Monumental Ignorance
"The way he was able to lead was second-to-none."
"This is probably not going to get a good review, but I'm going to say Adolf Hitler."
"It was obviously very sad and he had bad motives, but the way he was able to lead was second-to-none. How he rallied a group and a following."
"I want to know how he did that. Bad intentions of course, but you can't deny he wasn't a great leader."
Morris Berger, football coaching staff, Grand Valley State University
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| Morris Berger, who'd recently been hired as Grand Valley State University's football offensive coordinator, is under investigation by the university for saying he'd eat dinner with Hitler in an interview with the college newspaper. |
"It's intimidating when someone in power [a representative of the university's athletic department] reaches out to you...and you're a student, and it's a professional here on campus saying to take it down.""But I think at the end of the day we're really satisfied with our decision to keep everything up.""With so many eyes on our publication, we were nervous at first, as this is larger than a community story now. But as student journalists, we're proud that we stood by our work, upheld journalistic integrity and the work that has been shared reflects that."Grand Valley Lanthorn editor-in-chief Nick Moran
A just-hired member of the Grand Valley State University was suspended from his position as football coach for causing much consternation and embarrassment in unwanted attention to the university and its athletic department. As a new hire on the football coaching staff he was interviewed with the Michigan's school's student newspaper. It was a question-and-answer type of interview by the sport editor of the Grand Valley Lanthorn.
Editor Kellen Voss had asked the new coach some anodyne questions meant to help familiarize the student body with a new football coaching staff member, an offensive co-ordinator. As the end of the interview drew near, and in reference to a degree in history from Drury University in Berger's background, the interviewer asked that he name three people in historical archives that he would like to have dinner with, aside from football figures.
Only the football team's offensive co-ordinator for a week, after naming Adolf Hitler -- the Nazi leader whose Third Reich ambition resulted in the deaths of up to 70 million people during the course of the 1939 to 1945 conflict, along with the stark reality of Hitler having instituted a state program to meticulously set about conducting a genocide leading to the deaths of 6 million Jewish women, children and men in death camps whose horrors put human imagination to shame -- the history and sport genius named two others.
He would like, he continued, to enjoy a dinner with John F. Kennedy, and one with Christopher Columbus. Once this interview came to public notice, right on the verge of the world noting the 75-year passage of the Soviet Red Army liberation of the infamous Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland, where almost a million Jewish lives were obliterated during the Holocaust, there was a lot of explaining demanded by the public who took notice.
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| Burning bodies when the crematoria could not keep up in 1944 |
"The comments made by Offensive Co-ordinator Morris Berger, as reported in The Lanthorn student newspaper, do not reflect the values of Grand Valley State University", a university statement made clear. The University spokesperson Mary Eileen Lyon assured that Mr Berger had been suspended and an investigation was underway, launched by the university. The university, needless to say, reiterated its commitment to editorial independence of its student newspaper.
"The administration is reviewing events surrounding the Berger story to determine if there was behaviour inconsistent with that commitment", she added. The Grand Valley Lanthorn editor-in-chief reported that he had reviewed the interview before it saw publication, and that in his opinion the historical-figures questions aligns with guidance from the school's sports reporting classes. Innocence all around; no offense intended, freedom of speech upheld.
Of course, there's the fact that an abysmally low number of college and university-aged students have any knowledge of the Holocaust, and most have even less interest. Even those, presumably, with history degrees.
"Nothing in our background and reference checks revealed anything that would have suggested the unfortunate controversy that has unfolded. This has been a difficult time for everyone. I accepted Coach Berger’s resignation in an effort for him to move on and for us to focus on the team and our 2020 season."Lakers coach Matt Mitchell
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| Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland, Jews standing on the platform for selection after alighting from a train Yad Vashem |
Labels: History, Holocaust, Journalistic Integrity, U.S. Universities
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 31, 2020
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