Kevin McCullough, January 27, 2005

This week brought about a hideous PR embarrassment for the University of Oregon . New media blew a relatively obscure story about the University into an all out image war that exposed the overt bias and direct deception that has become operative norms at the "Berkley of the North."

One week ago friday, Peter Baker was hauled before the administration and told that he would no longer be allowed to have a "Support the Troops" yellow magnetic ribbon attached to the university maintenance vehicle he drives on campus to carry out his duties. Evidently some "I hate America" employee had reported the ribbon, and had added that it offended them. The "I hate America" employee - the tolerant soul that he is - made clear that the only solution to the offense was the immediate removal of the magnetic ribbon. According to my sources the ribbon had actually been attached to the vehicle for a minimum of four months.

Baker was thus brought into the cold dark room, seated under a lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling and asked heated questions like "did he vote for Bush", "carry a Bible", "love his country" or horror of horrors - "actually serve in the U.S. Military."

Friday night the ribbons were gone.

On Sunday "Campaign Oregon" was heartily advocated for by top university brass at meetings in Eugene and Portland. The purpose was to raise a portion of the $600 million that the university wanted to seek for the "progressive, visionary, future" that lay in front of it. Captain's Quarters turned up evidence that the big donors in the campaign to that point had been in fact large donors to the Oregon Democratic Party as well. On Sunday ABC Ch9 out of Eugene had produced a single piece on the campus worker and the plight of his magnetic ribbons. The outcry in Oregon seemed muted. Call it "Blue State Allergies."

On Monday the blogs took over. I was the first to post it, but quickly Captain's Quarters and Michelle Malkin pinged me on it. Cheese&Cracker's Jordan Golson contributed a captured screen flash animation that bragged of the university's "Diverse" approach. (Diversity in their minds is welcoming everyone who agrees with them.) What followed was a blog flood that got echoed on both my radio show, Hugh Hewitt's (heard in Chicago and 70 additional markets) and Lars Larson (in Portland). The Instapundit even weighed in on the legal aspects - and in the full interest of disclosure - he didn't see any 1st Amendment issues attached. But bloggers of all stripes, small to large, kept pushing the story forward. WizBANG, the readers of Little Green Footballs, BlogsForBush, GOPBloggers, MyPetJawa, Outside the Beltway, and others commented and linked and smaller blogs followed their lead and so on.

On Tuesday reports were made public about the University's odd timing of banning the ribbons and the donor development effort. On Tuesday the university refused to allow Pete Baker access to speak with the media concerning his side of the story.

On Wednesday the university decided to finally address the issue publicly. Up until then they had only made form letter like statement available via their web-site and in e-mail response to the now continual flow of outrage that was being registered from across the nation.

On Wednesday they confessed that they had received "300 e-mail." (I have in my possession proof that disputes this number as I received more than 300 carbon copies of e-mail that listeners/readers sent from my blog.) On Wednesday the university also admitted that the situation had created a problem (as was cited in the New York Times, as well as newsprint in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles) for their university's PR but believed it to be based on less than factual accounts being reported by said talk radio shows and blogs. (This was complete non-sense as even a minimal reading of the blog coverage proves.) On Wednesday the university also said that "someone" had "yellow ribboned" the trees encircling the administration building. And when asked what would happen to the ribbons on those trees the university said plainly that they did not break the rules so they would be allowed to remain up.

On Wednesday afternoon "William the brave" as he is now called, turned whistle blower on the university. "William the brave" was in fact the employee (who is not Pete Baker) who had "ribboned" the office building. While university officials were telling the media that the ribbons would be allowed to remain up. "William the brave" told the rest of the world the truth - that in fact the ribbons had already been removed. He also publicly stated, on the record, that numerous Kerry/Edwards signs and stickers had been affixed to all kinds of state owned property throughout the entire election year.

Today, you have a chance to tell the University of Oregon what you think of how they despise hard working veterans who work faithfully in the service of the public at this public university. You can let them know what you believe of their managing of their "politically correct" image for the purposes of not offending potentially "significant visionary supporters". You can ask them why they decided to blatantly lie to the media on the yellow ribbons surrounding the administration office. And most of all you can ask why they don't believe that "supporting the troops" is a corporate (not personal) statement that the university should in fact fully embrace.

Office of President Dave Frohnmayer
E-MAIL: pres@oregon.uoregon.edu
PHONE: 541-346-3036

E-mail me with whatever answers you are able to retrieve from them - because the blogosphere and talk radio are waiting to hear what they have to say.

The odds are good though - that it won't be much.

Kevin McCullough is heard daily in New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware on AM 570 WMCA and AM 970 WWDJ from 1-4pm.

Copyright © 2005 Kevin McCullough