The New York Sun editorializes on the subject of Stephen Walt, academic dean of the Kenedy School of Government, whose recent working paperis the subject of an AT debunking today.

...it's not too early to suggest that it's going to be hard for Mr. Walt to maintain his credibility as a dean. We don't see it as a matter of academic freedom but simply as a matter of necessary quality control.

The Kennedy School, to cite but one example, is home to the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, & Public Policy, whose Web site claims it "promotes serious, probing analysis of how the news media affect politics and public policy in the United States and globally." How is the Center's Alex Jones going to be able to work for a dean who prattles on the way Mr. Walt does about how the pro—Israel lobby is "manipulating the media" on the basis, in part, of the false claim that "the American media contains few criticisms of Israeli policy, rarely questions Washington's relationship with Israel, and only occasionally discusses the Lobby's profound influence on U.S. policy"?

Harvard and Yale, still America's two most prestigious universities, are damaging the value of the brand—names by conspicuous detachment from the American people. Like the New York Times, they may find that a legacy of prestige can be eroded and venerable institutions damaged when they stray from their mission of telling the truth objectively.

Thomas Lifson   3 20 06