Geraldo Rivera, his mustache, Chris Kulawik, and serious-guy-with-beard (who is apparently Kulawik's shadow), all made an appearance on Fox News.

- JNW

Geraldo Rivera was in front of the Broadway Gates tonight. So was Armin Rosen.

When I saw a Fox News producer scouring College Walk for students willing to stand behind Geraldo Rivera during a live episode of Geraldo at Large, my thoughts instantly turned to the mustache. Specifically, I wondered whether and how such an aerodynamic and totally inexplicable article of facial hair actually exist on this earth. After spending the past hour a mere few feet away from one of the titans of sensationalist pseudo-journalism, I can say that yes, the stories are true. Hard as this may be to believe, the Geraldo mustache is no urban legend.

The Columbia journalism grad held court with a group of about 50 or 60 students and rubberneckers, shell shocked by the pairing of Geraldo frickin' Rivera with a murderous president of Iran. So the mood was light, even if the topic and the passions involved were not.

"Nobody wave. You gotta swear to God nobody'll wave" the mustachioed anchor instructed the rotating gaggle of students. "Don't be dumb," he added. "This isn't NYU," one girl retorted, although the most insulting line was Geraldo's: "Don't be nervous," he instructed participants. "We're not on 145th St." Would that we were, Geraldo, so that we could postgame this over some hot jazz at St. Nick's, rather than having to go straight from here to the dreary confines of the Butler reading room.

After e-mailing most every organization and calling every student leader they could get phone numbers for, Fox has its Columbia pundits set for the next few days. Here's the list, possibly incomplete and subject to change:

TONIGHT at 8:00 PM on the O'Reilly Factor:

Columbia College sophomore Alejandra Aponte, arguing in favor of Columbia's decision to host Ahmadinejad

Business School student Reed Werner, arguing against

Saturday at 2:48 PM with host Jamie Colby:

Journalism School student Bess Kargman, arguing in favor

CC senior and College Republicans president Chris Kulawik, arguing against

Saturday at 5:30 PM with host Julie Banderas:

CC senior and Spectator Editor-in-Chief John Davisson (after Bwog turned the job down), arguing in favor

Monday, after the speech:

CC senior and College Democrats president Josh Lipsky, arguing we're not sure what (although the Democrats endorsed the decision earlier this afternoon).

The 2006-07 school year has contained multitudes. In fact, it may just be the most eventful year Columbia's had since... well, the year before. Remember Matthew Fox? The Chung-Diamond "scandal"? "Don't Be a Pussy"? "Epilogue to Our Crime & Punishment: A Petition"? Bwog certainly does, so step into the Wayback machine - you're about to relive nine months of Columbia in a single post.

August

First-years move in. Orientation yields a legendary (to Bwog's mind, at least) week-long burst of posting. Addison Anderson went to a bunch of bars in the name of "journalism." Most literary post: "And now for some disorientation," which reads like early Bret Easton Ellis, if he knew about Koronet's. Orientation week was the best.

September

Facebook went literally insane. Then calmed down somewhat. Harvard abandoned ED; Columbia did not. Columbia Football had as-yet uncrushed high hopes, later crushed. Seth Flaxman declared victory. Best villains: Zuckerberg! Murphy! Ahmadinejad! You know, one of those.

October

Everything was coming up roses for Mark Modesitt. 1968 spirit was invoked by Jim Gilchrist. The fallout was immense - shady disciplinary letters, "news" coverage of all sorts (Jon Stewart, Fox News). Even Bwog had an opinion. But October wasn't all about relevant television coverage of Columbia issues with high production values - we also had "The Gates"!
Best correspondence to Bwog: "Subject: terrorists. your worse then the mooselums who flew the planes into the buildings"

Columbia students who stayed tuned after American Idol tonight were rewarded by this Fox 5 news teaser: "The cheating scandal at Columbia - the teacher at the center of the
storm, and the tough choice students are being forced to make." The Fox News affiliate ran a brief story, with both the usual (stock footage of college walk, picture of Wen Jin) and with the somewhat more interesting. One freshman engaged the reporter in this exchange:

STUDENT: "I think, because it's Columbia, people like to sensationalize the whole thing."

REPORTER: "So you're blaming it on us..."

STUDENT: [laughs] "Yeah, you guys."

Is nothing sacred? Fox News (which one tipster spotted shooting b-roll on campus earlier today) having run through every other permutation of "wild sex" and "Columbia students," decided to take aim at Bwog's favorite site at Columbia and possibly ever: www.goaskalice.com, our source of wisdom on everything from dried fruit to dental dams.

The host and guest sexperts, set against decidedly un-Columbian scenes of scantily clad bodies, gasped over the site's descriptions of bestiality ("people who engage in these activities have very serious mental health issues") and "other things we can't put on the air." Said Unprotected author Dr. Miriam Grossman: "I'm horrified by the site goaskalice.com."

According to one anonymous tipster, Health Services at Columbia is aware of the segment, but hasn't yet issued a statement.

