Over at Dartblog, I have posted the text of an e-mail from New York University’s spokesman, John Beckman. In it, he tries to explain the school’s outright censorship of the Mohammad cartoons at an Objectivist Club meeting, and in so doing uses a little trick that students should watch out for: the University attempted to shut down the free display of the cartoons by giving the students a choice between a closed-off meeting with the cartoons and the open, public one they desired without the cartoons. When the students, eager to discuss the topic of free speech, choose the public meeting, they were accordingly censored.

How does John Beckman see it?

“…the student leadership of the club came to the University and indicated it had changed its mind: it would choose not to display the cartoons, and would like to be able to invite about 75 people to the event who were not members of the NYU community. The University agreed, but let’s be clear: the students made this choice.”

The emphasis is mine; I’m sure the students themselves would disagree quite strenuously.