Thursday’s Carolina Journal Exclusive by Shannon Blosser has pushed the story of fired Daily Tar Heel
columnist Jillian Bandes to the top of the news. Bandes was fired
earlier this week for her controversial comments in an op-ed
about airport security and searching people of Arabic descent.
Some of the people Bandes interviewed say she misrepresented them
and the focus of her column. She denies the charge. Following her
firing, Bandes contacted Jon Sanders for advice, and that generated
Blosser’s story. Since Thursday, media interest has mushroomed. NBC’s
“Today Show” called, and the Associated Press produced a story which positioned CJ
as having the “scoop.” Friday morning, Bandes appeared on WPTF-AM’s
“Morning News with Kevin Miller” and taped NBC 17’s “At Issue.”. As the
firing gained media momentum, Thursday’s Headliner Luncheon speaker,
Professor Donald Downs, proved an ideal expert on the topic. About 50
people attended the event, at which Downs discussed free speech on
university campuses—the subject of his new book, Restoring Free Speech and Liberty on Campus.
JLF quickly booked Downs on WPTF to comment on the Bandes
column and broader issue. Blosser reports he has received
e-mail from as far away as Kuwait. In addition, the CJ story was linked on several hot blog sites, including www.lucianne.com, www.polipundit.com, and www.townhall.com. Perhaps that’s why Thursday’s online traffic to carolinajournal.com
was through the roof—setting a new record with 10,955 page views. One
note on a JLF connection to Professor Downs’ book: It contains a
reference to a 1999 piece written by Jon Sanders about speech codes at
the University of Wisconsin.