that they look at it. They never intended that they take it. Then the Oberlin college administration refused to give it back until the Oberlin P.D. threatened legal action demonstrates they do condone other types of “bad behavior.” Had they knowingly sold alcohol to someone using a fake ID they would have faced enforcement action from the state, most likely involve losing their license to sell wine. I don’t know how much of their revenue involves wine sales but considering how much revenue they’ve lost already they couldn’t afford to take another hit to their bottom line.
These are supposedly the educated and high minded among us, geez.
There were plenty of incompetent idiots with degrees before affirmative action. There is a difference between being skilled at working the academic system, and actually exiting college with the skills and aptitude to perform well in the field. Affirmative action allowed 13% of the population to increase that problem by at least an order of magnitude.
At this point, Oberlin College might as well over everything to the Gibson family. That’s essentially what’s probably going to occur in one form or another. To lose everything is the only way they’ll understand.
They are so bad. They deserve to fail.
Give Ted credit for asking the right question – what’s a reputation worth? Her answer: mine is worth a lot, the Gibson’s not so much – is perfect. Continues to say the verdict was too much, as well as captures the condescension toward the working class perfectly.
But it also shows bad intent. If she thought Gibson was truly guilty of being racist, her answer would have been very different.
I think she – like many progressives- thinks that given enough time and digging and appeals – you can make anyone look racist, or guilty of a thought crime. Her answer and manner gives away the game.
Their goal is not truth, but the ability to create the perception of impropriety when they want to.
Truly Stalinist, truly bad, they deserve to fail.
“she – like many progressives- thinks that given enough time and digging and appeals – you can make anyone look racist”
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
–Stalin’s henchman Beria, who is morally kin to the Oberlin president.
It’s ingrained in her, when all else fails, play the race/victim card.
What a disservice our education system has done to minorities the last few decades.
A fine example of liberal tolerance
The Big Lie defense. Make the overblown claim every time you have the chance, every single solitary time, and claim victimhood. The Narrative is forced to side with you, because anybody claiming racism is to be believed, and double so if they’re a victim.
The flip side of that is anybody who disagrees with Oberlin is therefore a racist too, even if they try to bring rationality into the discussion. One attempt at critical thinking and *poof* you’re an instant pariah. Just what college is supposed to teach students, right?
(Spoiler: No)
That oberlin woman is as stupid as she looks.
What a den of poison.
Go Gibson!
“I think that the specific incidents would be, the perception by faculty and students and staff…”
The specifics (are the) preceptions …
Nice sidestep, Ambar.
That reminded me of a funny exchange decades ago in a men’s divorce group I attended briefly. The leader encouraged us to make “I feel” statements … so after I shared a bit about my divorce situation, one of the guys said something like “I think you should slap her silly …”. The leader stopped him and said “use feel statement’s, Bob” … so Bob says “I feel you should slap her silly” …
It made for a good laugh – but seriously – Bob didn’t even realize he’d simply substituted the word ‘feel’ for ‘think’.
The heck with Ambar’s perceptions … can she cite a single documented incident that would lend credence to her claim? I’d hope Koppel zeroed in on her sidestep …
It’s a constant source of amazement to me of the vast number of “highly educated” professors and college administrators that are unable to comprehend the difference between perception and reality.
unableunwillingI’ve been busy today, and dinner is cooking right now, so I haven’t played the video. But I’ve read the article, and it looks like CBS did a good job. Wow, lightning strikes. Oberlin’s stupidity and arrogance are without limit.
Speaking of fecal matter: Pelosi’s son charged with securities fraud:
Company co-founded by Nancy Pelosi’s son charged with securities fraud
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/17/company-co-founded-nancy-pelosis-son-charged-secur/
What’s the next shoe to drop? – Kerry’s daughter getting busted along with biden’s son and pelosi’s?
This is Affirmative Action extended. For a large minority, enforcing laws is discrimination. Too many SJWs are willing to give a pass just to shut them up.