Tipster Bobby Brennan writes:

"There's a sketchy high school senior wandering College Walk in a trenchcoat offering anyone $800 to take the Biology SAT II right now."

Hmm... sound familiar? At this point, we're convinced Fox News is just setting Columbia students up for an expose. Trenchcoat? You can do better than that, O'Reilly.

Newsflash! Columbia was on Fox again today, for bringing the Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations to speak. A little Bwog inside scoop: he almost went the way of his President, when the Law School withdrew their offer of space. Fortunately for Towards Reconciliation, the Muslim Student Association stepped up by donating pre-reserved space in Lerner, and the Columbia Musical Theater Society very menschily agreed to silence their rehearsal in Roone (in exchange for free pizza from SDA). Bwog editor Chris Szabla has this extensive report.

Jawad Zarif has spent considerable time in the US; a graduate of the University of Denver and San Francisco State, he arrived in New York in 1982 to obtain a doctorate from SIPA only to discover the school did not give out PhDs (he retrospectively claims it was Columbia that channeled him into diplomacy). His address began, then, with an observation regarding notions of Iran Zarif had encountered in this country. "Iran is a misunderstood country in the US," he claimed. It is one with a long history, one that understands the fleeting nature of dominance. As such, it has been heavily influenced by the 200 years it experienced digesting foreign impositions -- including those of Iraq, which, he noted, launched its 1980s invasion with substantial foreign encouragement. The perception this foreign influence engendered, Zarif continued, was that Iran could not trust others.

Nevertheless, this lack of trust never meant, he noted, that Iran had any need or desire to act aggressively toward its neighbors -- it had no real needs outside its borders. In fact, Zarif asserted, never in 250 years had Iran really threatened or invaded another country, in contrast to Iraq's wars against Iran and Kuwait. In fact, it has been active in stablizing the region, as the consequences of instability had only pejorative consequences for Iran -- the millions of refugees it has had to accept from Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. Zarif noted that Iran had been active in stabilizing the government of Tajikistan, mediating the dispute between Armenia and Azerbijan, and helping create what he called an "acceptable government" for Afghanistan, and was the first country to recognize the new government in Iraq. Accusations that Iran was interfering in Iraq's internal affairs, he claimed, were the inventions of Washington, and are contradicted by Iraqis on the ground. Iran, he explained, naturally supports a government composed of the former opposition to Saddam Hussein, individuals it was the only government to support in earlier decades.

Fox news has found another skeleton in Columbia's closet. Fox' Hannity and Colmes picked up the year-old story of Matt Sanchez, G' 07, the Marine who was (depending on your politics) harassed or picked on by members of the ISO at the 2005 Activities Day Fair.

"They dehumanize people to get their agenda across," Sanchez said about the ISO. "Right now, vets on Columbia's campus are second class citizens."

Not that this story doesn't deserve the attention of cable news networks of record like Fox News. But this story is a year old!

Bwog's on to you, Fox. Hannity and Colmes and the O'Reilly Factor go on every night, and you need segments to fill, and Columbia's an easy mark. Just send a cameraman a few blocks north for some b-roll of Alma Mater and the Barnard gates, and invite the victimized over to the studio for a prime-time party.

Bwog would not be surprised if Fox, in desperate need of more knee-jerk segments, went to nursing homes and retirement communities to fish out the administrators harassed by the liberal jihadists of '68. (Link added 2:55 pm)

-SEV

Just when you thought the dialogue around Columbia's sexual atmosphere couldn't get any worse...Ann Coulter got involved. Today on FOX News, Bwog's favorite channel, she opined (click for video!) on the Daily News "report" "exposing" our "creepy" carnal persuits. Money quotes:

"I really think you should get a picture of some of these [S&M] clubs and a picture of the young College Republicans and the Christians, because someone who has to join a club at college to have sex? Probably not your lookers." Conservatives don't care about kids having premarital sex--just WEIRD premarital sex!

"This has been well documented. Christians have more sex, better sex, more sexual satisfaction...you want a sex club, become an evangelical." Then assume the missionary position.

And responsible for all of this? "Most of all the culture of children raised in households without two married parents. Ask the girls in that club how many grew up sleeping in the same house as their fathers."

And that's the word.

Can't get enough of them Republicans: Chris "one day I'll be on them all" Kulawik and protester Monique Dols appeared tonight on Fox's Heartland with John Kasich. The show will air again at 1:00 AM.

A few more news items: None of the protesters Bwog has found has yet been contacted by Public Safety regarding punishment, and we haven't found an administrator that can tell us either. This could mean one of three things:

a. They are craftily plotting to entrap the protesters on their way to class on Monday.

b. Since there's no formal discipline procedure for this kind of thing, they can't figure out what to do.

c. They've decided that, if they ignore the situation, it will all just go away.

The People on the Stage (yeah, you know who they are) will hold a press conference on Monday at 11:00 AM at the Gates with members of the National Lawyers Guild, a group dedicated to progressive advocacy. On Wednesday, at a time and place yet to be determined, a broader spectrum of student groups will hold a town hall about the Minutemen and their choice to protest.

