TVs Henry of Croooow Blog sent a heads-up to Susanna of Cut on the Bias about a particularly dimwitted quote from an Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Susanna sifts through her memory and pulls up Robert Jensen who made some idiotarian remarks after 9/11 and (coincidence?) is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. Go read Susanna before moving on.

This got my gears turning and – thank the Google Gods – I found what I was searching for. In the September 12th 2001 edition of the University of Massachusetts paper, The Collegian, was a noxious article by one William Israel, assistant professor of journalism. It started out: “Many commentators are describing the disasters in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania as terrorist attacks -- the worst since Pearl Harbor 60 years ago. None I've seen call them what they are: the predictable result of American policy” and went on to spit venom at America and George Bush in particular.

Keep in mind that the fires were still burning in New York and Washington, that the country was in a state of shock, and planes were being forced down across the country, when Bill Israel, from the comfort of his UMass office decided: “I should write an article attacking George Bush.”

James Taranto of the WSJ Best of the Web criticized both Israel and Jensen on their moronic comments – (see here, scroll down near the bottom) – on September 16th, 2001. After I wrote an angry letter to the head of the UMass journalism department, I did a little research on our Prof. Israel. It turns out he earned his masters degree in 1994 with a thesis titled: “Earth First!, the Press, and the California Forestry Fight” and his doctorate in 1999 with a dissertation titled: “Ritual Killings? American Journalism and the Treatment of Dissent”.

Both from the University of Texas at Austin.