As seen on the web at IvyGate.
Lucy Morrow Caldwell.
Just yesterday, this name elicited a firestorm across teh_interwebs when Slate ran a “report” showing that Rudy Giuliani’s 17-year-old daughter Caroline, Harvard ’11, was a de facto member of the “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” Facebook group.
Links were exchanged, hatred spewed forth like only the ‘Net can provide and backlash — yes, backlash — ensued, offering up the idea that Ms. Caldwell turned a blind eye to news integrity and unleashed this bit of “breaking news” on the world.
Did Lucy Morrow Caldwell invent breaking news for her own benefit?
According to multiple sources, she just may have. Why? Let us ask you this: Is the joining of a Facebook group by a minor who is not eligible to vote truly a reason to get CNN’s news ticker all ticked-off?
For the record, we at IvyGate think Caldwell’s motives are suspect. After all, how long was Giuliani a part of that group? Was it breaking just because someone who is not one of her friends on Facebook noticed? Remember — the noose-tightening line in Caldwell’s piece is that she removed herself from the group at an otherwise-uncollegiate-for-the-summer 6:01 a.m. But where was the news when she originally had joined it?
We’re actually on the side of Insider Chatter on this one:
If Slate’s Lucy Morrow Caldwell is aware of corporate owner WP’s Pentagon Papers and Watergate investigative heritage, it is NOT evident in her “undercover” Facebook reporting. Howard Kurtz is billed as the Washington Post media critic, but he is content to regurgitate a college intern’s inept public posting of a fellow Facebooker’s profile.”
Ouch, and that’s coming from an editor who’s actually been billed as “Howard Kurtz, Jr.”
Do we really care about Caroline Giuliani’s political views? Here’s a little justification to how little this matters for her, thanks to a blistering New York profile of Caroline’s stepmother Judith:
When I ran into Rudy at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in late April, he told me Judith skipped the event because “she’s up taking care of our daughter [Whitney] at Skidmore.” The locution “our daughter” was hardly calculated to repair his frayed relations with the biological children he shares with [Donna] Hanover, especially 17-year-old Trinity-prep-school senior Caroline, who uses Donna’s surname and reportedly didn’t bother telling him when she was accepted recently by Harvard. (“In the next few months, Rudy really has to repair his relationships with Andrew and Caroline,” says a Republican strategist. “He can’t be the Republican nominee and have his kids estranged from him. That ain’t gonna cut it.”)”
So when the scrutiny comes down on the younger, collegiate Giuliani’s profile, which reveals a “liberal” slant — the most popular of political views on Harvard profiles, and for that matter, Facebook in general — IvyGate smells some agenda-setting.
Allow us to take a look at the even-handed journalistic history of one Ms. Lucy Morrow (that’s with an “o”, not a “u”, as in Edward R.) Caldwell:
On April 18 in a scathingly controversial, post-Duke rape flap column entitled “Rushing to Rape?” in The Crimson, Caldwell inferred that women who are inebriated and sexually assaulted may, in fact, deserve it. Well, that may be too harsh, so here are her exact words:
The most effective way for a woman to “take back the night” is to take control of her sexual behavior. This ranges from personal safety measures (like being sensible about drinking) to avoiding high-risk situations in which intentions are not made clear (so often, these scenarios are instances of common sense gone askew). Only when she has taken this responsibility will she be in a position to reflect clearly on how such sexual issues affect her.
“As for Take Back the Night at Harvard, I suggest that at their closing candlelight vigil, they light a candle for the other victims of sexual violence politics—the ones who find themselves unfairly accused of serious sexual misjudgment. To acknowledge those victims—now that would be seizing the night. Otherwise, honey, you can have it.”
(Two of her other three Crimson article listings concern the failure of Title IX.)
The response? Editorials and commentary from all sides, calling her column “rushed,” “uninformed” and mistaken, as well as missing “nuance” and ignoring statistics.
Hmm, sounds to me like this adds up:
* Rushed — breaking news suddenly hits teh_interwebs!
* Uninformed — no comment from Giuliani herself!