I want to see the legal system grind Oberlin into a fine powder. Oberlin already has lost the major fight….they are drowning and thrashing for air right now. Despicable. Just despicable.
Carmen Twillie Ambar: Living proof that verifiable bat-s**t insanity is no barrier to a lucrative academic gig at Oberlin College.
Nor Hahvahd.
i wanted Ted to ask her, the legal fees for the college have been in the millions up to this point, where is the money coming from to pay your legal team?
That is the point which needs to be hammered into the alumni. Spending $5M to attempt to destroy Gibsons by lawfare is the stink that will never wash out. Wait, make that $5M and still growing. I recently stated that I believed that David was going to outlast Carmen and this disastrous interview just sealed the deal.
I particularly enjoyed watching the black kid trying to play the “didn’t do nothing; why are you arresting me; I’m a black man I’m scared of the police” dodge when he knew perfectly well he was being arrested. For attempting to use a false ID to buy one bottle of wine while at the same time he was trying to steal two other bottles of wine. As evidenced by his guilty plea.
at 70k a year at oberlin he felt entitled to the wine, prepaid plan included your own fake id and free beverages at gibson’s.
More like: he felt entitled to the wine because of the legacy of slavery. That the Gibson’s are evil honkey mo-fos.
Koppel asked for “specific incidents.”
President Ambar gave NO specific incidents.
Dixit Monty Python: say no more.
In my view, that’s when she really buried herself.
Amongst other motivators, I think Oberlin’s major pissed that the peasants would dare to challenge their “betters” as they did.
And that those same peasants would win? Intolerable!
This has been my perception all along. OC is the lord of the manor on the hill telling the peasants ‘do as I say, or I shall send my knights to burn down your crops and you shall starve.’ It almost worked.
They thought that they deserved respect for their unearned affirmative degrees.
Ted Koppel has always been a quivering coward to liberal convention. Something of a dullard, he considers himself a genius.
These two comments by Arminius, put together set up a curious picture:
1. “when college administration representatives asked to see the fake ID, the police only intended that they look at it. They never intended that they take it. Then the Oberlin college administration refused to give it back until the Oberlin P.D. threatened legal action.”
2. “For attempting to use a false ID to buy one bottle of wine while at the same time he was trying to steal two other bottles of wine.”
Forgive me it this has already been hashed out or if I am reading too much into comments, but did anyone ever consider if Oberlin could have a hand in setting this up from the get-go? This whole thing has a pure Alinsky/Jessie Smollett feel to it, especially since the college was primed and ready to jump into action with protests and flyers.
So you have obvious shoplifters stealing wine AND using a fake ID. Who wouldn’t call the police? Did anyone ever look into WHY the college felt the need to keep the fake ID? Could it be somehow connected back to Oberlin employees or staff? What would be the point of creating that drama with the police when it was already established the ID was fake.
I know it’s a bit over the top but knowing what we now know about Oberlin’s pathological intent to crush the bakery, it seems a curious detail.
and pardon me for late night musing – always a bad idea – but there is something else bothering me. Since when does Ted Koppel/CBS do a reasonable piece without the intent to generate publicity as they tee up something they intend to take a swing at? So … (yes, it’s late) about these Facebook posts. Were they written before or after the incident? Clearly Gibson’s legal team side-stepped them. Is Oberlin feeling they spent 44 million and they want to get a little more racial discord for the effort?
Given the communistic or near-communistic administration and faculty of so many colleges and universities these days, I don’t think it’s in the least bit over the top.
Hence my comment back in May/June that I wasn’t sure which was more disturbing, the Oberlin-Gibsons trial or HBO’s “Chernobyl.” If Lee Plakas were OK with being played on screen by Billy Bob Thorton, I think we have a ready-made screenplay for a 4th season of Goliath.
