Cornell University President Denies Welcoming ISIS To Campus
The president of Cornell University, the Ivy League school based in Ithaca, New York, has blasted the latest Project Veritas undercover video as shoddy journalism and offensive.
As the Inquisitr reported earlier today, the new hidden-camera video from muckraker James O’Keefe’s Project Video crew apparently depicts an assistant dean of students at the college apparently very receptive to the establishment of a pro-ISIS club on campus with some campus funding. O’Keefe’s investigative journalist posed as a prospective Cornell University student from Morocco, who wanted to set up a student group to send care packages and supplies to Islamic State militants. The dean seemed to okay with supporting Hamas, as well.
Incredibly enough, the official also appeared to be accepting of a request to bring an ISIS “freedom fighter” to Cornell to conduct a “training camp.” According to the dean, this merely would be equivalent to an outside coach coming to Cornell to work with one of the university’s sports teams. Ithaca is “a very liberal community,” the dean declared.
The U.S. government has officially designated both ISIS and Hamas as foreign terrorist organizations.
In the aftermath of the video’s uploading to YouTube, Cornell University President David Skorton released the following statement.
“As the president of Cornell University, I want to be clear that the notion that Cornell would allow ISIS training sessions on our campus is ludicrous and absolutely offensive.
Project Veritas, the organization behind this shoddy piece of ‘journalism’ has been repeatedly vilified for dishonest, deceitful activity. It is shameful that any individual would pose as a student facing racial discrimination at another university, ask leading questions on hidden camera about Cornell’s tolerance for differing viewpoints and backgrounds, and then conveniently splice together the resulting footage to smear our assistant dean and our University. After speaking with Assistant Dean Scaffido, I am convinced that he was not aware of what he was being asked…”
Watch the video below and draw your own conclusions.
Although the controversial O’Keefe has plenty of detractors — including Cornell’s president — for his particular brand of journalism, the Project Veritas team, which specializes in undercover videos, has done its share of investigative journalism, which seems to be falling out of favor in the mainstream media. For example, the group released several clips in the run-up to the 2014 midterm elections about potential voter fraud. The group has also covered possible election law violations by the Wendy Davis for governor campaign, the corrupt ACORN organization which was subsequently defunded by Congress, previous instances of voter fraud, apparent chicanery in the Obamacare navigator program, and revealed that some outspoken anti-gun journalists declined to post gun-free zone signs outside their own homes. His group also exposed potential abuses in the so-called Obamaphone program. Another Project Veritas video suggested that former U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes was faking her support for the all-important Kentucky coal industry.
A separate O’Keefe video showed how someone wearing an Osama bin Laden mask could walk across the southern border undetected, and also how a man wearing an ISIS uniform could cross by boat from Canada to the U.S. without being stopped.
Do you think the video accurately reflects a form of extreme political correctness at Cornell or do you accept the university president’s characterization of the Project Veritas undercover footage as shoddy journalism?
[image credit: Eustress]
