Presumption of Guilt

To the Editor,I am compelled to respond to an article in the Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 edition of The Exonian entitled “Alum’s Senior Seminar Prompts Controversy” in which I am purported to be an Islamophobe and purveyor of hate speech. These are vile accusations and distortions but as someone who has been in the public eye for most of my adult life I am not unfamiliar with a hostile press. However, as a radio and TV news broadcaster for eight years in Washington D.C. I always strove to balance whatever views I might have on an issue with opposing opinions and report breaking stories without bias. As a politician and eight-year member of Congress whenever I was attacked in the media for a controversial stand on a particular subject I was almost always allowed to respond to the criticism by either a reporter or an editorial board. Sadly, the staff of The Exonian offered me neither opportunity before publishing.As to the faculty members and alumni quoted in the article vilifying me as “someone who has a history and record of hate speech” I can only say that I have never met any of these individuals and consequently never had the chance to address their concerns about my fitness to teach at Exeter. Nor had I ever seen any of the alleged corroborating evidence provided by Mother Jones, Salon and The Huffington Post before they appeared in The Exonian piece. But from what I can deduce from the excerpts most of this criticism is at least five years old. So I am curious to know, if my views are so inimical and potentially hurtful to the Exeter student body, why was I even invited to address the school at an assembly in September? If, as the article implies, I was intent on contaminating the school population with toxic observations on Islam would not that forum have been the ideal format to do so? Instead I delivered a speech that was devoid of bias which even The Exonian had to concede was “well-received.” And in discussions first with Dean of Faculty Ethan Shapiro and then at greater length with Director of Studies Brooks Moriarty I envisioned a course of study for my proposed seminar which was scrupulously non partisan and always intended to be a completely objective look at the campaigns and candidates on both sides of the political spectrum. Indeed, in an email to the seminar participants late last year I encouraged each of them to provide me with suggestions on what they hoped to gain from the course. I had learned the importance of student input when I taught public policy at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs.Critical mention was also made in The Exonian of my past association with the Center for Security Policy, an admittedly right-leaning national security and foreign policy think tank in D.C. I make no apologies for my affiliation with that organization. Along with several other like-minded institutions, the Center has done important work tracking the spread of global and domestic terrorism and provided background material and public testimony to congressional hearings on the spread of radical Islam. As such these outfits have frequently locked horns with groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations who have been quick to condemn any analysis of the nexus between jihadi activities and interpretations of the Muslim religion as rampant Islamophobia. In particular, the Center’s president, Frank Gaffney, who was singled out in The Exonian, is a popular target of Muslim advocacy groups. I have tremendous respect for Mr. Gaffney but my tenure at the Center was cut short by a growing unease I had with his opinions and tactics.These are all points I might have made to The Exonian or my accusers had I been extended the courtesy to do so. As it is the seminar is now indefinitely suspended which means the opportunity for the 12 seniors who signed up to scrutinize one of the most important Presidential primary seasons in recent memory as it unfolds over the next two critical months will be lost. Of course, as Mercy Carbonell, one of my more virulent critics, points out, “if it is a conservative voice we want to teach this course, there are plenty of decent, serious, non-inflammatory, likely-more qualified alums we could choose.” No doubt true but only one came forward to volunteer their time and expertise.To the students I will probably never meet, I offer this one painful lesson about the nature of politics and media in our current culture and that is in the court of public opinion there is no such thing as the presumption of innocence. Like many of you I have followed the incidents on campuses from Missouri to Yale to Amherst and wondered how many times freedom of expression would be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. But at the school where I first learned the importance of respecting other people’s points of view I guess I always expected better.—Fred Grandy '66