“What would be the point of creating that drama with the police when it was already established the ID was fake.”
Since Ambar was obviously lying through her teeth when she said that Oberlin as an institution doesn’t condone “bad behavior” such as theft, I think a simpler explanation would be that by tampering with or destroying evidence they could sabotage the prosecution of the thief, Aladin (yes, that really is his last name).
The legal term for this is obstruction of justice which, I believe if memory serves, is the charge the Oberlin P.D. threatened to bring against the responsible administrator(s) at Oberlin College who stole the ID.
https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/the-culture-of-theft-at-oberlin-college/
“It appears that the initial shoplifting incident that triggered the Oberlin College lawsuit by Gibson’s Bakery was only part of an overall culture of theft by students at the college, ignored or possibly even condoned by the college administration…”
It is glaringly obvious that the Oberlin administrators actually do condone the culture of theft. That has been amply demonstrated by Oberlin’s “almost a sociopathic sort of malevolence” the college has exhibited toward Gibson’s bakery. This just another data point that leads me to conclude they teach students that they are above the law because the faculty and administrators believe the same thing about themselves. The fact that they intended to strong-arm Gibson’s bakery to follow a special procedure, call the college not the police for first time offenders and not the police (really what they refer to as first-time offenders are simply thieves who have been caught shoplifting for the first time at a particular establishment; it’s rare that when a thief gets caught for the first time at a particular retail store that it’s the first time entitled snowflakes have stolen something there or somewhere else in town) means they don’t think that student thieves should experience legal consequences. And tellingly that is the reason they told Koppel they are still fighting against the judgement. Note that she is now shifting away from the argument that they didn’t defame the Gibson family but they are shifting to their fallback position that the judgement is “excessive” for their crime.
I gathered from the word salad Ambar puked up at the end of her interview with Koppel is that the legal system shouldn’t decide on the school’s liability when they in the administration know better than a jury filled with unwashed, knuckle-dragging primitive rustics. Just as the legal system shouldn’t decide on what if any liability their thieving students should experience when the administration knows better than (left unsaid but you know if she wasn’t on camera but in private among friends she would have) the “systemically racist legal system.”
Elle, my speculation is that there were a number of unrelated issues between the Gibsons and the college simmering on the stove, and when the accusations of racism materialized, it is possible that an astute and morally compromised person in the administration decided to run with it. Sadly, our data in the first two days is limited, so it is difficult to draw a perfect timeline of what led to what and who led to who. The trial established a pattern of support, but it did not determine whether the college was instrumental in creating the protest in the first place. As a scientist, I do operate under the principle of “lack of evidence is not evidence of lack.” To me, the college has shown a level of maliciousness throughout where even wild speculations are somewhat probable. We have been presented with a scenario of where the college wants the parking lot property and that driving Gibsons into an economic crisis could be a means of obtaining that property. That at least, for me, is the “follow the money” part of this debacle. Someone came up with a get something for nothing scheme, and then it backfired in a major way when the Gibsons courageously decided to fight it.
At this point Oberlin is just a boxer who refuses to stay down. If they took a beating from a friend, imagine what an enemy could do at this point. At this point Oberlin is doing little more than drawing attention to the inherent sickness of leftist ideology. So I am torn. I would like to see it over for the Gibsons sake, but as long as it continues, ironically by Oberlin’s hands, it just cuts deeper and deeper and exposes the left for what they are. Honestly, I think CBS was acting to send them a message to end this now. But no one who lives in their bubble can the damage it is doing.
I perceived Koppel held contempt for Ambar.
Or he might have had a moment of clarity where he saw himself tied to a pole and set ablaze once “they” had achieved power. People who seek power do not play well with others over the long run.
Interesting comments above (and below). Thanks. It seems likely it was a perfect storm with the real estate egging the lunacy along. For some reason I still see the act of keeping the license as an odd detail. But given the outrageous level of arrogance and entitlement on all levels, I suppose it makes sense.