* Missing nuance — well hell if the estranged daughter of a presidential candidate isn’t in line with his campaign!
* Ignoring statisics — um, like how “liberal” is the status quo for most Harvard students, most college students, most Northeastern college students, and most blue-state residents on Facebook, a social network whose specialty is the portion of the population that trends liberal and is comprised mostly of students in higher education and young professionals. An Old Boys’ Network this ain’t!
So the more we look at it, the more it seems like Caldwell either sat on the story — after all, she had the time to write the damn thing and it sure doesn’t appear that she’s on Slate’s payroll (she certainly isn’t down the street of its offices in Washington, D.C.) — or cunningly pitched it out and Slate jumped too hard, too quickly. After all — why Slate? Why not The Crimson? Why not IvyGate (need “Gate” say more?) Why not the Boston Globe? Why not The New York Times?
Nevetheless, it’s just not adding up, and to us, it’s a reason to suspect Caldwell’s motives. It’s mildly interesting, but it’s doing more to put Giuliani needlessly in the headlines (and he needs it) than to contribute to the national election dialogue. It’s not Watergate, it’s Facebook. So when it comes to this news, we folks at IvyGate say this:
To Caroline Giuliani, whose plain-jane-for-a-college-student profile was needlessly attacked for representing a political view (which can only be described as weak — she’s only just out of high school for Christ’s sake!) contrary to her estranged father, whose surname she reportedly doesn’t use and whose attention she did not seek months ago when having been accepted at Harvard — with regards to your supposed support of Barack Obama:
Honey, you can have it. — ANDREW NUSCA
UPDATE 1:03 A.M. — Some curious food for thought: A quick Facebook search revealed nothing for Lucy Caldwell at Harvard — so either she’s not on the site or she’s set her privacy settings to avoid being the subject of the same scrutiny she’s brought on someone else. Dear old Newell said he saw her come up in the listings as late as noon today, but got nothing at an 8 p.m. search this evening. Something’s clearly changed. Hmm.
[IvyGate Andrew Nusca author page with 12 total posts]
What Does A Liberal Look Like? According to Lucy Morrow Caldwell, A Harvard Student (UPDATE)
As seen on the web at IvyGate.
Lucy Morrow Caldwell.
Just yesterday, this name elicited a firestorm across teh_interwebs when Slate ran a “report” showing that Rudy Giuliani’s 17-year-old daughter Caroline, Harvard ’11, was a de facto member of the “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)” Facebook group.
Links were exchanged, hatred spewed forth like only the ‘Net can provide and backlash — yes, backlash — ensued, offering up the idea that Ms. Caldwell turned a blind eye to news integrity and unleashed this bit of “breaking news” on the world.
Did Lucy Morrow Caldwell invent breaking news for her own benefit?
According to multiple sources, she just may have. Why? Let us ask you this: Is the joining of a Facebook group by a minor who is not eligible to vote truly a reason to get CNN’s news ticker all ticked-off?
For the record, we at IvyGate think Caldwell’s motives are suspect. After all, how long was Giuliani a part of that group? Was it breaking just because someone who is not one of her friends on Facebook noticed? Remember — the noose-tightening line in Caldwell’s piece is that she removed herself from the group at an otherwise-uncollegiate-for-the-summer 6:01 a.m. But where was the news when she originally had joined it?
We’re actually on the side of Insider Chatter on this one:
If Slate’s Lucy Morrow Caldwell is aware of corporate owner WP’s Pentagon Papers and Watergate investigative heritage, it is NOT evident in her “undercover” Facebook reporting. Howard Kurtz is billed as the Washington Post media critic, but he is content to regurgitate a college intern’s inept public posting of a fellow Facebooker’s profile.”
Ouch, and that’s coming from an editor who’s actually been billed as “Howard Kurtz, Jr.”
