Professor Glenn Reynolds: Thank Alternative Media for Claudine Gay’s Resignation
“But even though the top-shelf traditional media were slow to turn on Harvard and Gay, the alt-media and social media were relentless and now they matter a lot.”
Professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit has been following the saga of former Harvard President Claudine Gay.
His recent Substack column addresses what should be next to salvage American institutions of higher education from the chains of race-based, woke policies.
He also noted that her resignation can be considered a victory for the alternative media.
…[This is a success for the alternative media. It’s an exaggeration to say, as an acquaintance emailed, that “Chris Rufo decapitated Harvard.” But it’s not entirely an exaggeration. Note that back before Twitter became X its “trust and safety” apparatus would probably have throttled Rufo’s messages about Gay’s plagiarism, and indeed many other remarks about Hamas. But even though the top-shelf traditional media were slow to turn on Harvard and Gay, the alt-media and social media were relentless and now they matter a lot. And even after Gay’s departure, satire site The Babylon Bee was relentless:
Tragic: Hamas Loses Two Leaders In One Day https://t.co/mmjR2RTo5x pic.twitter.com/jvyNRkPxVk
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 2, 2024
The people who head our institutions are mostly mediocre and sometimes wicked; this is why they try to stifle criticism, and especially mockery. Under the guise of fighting “misinformation” they’ve been doing that for the past several years; it’s not working, really.
Back when my blog was new and interesting (which is to say about 20 years ago) reporters interviewing me about the then-new blogosphere always wanted to know how many “scalps” we’d taken. To me the role of a blog was introducing people to new ideas, new platforms, and new people. To them, the measure of media power was about getting people fired.
Well, here we are.
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Comments
This Gay character is truly, objectively vile.
Perhaps her worst quality is the apparently complete absence of how she comes across To normal people
Someone could do a meme over Allen Iverson’s 2002 news conference — just substitute “plagiarism” for when Iverson says “practice.”
And put Gay’s face over Iverson’s face.
– – –
And the Harvard faculty supports her.
And families will still pay to send their kids
/smh
https://sports.yahoo.com/allen-iverson-infamous-practice-rant-10-years-later-165030496.html
This is a link to the uncomfortably comical Iverson news conference.
With some background
Imagine Harvard’s Gay in place of Mr. Iverson.
If we didn’t have an alternative media, we’d have no worthwhile media at all.
I’ve lost track of the number of issues that history has already proven that the alternative media got right and the established media got 100% wrong.
The vax.. Masking. Wuhan. Hunter’s laptop. Censorship/shadowbanning of conservatives. Corrupt Joe Biden. Fast & Furious. Vault 7. Affirmative Action. Echelon. EV mandates. Corruption of the educational system. Chemtrails. Waco and Ruby Ridge.
In coming years, watch for the same level of validation on Democrat election fraud, the Ukraine money trail, Biden China treason, global warming, red flag laws, and… “watch this space.”
Which is why the alternatives need to be silenced.