By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Media Critic
Published September 17, 2005
Is she a poster child for political correctness run amok on college campuses? Or a prime example of a student journalist derailed by slipshod ethics?
Those are the questions after the high-profile dismissal of Jillian Bandes from her job as a columnist for the student-run Daily Tar Heel, an independent newspaper at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Bandes, 20, grew up in Palm Harbor and once worked as a high school-age correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times. She was fired from the Tar Heel Wednesday amid a firestorm of local criticism sparked by a column she wrote for Tuesday's edition headlined: "It's sad but racial profiling is necessary for our safety."
The lead paragraph of her story set the tone: "I want all Arabs to be stripped naked and cavity-searched if they get within 100 yards of an airport." Bandes paraphrased conservative columnist Ann Coulter's comments on the physical intimacy at airport security checkpoints before noting: "I want Arabs to get sexed up like nothing else."
Bandes, a junior majoring in international studies, says she was fired by editors reacting to a wave of protests from liberal readers and three Arab sources quoted in the story. Tar Heel officials say Bandes misled her sources on the true focus of her article and misinformed editors on whether the quotes she used accurately reflected their views.
"I do regret offending certain people," said Bandes, whose plight has been reported by the Raleigh News & Observer, Associated Press, radio and TV stations across the country and on Coulter's Web site.
"I told (the sources) the story would be about both a post-9/11, Arabs in America kind of thing and racial profiling," Bandes said. "The quotes showed they at least tacitly agreed with my column."
But one student quoted in the story, 20-year-old Palestinian-American biology major Muhammad Salameh, said Bandes never told him the story she was writing would be such a pointed opinion column. He also accused her of taking his rueful acceptance of the reality of racial profiling at airports - he was quoted saying, "I can accept it, even if I don't like it. I don't want to die." - and turning it into an endorsement of her more pointed views.
"I got an e-mail from a woman saying, "I don't know you, but as an Arab, you embarrass me,' " said Salameh. "I'm in a multicultural fraternity, breaking stereotypes. I would never bash my people."
Tar Heel editor Ryan Tuck said he and opinion editor Chris Coletta gave Bandes the choice of resigning or being fired after a face-to-face meeting that included another one of her Arab sources.
"I feel she used quotes inappropriately, out of context and in a way that is not journalistically sound," noted Tuck, who said Bandes chose to be fired rather than admit any wrongdoing. "We seem to think she had misrepresented herself."
At issue is the way the column follows Bandes' "sexed up" line with the statement "Arab students at UNC don't seem to think that's such a bad idea."
Tuck said Coletta specifically asked Bandes if that placement was a fair representation of the sources' views. Bandes, who maintains she didn't realize the "sexed up" line might resonate with sexual humiliation scandals involving Arab prisoners in Iraq, said she was only asked if the quotes were accurate.
"I think that societal influences were the reason behind my dismissal," said Bandes, who noted she supports gay marriage and abortion rights, despite her growing status as a symbol of conservatives' persecution on college campuses.
While admitting the largely liberal UNC campus could use a conservative voice on its newspaper, journalism faculty member Jock Lauterer remained troubled by allegations Bandes didn't make her status as an opinion writer clear to her sources.
"I don't think there's any place for incendiary language which seems meant to rile people up unnecessarily," said Lauterer. "It hurts me to see a piece of writing that is so heavy-handed."
Bandes, a graduate of East Lake High School in Tarpon Springs, said she just wants her column back.
"I have a right to say these things without censorship," said Bandes, who ended the interview by asking a reporter to read the quotes back to her. "Isn't it the duty of an opinion writer to be provocative and stir debate?"
