Putting The Smack Down

By now, most of you know about yesterday's visit to Columbia University by President Ahmadinejad. Amid tens of thousands of protesters, Ahmadinejad was given a platform by the University to speak about current events in Iran, and not so current events such as the Holocaust (or, in his mind, the "theory" of the Holocaust). While I am thoroughly disgusted that an American university gave this man a platform and a podium, I couldn't help but smile a little when Columbia University Lee Bollinger put the smack down on Ahmadinejad by launching personal attacks his way. Bollinger called him a petty man, and a dictator. He questioned Ahmadinejad's statements on wiping Israel off the map and about the Holocaust. While I don't agree with Columbia's decision to bring this man onto US soil, it really shouldn't surprise me that they did. After all, Columbia invited one of Hitler's top men to come speak back in the 1930's.

Columbia wasn't President Ahmadinejad's only stop in America. Earlier on Monday he spoke to the National Press Club via satellite from New York.

Between Columbia University (housing the top journalism school in the country) and the National Press Club, is it any wonder why our media is so left focused? Hello?

Even if you are the most liberal journalist out there, even if you are the biggest Bush hater among them all, why in the world would a journalist want to listen to a man who's country has EXECUTED journalists. I know the very nature of journalism is to seek out the truth and report the facts, to get both sides of the story, but sadly traditional journalism has fallen to the wayside of grossly opinionated op-ed pieces and stories so skewed with liberal bias that is hard to know what the truth is anymore.

But I digress.

After speaking to the National Press Club and Columbia University yesterday, President Ahmadinejad is speaking to the UN General Assembly today. President Bush is slated to speak some two hours before Ahmadinejad takes the podium. Will Bush lay some smack down on Ahmadinejad? Let's hope so.

When the day is done, I hope that Ahmadinejad will swiftly find his way back to Iran. Columbia and the National Press Club may have welcomed you to America, but I certainly did not, and neither did thousands and thousands of others.