Feedback: Readers Weigh In on BU’s New President, COM’s New Expert on Misinformation, and What’s Really Dividing the Nation
Feedback: Readers Weigh In on BU’s New President, COM’s New Expert on Misinformation, and What’s Really Dividing the Nation
Words of Welcome for BU’s President-Elect
What a thrill to learn of our new President-elect, Melissa Gilliam (“Boston University Names Melissa L. Gilliam 11th President,” Fall 2023). Not only is she superlative in each of her accomplishments, but I feel her ebullience and affability could qualify as “best friend.”
I am an alum—CFA’57 (piano performance). My continuing formal studies/teaching of about 70 years have brought many fine students to my keys, some of whom have continued to study at BU, one performing in the big hall at Carnegie! My children are alums, one having distinguished herself as a President’s Scholar, graduating summa cum laude with high distinction in economics and [with] a Master of Laws, the other in liberal arts.
What thrills me most about Dr. Gilliam is her universality. Her background bespeaks a strong connection to the sciences and arts. (I am drawn to the unique approach her late father had to his art.)
Tangentially, I am proud that a current student of mine…is applying to the music education program at CFA. With Dr. Gilliam’s outreaching approach, I think it impossible that [he] will not have the privilege of meeting her. As pianists, we cannot cross our fingers, but I am hopeful that will happen.
Welcome, Dr. Gilliam!
Sylvia Karkus Furash (CFA’57)
Yarmouth Port, Mass.
A Journalist’s Responsibility
I just read in the latest issue about the appointment of a misinformation and disinformation expert to teach journalism classes starting this spring (“Joan Donovan, Nationally Recognized Expert in Misinformation and Disinformation, Joins BU Faculty,” Fall 2023). With all the social bias in the media today, I hope she can keep “politics” out of her class curriculum and teach that unbiased and factual reporting is the number one responsibility of a “journalist.”
Peter G. Parsons (COM’65)
Skaneateles, N.Y.
I was greatly pleased to learn of Joan Donovan’s inclusion to the staff at the College of Communication and her work to try to identify and address the great volume of disinformation in our social media during this period of incredible violence perpetrated against the poor in our world. I would add that I greatly hope she also evaluates information that comes to us every day from the corporate mass media and other corporate sources, from our dominant political parties, and from our federal government.
As an informed COM alum, a historian who has investigated many aspects of America’s 20th-century activities, and one who has actually worked within the federal government, I can only refer to my COM studies under Madison Avenue advertising executive Walter Lubars, film professor and self-described WWII British intelligence analyst Roger Manville, and the great historian Howard Zinn, all of which can be summed up under one theme: “the American people rarely receive the full truth.” And to illustrate the huge gap that exists between truth and fiction in this nation, I would direct skeptics to the accurate and honest war coverage and expert academic opinions on deception in our world available to anyone on any day on the world news program Democracy Now, as well as to documentation hidden by our government that has been disseminated by courageous individuals such as Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
Don Faxon (COM’86)
Sierra Madre, Calif.
A Correction
I loved Howard Zinn as a poli-sci instructor during my time at BU, from 1982 to 1986. He graded us not by tests or regurgitating lectures but through embracing a cause and demonstrating on its behalf.
The opening to Jessica Colarossi’s otherwise fine article (“Beyond the Classroom: Marches, Megaphones, Missions,” Summer 2023) gave me a memory pause, as she describes Professor Zinn’s final day as 1979. Considering I sat in his lecture hall several years later (I was fortunate to have him twice and will remember him for both his passion and gentleness), I suspect the date of his “final day” was much later. I believe he retired in 1988.
Mitch Morrison (COM’86)
Passaic, N.J.
Editor’s Note: Howard Zinn did indeed retire in 1988. The story has been
corrected online. We regret the error.
What Really Divides the US
I’ll get right to the point. You mislabeled the headline of your last issue of Bostonia (“How the AR-15 Divided a Nation,” Fall 2023). It should have read, “How Journalism Divides A Nation.” I earned my broadcast journalism degree from BU in 1991. Last year, I returned that degree to the Office of the President. Journalism, as it was taught me at BU, is dead. It’s been replaced with a vile, divisive weapon, used not for the truth but for political influence. The last nail in the coffin of journalistic ethics came in 2021, when NPR changed its ethics policy to allow their journalists to engage in their chosen political and social positions while identifying as NPR journalists. That’s the complete opposite of what Professor Keith Botsford taught us: that we were to report on the news, not be the news. He told us that to be a good journalist, earning the trust of our readers was as important as earning the trust of the people whose stories we told.
In closing, I’m asking that you do better, not just for your chosen areas of interest, but for everyone. Stop being divisive. End the bias. Rediscover your roots. Perhaps take one of [College of General Studies] Professor Michael Kort’s classes and relearn what political media does in oppressive countries like China and Russia, and then compare and contrast. Thank you.
Damian Siekonic (CGS’89, COM’91)
Center Valley, Pa.
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