Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Or they'll smear you like they're smearing Harvard President Lawrence Summers in this piece on AIDS funding. How do I know it's a smear? Start with the fact that if they didn't have it in for Summers on a personal level then this "news" item would be focused on "Harvard University" decisions - it wouldn't be harping on the name Lawrence Summers over and over. It wouldn't be quoting physicians stating the obvious - that every minute, people are dying of AIDS. We all know that, but of course people also die from money unwisely spent. I know it's a smear because by the end of the article I learn nothing other than being left with the sneaking suspicion that they have it in for Summers. They might have done a little research and explain some of the issues the university is concerned with and giving us as balanced a view as possible to allow we, the readers, to come to some sort of educated conclusion. But they don't, because that's not their purpose.
The Boston Globe: Legal concerns delayed Harvard AIDS funding By John Donnelly
In Nigeria, where AIDS treatment programs run by Harvard were put on hold, doctors said last week that Harvard's delay meant that some patients died. They criticized Harvard's leaders for not acting more quickly...
Agreed, a bogus "news" story. A few paragraphs down we read: "In 2000, the US government had sued Harvard for alleged misuse of federal funds in a development grant in Russia. ''That lawsuit sensitized him enormously for the need for Harvard to do this right," Hyman said." Ya think?