HORIST: Boston Globe becomes Elizabeth Warren PR publication

Larry Horist

8 years ago

The Boston Globe recently published an article with the headline, &ldquo&semi;Ethnicity not a factor in Elizabeth Warren&rsquo&semi;s rise in law,&rdquo&semi; written by the paper&rsquo&semi;s Chief National Correspondent Annie Linskey&period;&nbsp&semi; It was obviously intended to refute the widely believed accusations that Senator Elizabeth Warren had invented a Native American ancestor in her genealogy to enhance both her legal and academic careers&period;&NewLine;While the article may have satisfied Warren supporters, it left a lot of question unresolved&period;&nbsp&semi; In fact, it may have offered more support for the accusations than previously known&period;&nbsp&semi; But, before we get to that, the entire article once again raised questions of media bias&period;&NewLine;The first question came from Michael Smerconish when Linskey appeared on his morning show&period;&nbsp&semi; The host asked if the reporter thought Warren was trying to put the issue to rest before a planned bid for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020&period;&nbsp&semi; (The Republicans should be so lucky)&period;&nbsp&semi; In answer to the question, &ldquo&semi;Is that what you were thinking when you were doing all the research&quest;&rdquo&semi; The reporter said &ldquo&semi;Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; In other words, the entire article was understood by the Boston Globe and their reporter to be an effort to help Warren&rsquo&semi;s political ambitions&period;&NewLine;Linskey, in bragging about the depth of her research, said that she had reviewed Warren&rsquo&semi;s personnel files with various employers&period;&nbsp&semi; That is not possible unless Warren gave permission&period;&nbsp&semi; In that case, Warren and the Boston Globe were &hellip&semi; COLLUDING &hellip&semi; to shape the story&period;&nbsp&semi; It must be nice for a politician to be able to go to a compliant publication and say, &ldquo&semi;Hey, I need you to write this story from this angle and I will help you craft it&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;According to Linskey, there was nothing in the early record to suggest that Warren was hired because of her alleged Native American background&period;&nbsp&semi; In one application, she designated herself as &ldquo&semi;white&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; Well, duh&excl;&nbsp&semi; The issue was never about her dominant ethnicity&period;&NewLine;In an application to the University of Houston, Warren checked &ldquo&semi;other&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; I would have to say that having followed her career, I would definitely accept her as being an &ldquo&semi;other&rdquo&semi; &ndash&semi; maybe even one of those extra-terrestrials I hear about on cable television&period;&nbsp&semi; What else could it be&quest;&nbsp&semi; But, I digress&period;&NewLine;Since that section in the application inexplicably did not offer the &ldquo&semi;white&rdquo&semi; or &ldquo&semi;Native American&rdquo&semi; option Warren would be an &ldquo&semi;other&rdquo&semi; in either case&period;&nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;However, there is the devil in the details&period;&NewLine;That section &ndash&semi; according to the small print on the application to which attention was not drawn &ndash&semi; seemed to be referring to all non-white minority categories to be designated for &ldquo&semi;compliance&rdquo&semi; purposes&period;&nbsp&semi; I had to download the interview to be able to focus on that bit of information&period;&nbsp&semi; &NewLine;The fact that Warren checked off any box in a section seemingly addressing minority status, especially with no Native American designation, could mean she was thinking of herself as Native American&period;&nbsp&semi; Any officially recognized minority status provides benefits with regard to diversity compliance&period;&NewLine;While that application can be interpreted either way, all should be able to agree that it does not provide a definitive answer&period;&nbsp&semi; It is not easy to determine &ldquo&semi;all white&period;&rdquo&semi; I know, because this author did the DNA thing and discovered I am one percent Nigerian&period;&nbsp&semi; Have I been wrong to check the &ldquo&semi;white&rdquo&semi; box all these years&quest;&NewLine;Interestingly, shortly after being hired by University of Pennsylvania