More video and national news coverage after the jump.

- LBD

The quality of these is worse than ever, but the sound works -- you can hear every attempted objection, interrupted stutter, swallowed point, and of course, the O'Reilly bellow. Avi Zenilman of The Blue and White, Chris Kulawik of the Republicans, and protest organizers Eva Fortes and Monique Dols took on the Fox Network tonight. Did they succeed at shifting paradigms of the multimedia conglomerate, or did they unwillingly play their stereotypical roles and submit to the machine?

We report, you decide. Check out IvyGate for more cogent analysis.

Eva and Monique on Hannity and Colmes:

Meanwhile, Mr. T makes everything better. Quotes from O'Reilly's later delirium-inducing interview with the star member of the A-team after the jump...

Eva Fortes, C '09, is the woman of the hour--along with Monique Dols, she took on Hannity and Colmes on very short notice. The bad news? They didn't let the girls tell their story. The good news? Bwog interviewed Fortes--who started the anti-Minutemen facebook group and penned an article in today's Spec--shortly before she went on national TV. You'll be able to see the video online soon, and Bwog will post YouTubes of both that show and tonight's O'Reilly Factor in the morning (we get tired too). Meanwhile, here's Eva's story, unspun and edited only a little bit.

Were you involved in the inside protest?

I got the heads up that it was going to happen, and about the desire to have a protest, And so, the minute we were sure, we had a meeting, and that was very much just people shouting out ideas, we're going to protest, in what manner are we going to protest? At that meeting, we decided that we were going to have an outside protest, and to have as many people as possible come. We wanted to have also a protest outside Lerner, but I think Columbia didn't give us the space.

As far as people going inside, we decided that those who wanted to go in and actually listen could go in. I really wanted to hear what he had to say, and ask him good questions at the end. And then we decided we should have some consolidating color, we would all just have white t-shirts. And then we discussed, should we protest inside? We weren't sure there would be a question and answer, and we had a couple of people type up a question sheet to hand out to people as they were going in, so if there were a question and answer, we would be prepared with actual and difficult questions. The other plan, if we weren't allowed to ask questions—we didn't outlaw heckling, heckling was alright—was to, at the very end of Gilchrist's speech, when the applause starts, we were going to stand up and turn around, and that was the extent of it.

When I got to the protest yesterday, it was going really well. I went in and sat down. I saw Karina [Garcia] there, and I asked her, hey, things have changed since that initial meeting, what are we going to do? And she said, we're not going to do anything, at all. And I said, are we even going to be standing up and turning around at the end of the speech, and she said no no no, just sit, because they're allowing question and answer. Throughout the speech, people were heckling, I was heckling. I think he should have ignored a lot more of the heckling than he actually did. When the students came out with the banner, I was surprised, and when people rushed the stage, I had no idea what was going on. I and the friend I had come with were the only ones to stay seated. I was honestly really frightened and embarrassed. One of the girls who was holding the poster said hey, they're going to go after the people who rushed the stage, so let's have a meeting of all those who rushed the stage. I went with them because I felt implicated in the thing already because my name was on the facebook group and I was going to write the spec article.

Chris Kulawik's cheerful visage graced Fox News' Hannity and Colmes this evening. While expressing shame at being a member of the Columbia community, he appeared the picture of moderation next to Minuteman Founder Jim Gilchrist, who called protesters the "anarcho-fascists" and the "21st century KKK," noting that he would have given the protesters a "Minuteman knuckle sandwich."

"They are domestic terrorists," he said, his eyes wide. "Their goal is to disrupt and deprive everyone of the first amendment except for themselves."

The video of Bill O'Reilly's take on the events from tonight's O'Reilly Factor is on the Fox News site now, and Bwog's got the footage of the Hannity and Colmes segment below... Ok, yes, we did tape a television screen. Silly Columbia TVs don't have "video out" holes! It's the sound that matters, really...

Meanwhile, in our self-Googling, we came up with this gem:

"Special honorary mention, also, to the courageous young journalists at BWOG who unflinchingly told the tale of the brave young jihadis who sought to protect the warriors of Islam from the vigilante infidels of the Minuteman Project."

It's nice to be appreciated?

If you happened to be watching Fox News this morning at 8:15 AM--because that's how Bwog likes to wake up--you might have seen a group of students with big signs behind the cameras. And if you looked closely enough, you would have seen a couple of Columbia faces: Dems member Nathan Morgante, CC '09, and Josh Bolotsky, CC '07 and this year's president of the College Democrats of New York. These kids, along with several others from Fordham and St. John's college, got up early to protest Chris Wallace's treatment of Bill Clinton on the most recent edition of Fox News Sunday, which sent blogs buzzing and progressives taking victory laps on behalf of their dear leader.

Careful to appear unthreatening, the Dems shuffled up to their post, stood quietly for a few minutes, and shuffled away. No cries of "Where's the third plane?"or "Faux News!" Just a good clean way to start the day.