Well, Columbia University’s attempt to foist a whitewash on the public has blown up in its face. New York Times ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, lays into his paper for its corrupt deal with Columbia. The Times published a front page story touting a report by a panel of Columbia luminaries largely clearing the school’s Middle East Studies program of charges of bias. Given that the panel was a badly stacked deck, the report was problematic enough. What’s worse, in violation of its own policies, the Times made a deal with Columbia to publicize the report without asking the students who’d brought the complaints to comment. That is indeed scandalous. Yet Okrent’s missed the point. Writing as if simple lust for a scoop drove the deal, Okrent ignores the fact that the story was highly favorable to campus leftists. Does anyone believe the mere promise of a scoop would have convinced The New York Times to publish a front page story favorable to campus conservatives? Can you imagine the Times accepting an exclusive deal to tout a study of campus political correctness by the American Enterprise Institute, or the National Association of Scholars, on condition that the paper not ask liberal academics for comment? I’m grateful to Okrent for highlighting this scandal. And Okrent was forthcoming on the bias issue once before. But the fact that Okrent doesn’t even raise the possibility of political bias in a case like this shows he hasn’t come to grips with the paper’s core problem….Wait a minute. What a relief! I’ve just read Paul Mirengoff’s piece on the Columbia whitewash. Here at last is an excellent description of the outrage The New York Times abetted with its corrupt deal. Next time you see me writing about legislation designed to reform Title VI aid to Middle East studies departments, think Columbia University and you’ll understand what I’m talking about.