The Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) sacked its editor last week, allegedly after he objected to a “significant ethical problem” in a reporter’s work regarding pro-Palestine protests on campus.
Sewell Chan, the former executive editor of CJR claimed in a series of social-media posts that Jelani Cobb, the dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism dismissed him after “three pointed conversations” in the newsroom.
“One was with a fellow who is passionately devoted to the cause of the Gaza protests at Columbia and had covered the recent detention of a Palestinian graduate for an online publication he had just written about, positively, for CJR,” Chan alleged. “I told him there was a significant ethical problem with writing for an outlet he had just covered.”
The other two incidents reportedly related to a CJR report on a sexual harassment investigation that remains unpublished and a dispute over the writing output and office presence of another employee, per Chan’s account.
Chan did not name the reporter with whom he allegedly had the ethical problem, but appeared to allude to Meghnad Bose, a fellow at CJR who wrote a glowing profile in February of Drop Site News for its coverage “documenting Israel’s crimes”.
Then, in March, Bose wrote a profile for Drop Site of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia graduate detained by immigration agents for his role in the pro-Palestine protests that swept the campus last year.
It is understood that Bose continues to post Drop Site’s content to his social media and continues to write for the outlet, while publicly voicing pro-Palestinian views online.
The Trump administration arrested Khalil last month and initiated deportation proceedings against him over his alleged support for Hamas. He remains in a Louisiana detention facility and is appealing his deportation in federal court.
Chan, who was previously editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune and has worked for the LA Times, New York Times and Washington Post, wrote that his oversight of the work of his reporters was intended to provide “rigorous, fair, careful editorial oversight” at a publication that is “supposed to monitor the media”.
“The norms at Columbia are apparently very different,” he claimed.
In his statement, he called the decision to dismiss him “hasty, ill-considered and...baffling” and described his interactions with journalists as “pointed” but providing “fair and critical feedback, rooted it editorial rigour”.
Bose did not respond to JNS’ request for comment and is yet to publicly address the report. Columbia University declined to comment.
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