The Tech must do better
The Tech broke its own policy; it misled its readers; it failed to ascertain a basic fact; and it omitted important details.
Editor-in-Chief's Note: The Tech publishes once every two weeks: henceforth, the correction that is mentioned below was made promptly for the subsequent issue after its initial publication. Furthermore, The Tech strictly abides to all standards of journalistic integrity.
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The Tech has made a series of editorial mistakes in its coverage of the Graduate Student Union (GSU). It broke its own policy; it misled its readers; it failed to ascertain a basic fact; and it omitted important details.
The Tech’s opinion policy states, “Letters, columns, and cartoons must bear the authors’ signatures, addresses, and phone numbers. Unsigned letters will not be accepted.” Yet on April 11, The Tech published an opinion piece, “A statement on Jewish activism, safety, and recent events at MIT,” attributed only to “MIT Jews For Ceasefire.” Among other problems, the piece attacks me and four other Jewish students for accepting free legal aid in filing federal discrimination charges against the GSU, aid which proved instrumental in our victory. The piece was technically signed, but because the authors lacked the courage to sign their names, we do not know who is responsible for smearing us; perhaps they work for the GSU. The Tech should not accept pieces by faceless, unaccountable organizations.
Then, on April 25, The Tech published a news article, “Graduate Student Union passes referendum on ceasefire in Palestine,” which states that “942 graduate students out of 7,344 voted in this election, with 70.5 percent voting in favor out of 38 abstentions.” This is extremely misleading. There were 3,362 eligible voters, with 980 casting ballots, 38 of whom cast “abstain”; but 2,382 eligible voters did not cast ballots at all, for a total of 2,420 abstentions. No matter how one slices it, less than 20% of eligible voters were in favor of a resolution that did not mention “peace,” “hostages,” or “Hamas.”
Next, on May 30, The Tech posted a photo, erroneously captioned “A pro-Palestinian rally organized by the Graduate Student Union.” It took until June 14 for The Tech to issue a correction: “this rally was actually organized by the Boston Coalition For Palestine.” For two whole weeks, The Tech never questioned why the GSU would organize a pro-Palestinian rally. In fairness, it’s hard to tell the difference between the GSU and the Boston Coalition for Palestine.
(Note from the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: The Tech publishes once every two weeks; henceforth, the mentioned correction was made for the following issue. Additionally, although the GSU did not organize the May 15 protest the photo refers to, they did host a protest march that concluded in front of Building E1 five days prior on May 10.)
Finally, on August 1, The Tech published a news article, “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’75 SM ’76 slams alma mater in congressional speech as Washington erupts in protest.” The article quotes and pictures a GSU area chief steward at the July riot, but describes him only as “an organizer with the MIT Coalition For Palestine.” He was joined by the GSU vice president and at least one other area chief steward, but they were omitted from the article entirely. Earlier that month, I testified before Congress about these GSU agents, but this too was deemed unfit to print. (National Review and Inside Higher Ed felt otherwise.)
As The Tech’s editorial board acknowledged, “the developments of this year have shown us that there remains work to be done.” The Tech must do better in its coverage of the GSU.
Signed,
Will Sussman