From my prior reading, I think the “prior issue” is what Oberlin’s own student magazine called a “culture of shoplifting” among the student body.
Each store has dealt with it in its own way. Gibson’s took a hard-line approach and didn’t tolerate it from anyone, regardless of race.
I fully support the Gibsons on that. No one should feel compelled to excuse thievery, especially by privileged students who attend a high-dollar finishing school and then feel entitled to steal from small businesses.
Oberlin locals think that the college was scheming to pick up Gibson’s extensive real estate holding for pennies on the dollar.
Now that would explain a lot.
This Ambar is an obnoxious clown, yes. It strikes me that after the verdict we heard often from her and other folks at Oberlin, but never ever from Ms. Raimondo, the most thuggish of all.
I wonder if somebody, maybe the Senate maybe their lawyers, have put a gag order on her as a means of “damage control”.(STFU! You already costed us 5 billions!)
(Millions, not billions, but still counting).
The day is young.
Two of the most damaging words the left has pushed on society: ‘my truth’. Not the truth, or things are true or they are not and it is possible to suss out that truth, but that the truth is different depending on the person. Justice based not on actions, but upon personas.
It’s a matter of religious faith among SJWs that there is no such thing as objective truth. The very idea there is such a thing as objective truth is, according to the SJWs, simply one method the evil, cisgendered, Christofascist, hetoro normative oppressive patriarchy maintains the system of white supremacy and keeps women in sexual slavery as in “The handmaid’s tale.” Oh, and BTW the preference for reason and insisting on academic excellence are also part of the oppressive system.
http://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=384102
“Left-Wing Racial Grievance Merchants Want to Ban Honors Classes in Schools, Claiming They Only Promote ‘White Supremacy’
Academic achievement is racist.
This is, of course, the inevitable end-point.
Do they even realize what they are strongly, strongly implying when they make claims like this?”
Having actual standards is also, I should add, misogynist. So let’s just get rid of standards so someone who can only read at the 8th grade level and thinks schools of engineering should get rid of those white supremacist math requirements and should replace them with art and dance classes can get an mechanical engineering degree and design the next generation of commercial aircraft. I’m sure it will make the Boeing 737 MAX look like a marvel of safety and reliability.
So now the truth is the new hate speech.
For instance they insist there are no differences between male and female brains. False. The truth is that researchers have discovered over 100 significant differences between male and female human brains in the areas of how they process information differently, brain chemistry is different, brain activity is different, and one of the more significant areas that they differ is in structure. In fact evolutionary psychiatrists say if you know what to look for you can determine a male and female brain apart simply by brain structure (and size) and you’ll be right 80% of the time. That is significant. As anyone can observe, boys and girls simply think and act differently. SJWs insist that any such differences are due to society. Conveniently ignoring the fact that these differences exist in newborn infants who can’t possibly been influenced by society, that these differences exist in all societies, and moreover the behavioral differences between boys and girls closely match the differences that observes witness in non-human primates such as gorillas, apes, and baboons. Animals that have no societies to speak of that would cause males and females to act differently.
They insist that biological sex, gender identity, and sexual preference are unrelated to each other, when in American adults they are in fact strongly linked. The fact that they correlate in 95% adults is the very definition of “strongly linked.”
They insist that if a man thinks he’s a woman and has his wedding tackle chopped of and has a surgeon cut a wound between his legs (that’s exactly what it is; a wound, not a vagina, and if anyone undergoing this futile surgery doesn’t keep some sort of barrier inserted between the two walls of the wound to keep them apart for what may be a lengthy period of time it will close up and heal just like an ear piercing hole will close up and heal if you don’t keep a post in the ear to prevent it) then he’s a full fledged woman despite the fact there’s nothing anyone can do about the fact he’s “46XY” (every human being has 23 pairs of chromosomes in every cell in their body but only the X and Y chromosomes determine sex).
