Fox News reporter booted from Cornell
Cornell University is making headlines Tuesday after booting a Fox News reporter who was asking students questions on campus related to a report that faculty donations overwhelmingly go to the campaigns of Democrats.
Fox News sent Jesse Watters Friday to Cornell to interview students for "The O'Reilly Factor." Watters was questioning students about a recent report by the Cornell Daily Sun that states 96 percent of faculty at Cornell donate to Democrats. Only 15 of 323 donors gave money to conservative politicians, Bill O'Reilly said Monday night.
O'Reilly cited the Daily Sun report that of the $600,000 donated by faculty to political campaigns, 96 percent went to Democrats' campaigns.
"That doesn't seem real diverse to me, so we sent Watters to Cornell," O'Reilly said.
Cornell University Kicks Jesse Watters Off Campus for Asking About Liberal Bias
In the video, Watters asked a Cornell student, "What's the vibe on campus?"
The student responded: "A very diverse campus -- a bunch of different people from a bunch of different backgrounds."
"It's not that diverse because according to this report, 96 percent of the donations from faculty here went to Democrats," Watters replied.
"What's wrong with that?" the student said.
Watters asked another student if he felt professors are pushing a "liberal agenda" on campus. The student replied that he has friends who, if they write essays with a Conservative viewpoint, they will not get a good grade. Another student said he tailors his papers to how the professor leans.
However, other questions strayed from the donation questions. Watters asked a student if the U.S. should build a wall "on the southern border to protect against the illegal alien invasion." Watters also asked whether students trusted Hillary Clinton. While questioning a female student, Watters asked her to dinner.
Eventually, while Watters was interviewing a student, a member of Cornell's media relations approached him and asked that he not interview students.
"But we have his permission," Watters argued, then asked, "Cornell doesn't have a problem with Fox News, does it?"
Melissa Osgood, deputy director of media relations at Cornell, said, "Absolutely not."
Watters later asked John Carberry, senior director of media relations at Cornell, on camera if he had permission to interview students who gave their consent. Carberry denied him permission and told Watters he would send a statement about why. Watters, speaking with O'Reilly on the show, said he did get a statement from Cornell, which read "Cornell does not consider a person's political stance in its hiring practices."
Joel Malina, vice president for university relations, made a statement Tuesday about their media policy. Malina said Fox News gave no advance notice of their visit.
"Cornell University believes in exposing students to a diverse set of perspectives. Our decision to apply our media policy to Fox News, as we do to all news outlets, was motivated by our responsibility to protect student privacy.
"Fox News has been on our campus many times, but they have typically contacted us in advance and worked with us to set up interviews with students. This time, there was no advance notice. We provided the crew with a written version of our policy and they proceeded to go off campus where they interviewed students and completed their story unhindered.
"The vast majority of media interactions on campus, including faculty and student interviews, are done in compliance with our policy and with full cooperation between our Media Relations Office and the news organization. This was one of the rare cases where the media refused to cooperate, and we accordingly implemented our policy."