BY BGOTTESM@POST.HARVARD.EDU
I read Garry Grundy’s December 4 editorial defending Michale Jackson with no small degree of bemusement and dismay. Due to the constraints of time and space would like to reply to one of Mr Grundy’s many nonsensical assertions.Grundy writes : “Nevertheless, these assumptions [i.e., that Jackson is black and gay] typify the common-place conservative rush to judgment. ‘This man is the devil – I know it!’ proclaims commentator Bill O’Reilly. You’d think he was talking about Saddam or bin Laden. How can he confess to know anything?”I challenge Mr. Grundy to come up with the specific day and place that O’Reilly made this alleged statement. I disagree with many things that O’Reilly says, but on the Jackson issue he has been remarkably insightful and circumspect. He has maintained that sleeping in the same bed with unrelated young boys (to which Jackson admits proudly and freely) is wrong. However, he has routinely attacked those who rush to pre-judge either Jackson’s innocence or guilt with regard to the specific allegations on his television program.Mr. Grundy is letting his hatred of Fox News and conservatives in general cloud his judgment and obscure obligation to journalistic standards. The mere fact that he writes an editorial, and not a news article, does not give him the right to put false statements in other peoples’ mouths, no matter how much he might dislike their politics.
-Brian Gottesman, Esq. (HLS ’03)