At the end of February, CAMERA published a three-part series on Rolling Stone’s coverage of the war in Gaza since October 7, 2023. One major problem that CAMERA noted at the time was the way that Rolling Stone had been covering Gaza casualties – relying on a debunked study from the Lancet that inflated the numbers. An even bigger problem was ignoring the way that the war started. So CAMERA was pleased to see the following in a March 14 article:
Protests sprang up on Columbia’s campus almost immediately after the beginning of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which has killed over 48,000 Palestinians since it began in October of 2023, after an attack by the militant wing of Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 more on Oct. 7.
It still omits the fact that the figures set forth by Hamas do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and that it includes those killed by Hamas’s own misfired rockets, but this is a marked improvement.
But the same March 14 article, “At Columbia University, Protesters Risk Everything as Free Speech is Shut Down,” by Jack Crosbie, which discusses the atmosphere on Columbia’s campus in the aftermath of the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, raised other problems.
The article relies extensively on quotes from Marie Adele Grosso, describing her as “a third-year student at Barnard College and organizer with the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition.” A quick Google search reveals that Grosso is not shy when it comes to media attention. Interviewed in May of 2024 by the UK’s LBC radio station, she revealed that she doesn’t think that Israel should exist. The same month, NPR interviewed her and reported, “Grosso spent time as a child living in the West Bank, where her mother worked as a legal advocate and her father researching food access.” And on October 9, 2023 Grosso made a video in which she stated that “Hamas’s attack was not unprompted.” None of this information about Grosso, which might show her bias, was included in Rolling Stone’s 2100 word article.
Instead, Crosbie wrote, “Grosso alleges that she has personally been the victim of numerous doxing attempts and rampant sexual harassment by Zionist supporters both on and off campus.” Did Rolling Stone seek any corroboration for the sexual harassment allegation before printing it, as journalistic ethical standards would require? (One would think that Rolling Stone would be particularly vigilant with allegations of sexual misconduct.)
Crosbie further wrote, “in January of last year, a number of protesters were sprayed with a noxious chemical compound by an Israeli student. The student was suspended, but later sued the university and won a $395,000 settlement over their suspension.” But it doesn’t mention that even the link that Rolling Stone itself cited, an article from the Guardian, said the substance was, according to the University, a “novelty, non-toxic fart spray, bought on Amazon for $26.11, and not a chemical agent.” The article then returns to Grosso, who, Crosbie writes, “says that the arm-banded ‘security’ activists are there to watch for these provocateurs, or outright threats like the chemical-spraying student.” A $26 Amazon gag is clearly not a chemical threat, as it is portrayed.
2024 takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia
Crosbie doesn’t question Grosso when she says that the policies currently being sought by the Trump administration – suspension or expulsion of students involved in the Hamilton Hall takeover and putting the school’s Middle East, South Asian, and African studies department into an academic receivership – would “put every student in danger.” What the danger is, to any student not involved in a takeover of a campus building, is anyone’s guess.
Three other anti-Israel students that Crosbie quoted were identified only by first name or by pseudonym, which raises the question of what these students’ biases and connections might be.
Nor did Rolling Stone’s reporter seek comment from any of the pro-Israel students whose studies have been disrupted by Khalil’s and Grosso’s activism – students who, in April of last year, were advised to leave campus for their own safety. Instead, Crosbie engages antisemitic tropes about “powerful alumni” operating behind the scenes and “Zionist organizations” that “weaponize the university’s disciplinary system,” and “push for them to face disciplinary action” – in other words, seek to enforce the rules.
Crosbie describes seeing, outside of a protest, “a student wearing a white polo shirt with an Israeli flag printed on its sleeve [who] poked around the crowd, taking photos of protesters and texting furiously on his phone, occasionally laughing with a few other students,” but doesn’t seem to have asked that student for his point of view.
And while Rolling Stone has now written four articles (including the one on March 14, discussed herein) about Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the student encampments who now faces possible deportation, Rolling Stone has yet to mention 21-year old Edan Alexander, the last living American held hostage by Hamas in Gaza, and the horrific conditions under which he has likely been held for 529 days.
The passage quoted above that explained how the war started was indeed an improvement for Rolling Stone and we hope the music magazine continues to note Hamas’s brutal attack whenever it discusses the war. At the same time, one-sided reports that quote four anti-Israel and zero pro-Israel students don’t help readers advance their understanding of events on college campuses.