Some Perspective on Student Protests
Is this a crisis created by the media? The numbers show it is.
Just how large are the protests on college campuses?
College Population Arrested
The Washington Post claims that their tally of arrests across the nation comes to 900. But all the news accounts I could find mention the same universities. My conclusion is that only a handful of arrests have been made at other institutions which is not a sufficiently sensational number to be worth mentioning.
Of course, far more students protested than were arrested. But it does not appear from the reports I have seen that this amounts to a substantial number in total and from photos of these protests it is clear that the number of protesters is a tiny fraction of the number of students enrolled.
This is not to say that canceling graduation or closing a campus are minor matters not worth drawing attention to, but I am aware of only a handful of universities that have had to do so. Nor are legitimate and peaceful protests something that should be ignored. But what it does mean, is that the public is being led to believe that there is a rising tide of students around the country protesting Israel’s war against Hamas. And, what is being ignored is that by magnifying the extent of student protests, the press has contributed to the disruption of the lives of tens of thousands of men and women who are just trying to finish the semester or graduate.
Just sayin….