And if a woman has a non-functional set of replica male genitalia installed between her legs that doesn’t make her a man because she’s still “46XX” and will be all her life.
The X chromosome is much larger than the Y chromosome (an the order of eight to ten times larger). This makes a huge difference in who gets hereditary genetic disorders, and how thousands of diseases express themselves differently depending on if you are a woman with XX chromosomes or a male with the XY pair. Transgenders can insist they have changed sex, but nature/reality laughs at them and says, no, you can’t.
Marxists always do this. They insist there are no objective truths. No such thing as objective reality. Which means that human beings are just lumps of clay that with enough bayonets and gulags they can mold into the “New Soviet Man and Woman.”
If Professor Jacobson’s appearances on Fox News elevated this case to national coverage, Koppel’s less thorough but revealing report brought the issue home to those who believe that this was a case of right wing extremist bigotry. Koppel cemented the case in the minds of those who haven’t followed it. This was pure idiocy on parade.
Agreed. And it is mean-spirited for commenters to post insulting comments here about Red Koppel, ignoring that here he has done a valuable service, as if he can do nothing right and must always be reduced to a dehumanized caricature.
Yep. Koppel selected this case because it is an important, possibly game-changing case. And he allowed those involved to reveal who they are. It’s one thing to read about these people, it’s another to see them and actually listen to them. The professor did the ground work and teed it up for everyone else. Tucker Carlson was the first and hit it out of the park. Now Koppel sees that this is an important case that has may have legs and wants in.
Maybe Koppel will add to add Professor Jacobson to his “bad for America” list with Hannity?
I think LI deserves maximum credit for getting the ball rolling. I’m not as conservative as this site is, but so be it. When you’re right, you’re right. And LI has been right all the way along. Nice job.
They are drowning and trying to drag others under with them.
Meanwhile, back at the admissions office: is enrollment up, or down, at Oberlin?
The claim is that they met their admissions goal for the 2019 entering class, BUT, that is just a number. And those students made their decisions before the trial started. To me, it is like a salesman who met his goal to sell 100 units, but left out the part where the company lost $10 on each one. Oberlin may have admitted more students by lowering their standards 10 or 20 points on the SAT. Or they may have offered an additional $10K in scholarships to 100 students. So enrollment was met, but perhaps not in a sustainable manner. My speculation of Twillie going out on the 20 city fund raising tour is that money is a big issue.
Ted Koppel is still alive? Who knew?
She’s not very mindful of the damage she’d doing to the reputations of other black college presidents.
More likely, she is selfish and doesn’t care.
The speculative part of me sees the Oberlin-Gibsons trial as merely “cocktail hour” to the main course of the future “wrongful termination” trials. As a white male, I fully understand and accept that I can be fired at a moment’s notice and with no recourse if I screw up at work. For me that isn’t just how things are, it is how things have always been and will always be. But for those with “favored status,” that is not the case. Is Oberlin “stuck” with Ambar and Raimondo? I have to admit a certain envy of those who are in a position where it seems a monumental screw-up simply cannot be sufficient grounds for dismissal.
The most racist individuals I have ever dealt with were some former african american co-workers who blamed “whitey” for all their problems.
They couldnt figure out that their racism was the source of their problems.
Koppel: “Oberlin is one of the most liberal colleges in America and Donald Trump had just been elected. It doesn’t explain what happened but puts it in context”.
No Ted, it provides a media / SJW narrative that you seem to embrace instead if just admitting the kid was a thief and Oberlin was wrong.
The election DJT absolutely explains why the Oberlin student body went berserk in their search for “whitey.”
The problem arose because those students and the college incorrectly believed that DJT’s election would “excuse” their behavior. This is the MO of every class of addict, even those addicted to a cause. I can’t count the number of times where someone has said “I was drunk” as if that would excuse them from the consequences of ramming their car into another, etc.
