Possibly you’ve had the chance to read Peter Wood’s piece, Shut Up, They Explained. This was a response to the many ill-tempered, intemperate comments attached to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s story about our recent report, Beach Books, a survey of the readings assigned by selected colleges to their incoming freshman classes prior to the beginning of Fall semester. If you take the time to peruse them, you’ll be struck by how little they actually say about our report. Instead, our critics attack our funding sources, liken our study to “right wing talk radio,”(Yes, we must have been inspired by Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and FOX News) and fling bizarre allegations about the clandestine activities for which NAS serves as a “right wing false front.” That’s an intriguing term, one whose significance escapes me. It suggests that there must also exist a “genuine” or “true” front. Would it be “left” or “right?” Can anyone help?
We took a few similar hits at Inside Higher Education, where the discussion was a tad milder and more constructive. But you also won’t have to read very far at the IHE comments thread before you come to the same kind of petulance and bile that was so abundant at the Chronicle. Go to the article at IHE and scroll down to the comment from “Goethe,” (How the NAS Describes Itself and Report Bias as a Result). Read it, I think you'll see what I mean.