Do we really care about Caroline Giuliani’s political views? Here’s a little justification to how little this matters for her, thanks to a blistering New York profile of Caroline’s stepmother Judith:
When I ran into Rudy at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner in late April, he told me Judith skipped the event because “she’s up taking care of our daughter [Whitney] at Skidmore.” The locution “our daughter” was hardly calculated to repair his frayed relations with the biological children he shares with [Donna] Hanover, especially 17-year-old Trinity-prep-school senior Caroline, who uses Donna’s surname and reportedly didn’t bother telling him when she was accepted recently by Harvard. (“In the next few months, Rudy really has to repair his relationships with Andrew and Caroline,” says a Republican strategist. “He can’t be the Republican nominee and have his kids estranged from him. That ain’t gonna cut it.”)”
So when the scrutiny comes down on the younger, collegiate Giuliani’s profile, which reveals a “liberal” slant — the most popular of political views on Harvard profiles, and for that matter, Facebook in general — IvyGate smells some agenda-setting.
Allow us to take a look at the even-handed journalistic history of one Ms. Lucy Morrow (that’s with an “o”, not a “u”, as in Edward R.) Caldwell:
On April 18 in a scathingly controversial, post-Duke rape flap column entitled “Rushing to Rape?” in The Crimson, Caldwell inferred that women who are inebriated and sexually assaulted may, in fact, deserve it. Well, that may be too harsh, so here are her exact words:
The most effective way for a woman to “take back the night” is to take control of her sexual behavior. This ranges from personal safety measures (like being sensible about drinking) to avoiding high-risk situations in which intentions are not made clear (so often, these scenarios are instances of common sense gone askew). Only when she has taken this responsibility will she be in a position to reflect clearly on how such sexual issues affect her.
“As for Take Back the Night at Harvard, I suggest that at their closing candlelight vigil, they light a candle for the other victims of sexual violence politics—the ones who find themselves unfairly accused of serious sexual misjudgment. To acknowledge those victims—now that would be seizing the night. Otherwise, honey, you can have it.”
(Two of her other three Crimson article listings concern the failure of Title IX.)
The response? Editorials and commentary from all sides, calling her column “rushed,” “uninformed” and mistaken, as well as missing “nuance” and ignoring statistics.
Hmm, sounds to me like this adds up:
* Rushed — breaking news suddenly hits teh_interwebs!
* Uninformed — no comment from Giuliani herself!
* Missing nuance — well hell if the estranged daughter of a presidential candidate isn’t in line with his campaign!
* Ignoring statisics — um, like how “liberal” is the status quo for most Harvard students, most college students, most Northeastern college students, and most blue-state residents on Facebook, a social network whose specialty is the portion of the population that trends liberal and is comprised mostly of students in higher education and young professionals. An Old Boys’ Network this ain’t!
So the more we look at it, the more it seems like Caldwell either sat on the story — after all, she had the time to write the damn thing and it sure doesn’t appear that she’s on Slate’s payroll (she certainly isn’t down the street of its offices in Washington, D.C.) — or cunningly pitched it out and Slate jumped too hard, too quickly. After all — why Slate? Why not The Crimson? Why not IvyGate (need “Gate” say more?) Why not the Boston Globe? Why not The New York Times?
Nevetheless, it’s just not adding up, and to us, it’s a reason to suspect Caldwell’s motives. It’s mildly interesting, but it’s doing more to put Giuliani needlessly in the headlines (and he needs it) than to contribute to the national election dialogue. It’s not Watergate, it’s Facebook. So when it comes to this news, we folks at IvyGate say this:
To Caroline Giuliani, whose plain-jane-for-a-college-student profile was needlessly attacked for representing a political view (which can only be described as weak — she’s only just out of high school for Christ’s sake!) contrary to her estranged father, whose surname she reportedly doesn’t use and whose attention she did not seek months ago when having been accepted at Harvard — with regards to your supposed support of Barack Obama:
Honey, you can have it. — ANDREW NUSCA
UPDATE 1:03 A.M. — Some curious food for thought: A quick Facebook search revealed nothing for Lucy Caldwell at Harvard — so either she’s not on the site or she’s set her privacy settings to avoid being the subject of the same scrutiny she’s brought on someone else. Dear old Newell said he saw her come up in the listings as late as noon today, but got nothing at an 8 p.m. search this evening. Something’s clearly changed. Hmm.
[IvyGate Andrew Nusca author page with 12 total posts]