Adults behave accordingly regardless of the circumstances.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t there a breakdown by race of shoplifting cases at Gibson’s? There was no ‘disparity’ in the numbers of blacks versus white shoplifters, even considering the ratio of black to white Oberlin students.
The only thing I had an issue with was Koppel’s inference that the appeal made the jury’s findings of fact a nullity. The proper point was that the findings of defamation by the college against Gibson’s will stand until set aside by the appeals court. On appeal, findings of fact are pretty much accepted as proven with the appeals court to determine only the conclusions of law.
“The proper point was that the findings of defamation by the college against Gibson’s will stand until set aside by the appeals court. On appeal, findings of fact are pretty much accepted as proven with the appeals court to determine only the conclusions of law.”
That is the proper treatment – However the State appeals court could always pull the De nova stunt – whereby they can “create new findings of fact”. It was a similar stunt CA6 pulled in the grutter v michigan case, where the CA6 found diversity where the trial court found extremely solid evidence of a quota. (see Thomas’s dissent) – granted this case is in Ohio’s state courts.
Here’s hoping Oberlin gets a bit more explicit with this so they can be sued again.
This whole, sorry tale reminds me of a nasty racial incident at my local gym, now several years back. This was in a prosperous area, and was the unassuming place where the tennis players and all the black medical doctors and coaches worked out.
I was going about my own business getting dressed to work out when this elder black woman marches up to me and starts griping me out for my racism. She tells me that she could see my disapproving looks for wearing an ivy league sweatshirt, which, she declares, is from the school her doctor daughter attended. I said “You must be very proud of her,” and tried to leave it at that. I wasn’t interested in getting into a fight with a total stranger who was probably off her meds.
I had no idea who she was, or why she was upset, or why she picked on me.
Yes, there are black people who are prejudiced to the point they racism against them, where none exists.
“see” before “racism” in penultimate line.
See my comment above –
The most racist individuals I have ever dealt with were some former african american co-workers who blamed “whitey” for all their problems.
They couldnt figure out that their racism was the source of their problems.
A resident in our neighborhood kept getting warnings because he parked his truck and trailer in the street every night. (We can’t park in the street, and we’re also not allowed to have trailers.) He came to an HOA meeting and accused the Board members of being racist because he was being targeted because he’s black.
I thought then that it’s clear people see the world very differently. Everything is about race for some people–he couldn’t understand that just maybe he was getting warnings (as were others) for violating the rules.
Years ago I lived in Cleveland Hts. On the surface I would say that Cleveland Hts. was the most racist community that I had ever experienced, because they codified every single behavior that they observed just down the road in the east side of Cleveland. Anything that was done on the east side of Cleveland was illegal in the Hts. That was where I learned the difference between racism (illegal) and culturalism (legal). As with the HOA situation above, the rule was targeting a behavior, but more than likely there was an unspoken racial component in its origins. I would wager that if one were to watch an episode of Sanford and son that every behavior of theirs was addressed in the Cleveland Hts. city code. Our favorite was that if you owned a pick-up, it had to be parked in the garage at night. Not just off the street, but out of sight. BTW, Cleveland Hts is extremely liberal on the surface.
Ambar must employ the same public speaking coach as Mooch.
You’d have to dig a very, very deep hole to run across the likes of Ted Koppel. Heretofore, I would have expected Satan to avoid him. Such is the filth that has evolved from Oberlin’s senior management.
Evil Progressives doing evil. That’s what evil Progressives do.
I am no fan of Internet videos longer than a song I like, but I finally watched the CBS segment. I think they did an excellent job. Anbar struck out, especially when she couldn’t actually cite any incidents. It’s not an “incident” to cite “perceptions” by students. That response of hers was classic weaselry, and it buried her.
By the way, I had no idea that she was black until I watched the video. I’d have liked it if Koppel had noted that Gibson’s was vociferously defended by black town residents, and had nabbed white student shoplifters and turned them over to the town’s police.
