George Will, a recognized conservative columnist, was dumped by St. Louis Post-Dispatch shortly after he wrote a column about campus rape two weeks ago. According to Tony Messenger, the editorial editor of the publication, this decision has been considered for months, and it was only after Will wrote his column that they decided to impose it right away. Based on Messenger's statements, what Will did "made the decision easier."
Messenger said in his statement, "The column was offensive and inaccurate; we apologize for publishing it."
Will's column raised a lot of eyebrows when he cast doubt on the reports of "supposed campus epidemic of rape." Aside from that that, he also mentioned that victimhood has become a "coveted status" which encouraged people, especially women, to make allegations.
He also continued to argue that activists within the campus have now expanded their definition of the terms "sexual assault" and have brought them to broad levels such as unwanted touching. To top it all off, Will mentioned in his column that the campus tribunals are not fit venues for addressing such matter.
Since the column was first launched on the paper, campus activists have been strongly clamoring to get rid of Will. In fact, they filed a petition at MoveOn.org, asking Washington Post, the primary employer of Will, to fire him. The petition was able to collect almost 50,000 signatures.
Additionally, another petition from Ultraviolet, a women's group, got signatures to almost 100,000. Other organizations also requested to get Will fired, such as the National Organization for Women. Even four democratic Senators have sent their own personal letters of protest against the columnist.
To address the Senators who were protesting against him, Will was quick to respond. He wrote in his column, "I think I take sexual assault much more seriously than you do. Which is why I worry about definitions of that category of crime that might, by their breadth, tend to trivialize it. And why I think sexual assault is a felony that should be dealt with by the criminal justice system, and not be advocated by improvised campus processes."
After Will was fired, his column has been assigned to Michael Gerson, a columnist from the Washington Post.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
