CBS News story on (Falwell's) Liberty University debate team ... debunked

[Newsjock]

http://www.hanasiana.com/archives/001177.html

When I read the story in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine about the debate team at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University being the best in the country, I was skeptical. I figured either the landscape of college debate had changed radically since I inhabited it almost two decades ago, or the story was bunk. It turns out it’s bunk.

... That’s right. The team to which CBS News attributes “a national title” hasn’t won a single varsity tournament. Hasn’t even placed.

Is it it fair, then, to say that Liberty “consistently produces one of the nation’s great collegiate debate programs,” as the Times Magazine asserts? Hardly. That’s like calling the best Division III basketball team the NCAA champion, unless of course you’re Liberty’s PR department—or a reporter in search of an angle.

[jane_pippin]

1. A-ha! I knew that couldn't be right.

One of their representatives--the coach, perhaps--was on the Colbert Report not too long ago and he made it seem like Liberty was better than freakin' Harvard.

Now it makes sense. Nice catch.

[AlCzervik]

2. thanks for posting this, i saw the guy in charge of the debate team

on Colbert and he seemed like he was full of shit.

[Generic Other]

3. I saw their teacher on CNN bragging his head off

What a fraud. I thought something smelled about this story. We all know IF this was true, it would mean students at Liberty were smarter than we always thought. I mean come on. That's ridiculous. We was HAD.

[Richard Steele]

4. So when does the reporter get fired?

Yeah, I know- they don't, as long as Falwell's check cleared.

[Fuzz]

5. Sounds like a topic for debate for the next competition

[pnorman]

6. Here's from LU's site:

"The Liberty University Debate Team continues on a roll. Last week the team made it three tournament wins in a row and surged to the top of all three national rankings. The LU Debate Team captured the Catholic University Washington Fall Classic this past weekend. The team recorded their second double-division win of the 2003-04 campaign by taking first place in the novice and junior varsity divisions. The teams defeated George Mason, the University of Pittsburgh, the Naval Academy, the University of Miami, the University of Richmond and Cornell on the road to victory. "
http://www.liberty.edu/academics/law/index.cfm?PID=5485

Without seeing tha hanasiana site, the casual observor might conclude that the NYT Magazine knew what it was talking about. "Novice" and "junior varsity"??? That's nothing to sneer at, but it still places them in the Kiddie League. It looks like the NYT is just trying to suck up to the religious right.

pnorman

[Binka]

14. BS! My Son Ian Is On The George Mason Team (Limited Prep Capt)LOL

The Best Team Is From George Mason...http://www.gmuforensics.org/pages/team.html

[pnorman]

16. By your header, I thought you were calling BS on ME!!!

:grr: :grr: :grr: :spank: :spank:
But reading the text, I see that you were calling BS on the item I had Googled. No argument there. (Or should I say "debate"?)

All Clear. Have a donut! :donut:

pnorman

[Binka]

17. Sorry Mate Just Defending My Progeny

Here have a cigar with Laverne

[Nikki Stone 1]

7. So why does CBS do puff pieces on Jerry Falwell ?

??

[Kat45]

8. But the story showed us something else about Falwell:

His school actually recruits kids (who look promising) out of high school for the debate team. There, they can train the kids in debating in favor of the right-wing talking points, preparing them to be the talking heads/pundits/op-ed writers inundating our media, and our society, with these right wing points--which sadly have come to frame the debate and make it harder for progressives to get their points out to the people.

[Newsjock]

9. A very key point there

And an insight that goes unnoticed by too many of our progressive groups.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Problem is that if LU wants to "win" debates, the kids have to be able to

argue BOTH sides of an argument in order to conquer rhetoric. That means teaching them to learn to accept the VALIDITY of the argument of the other side. That collides with their program of "Right is right and left is wrong." The kids are denied the universality of the "big picture" at this fundamentalist christian educational institute. I can't see them being able to compete with the Harvard Debate Team. And remember, LU has a provisional accreditation by the ABA for its law school. They want to train future judges and government office-holders with their the same program as the debate teach (one-sided and antedeluvian).

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

11. Ha! Just like Robertson's law school ranking at the bottom of the heap.

They try to paint these wingnut colleges as top notch and on par with ivy league schools and it is just laughable. :spray:

Thanks for posting this article.

[dusty64]

12. I gagged when

I heard them say that would be their Friday story. It was in the background and I heard liberty university, I thought no way they are plugging the brainwashing institution of falwell, they wouldn't do THAT would they.......

[cantstandbush]

13. Will CBS retract, explain, apologize? I doubt it. n/t

[rockymountaindem]

15. If they're so good, how come Toronto won worlds this year?

Go team!!!