Still, I thought Koppel did a very good job of showing Anbar for the fool she is, and eviscerating Oberlin for its conduct. Seems to me that if you lose CBS, you really ought to see the handwriting on the wall.
Ya just have to look at her eyes and facial expression to know she’s gonna deny any college involvement.
Great job, Professor J !!
The Gibsons are fortunate to have you on their side … the side of truth.
Correct me if I’m wrong but was this Ambar even around at the time of the incident? If she wasn’t then she is commenting on stuff she’s been told but has no first hand knowledge of. Therefore, the correct response is, “I have been told by others there was a pattern of racism” not to comment.
But she’s a lawyer, she should know exactly what she’s doing.
One observation I would like to make is that back in the days the tobacco companies were being sued there was a trend to have CEOs who were lawyers, could we be seeing the same thing here?
The woman in the picture sure does look furious. I don’t even think she likes the white man who is talking to her.
I wonder if she knows that we will breed that hatred away and eventually, black people won’t hate white people because of their color anymore.
Her kind always look furious. All she knows is hatred.
several observations.
first, how does this women still have her job?
second, am i the only one that thought koppel was dead?
Don’t forget that I called out the hypocrisy of Ms. Ambar by suggesting that she show the sincerity of her whining about freedom of speech by inviting Prof. Jacobson to come to Oberlin and tell the other side of the story. Jacobson had agreed to do so.
Ambar’s answer: She would NEVER invite Jacobson to come to Oberlin because he had said not nice things about Oberlin! Moreover, in her opinion, there were more and better lawyers who disagreed with Jacobson. Imagine that! I though lawyers always agreed with each other!
Almost no one seems to recognize the inaction in the Gibson matter by Oberlin’s deadbeat Board of Trustees, who seem quite comfortable with the slander job on the Gibsons which they appear to have willingly participated in. Check out my growing blog at https://oberlinchaos.com, which calls out the Trustees in particular. Interesting that the Board chair recently resigned his position with the Soros Foundation. One hopes he did not do it to free up time to perpetuate and enhance the slander job on the Gibsons.
Now you can say Noboby told you.
/s/ JD Nobody, OC ’61.
Oberlin is operating in an increasingly competitive and price-sensitive free market for educational services. They were having trouble even before that mini-riot, and I’ll be surprised if that trouble doesn’t get worse.
But the college sits high atop a very large endowment. They remind me of something I observed about high-tech companies while I was a money manager: They will eventually spend all the money, creating excuse after excuse all the way down.
Oberlin has a fat cushion, and it’ll stay fat for a long time. Two numbers to watch will be enrollments and per-student tuition revenue net of discounts and subsidies. They’ve already been feeling that squeeze; my guess is that they’ll ramp up their discounting to fill the seats, and congratulate themselves for making the college more “accssible” to those who can’t pay the full freight.
They’ll keep the sticker price where it is, and maybe even raise it, but the college game is increasingly divorced from the sticker price. Not enough customers, and they (actually, their parents) are bargaining harder every year.
No matter: The self-congratulations will continue apace.
I suspect that we are about the enter a new phase of internal dissent. Ambar’s performance on the CBS show was just embarrassingly weak, and her credibility on a stage outside of the Oberlin bubble had to take a major hit. I was chatting with a lawyer last night who happened to notice my Gibson’s T-shirt. He was clearly in the “what were they thinking?” camp. It would not surprise me if there was currently a group of profs at Oberlin who are seeing the future and realizing that it doesn’t look good for them, and it is either time to bail to a more stable environment, or put up a front that improves their survival. Everything that I needed to know about Oberlin I learned in Bob Neil’s “Germany since 1914” course, and right now I’d say we are in the middle of summer, 1944.
Caption for the pic of Koppel interviewing Ambar: Thought bubble above Ambar’s head — (“How dare this racist old white male interrogate me!?”)