College Insurrection Tag

Oberlin College has been on a crisis management public relations campaign to create a narrative that it is the victim in the Gibson's Bakery case because it was held liable for student speech. In a series of scripted public statements, Oberlin College's president Carmen Twillie Ambar has asserted that "this is a First Amendment case about whether whether an institution can be held liable for the speech of its students. And the actions of its students. And I think it’s important whether you’re a progressive or a conservative." That is, as we have noted before, a false characterization of the case.

The massive $11 million compensatory and $33 million punitive damage verdicts in favor of Gibson's Bakery and its owners have been matched by equally massive media condemnation of Oberlin College's conduct. In response, Oberlin College has developed a crisis management talking point that this "is a First Amendment case about whether whether an institution can be held liable for the speech of its students." It's a narrative of Oberlin College as victim, not the perpetrator the jury found it to be, and it's being rolled out by Oberlin College with increasing media focus.