Law School, Warren changed her ethnicity to include Native American&period;&nbsp&semi; It seems that is when she officially and suddenly came out as a documented Native American&period;&nbsp&semi; Although, it is very possible that she told previous potential employers of her ancestry even if it did not appear on the applications&period;&nbsp&semi; What was missing in the report were any documents that the law firms submitted to the government to establish company diversity&period;&nbsp&semi; Was Warren counted as a minority&quest;&NewLine;And, why would she change her designation after already having the job at the University of Pennsylvania&quest;&nbsp&semi; To offer one explanation, I must relate my experience at Sears, Roebuck and Co&period;&nbsp&semi; One of my co-workers in the Public Relations Department was a black woman with a Hispanic name&period;&nbsp&semi; I recall the vice president proudly proclaiming that he loved her because she was a three-fer&period;&nbsp&semi; When he had to submit the obligatory government diversity report, that lady was a woman, black and Hispanic&period;&nbsp&semi; Check off three boxes&period;&nbsp&semi; Yes, we had more ethnicity than we had people&period;&nbsp&semi; When the University brags about their diversity, Warren&rsquo&semi;s change made her a potential two-fer&period;&nbsp&semi; If Warren does not have any Native American blood, this may be an example of her using that designation fraudulently for personal benefit&period;&NewLine;While at Penn, Warren used her Native American designation in numerous publications and listings&period;&nbsp&semi; In the listing of faculty, her name was presented in boldface type to designate ethnic minority status&period;&nbsp&semi; It was not used to refer to women&period;&nbsp&semi; She and the University clearly saw it as a means of enhancing her prestige in the liberal academic community &ndash&semi; and that of the University as a diverse institution&period;&NewLine;It is what is NOT reported that may question the entire foundation of the Boston Globe piece&period;&nbsp&semi; Warren has never agreed to do one of those DNA tests to settle the issue&period;&nbsp&semi; One might have expected Linskey to ask about that &ndash&semi; or maybe the newspaper should have required a DNA test to establish the legitimacy of an otherwise political puff piece&period; But then again, this was a campaign gift for Warren&period;&NewLine;The Linskey article, for whatever its purpose, did not lay to rest the controversy surrounding Warren&rsquo&semi;s claim&period;&nbsp&semi; What we can say for sure is that Warren did put Native American ancestry on official forms&period;&nbsp&semi; We can say that she often bragged about that ancestry &ndash&semi; publicly and privately&period;&nbsp&semi; She obviously thought it would enhance her prestige&period;&nbsp&semi; She has publicly stated that her Native American ancestry came down through a grandmother&period;&nbsp&semi; But she never has provided any evidence beyond her contention&period;&nbsp&semi; We also know that she has so far refused to take a DNA test that would settle the issue&period;&NewLine;As the Smerconish interview closed off, Linskey betrayed the worst of the contemptible arrogance of the left-wing east coast media cabal&period;&nbsp&semi; She said she hoped her story would make a difference in clearing up Warren&rsquo&semi;s biography&period;&nbsp&semi; Linskey said that Warren has an &ldquo&semi;incredible&rdquo&semi; story&period;&nbsp&semi; To underscore what Linskey sees as an amazing achievement, she notes that Warren got her undergraduate degree from the University of Houston which she says is &ldquo&semi;not exactly one of the nation&rsquo&semi;s best universities&period; It just is not&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; Linskey goes on to say that Warren &ldquo&semi;winds up as a law professor at Harvard&rdquo&semi; &ndash&semi; with great emphasis on &ldquo&semi;Harvard&period;&rdquo&semi;&NewLine;Both in purpose and content, the Linskey article does not pass the smell test&period;&nbsp&semi; It does not settle the issue&period;&nbsp&semi; Only Warren can do that with a DNA test and it is legitimate to ask why she seems to avoid the only case-closing option&period;&NewLine;Until then, I would advise President Trump to cease and desist from calling Warren &ldquo&semi;Pocahontas&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; He should apologize to Native Americans in this manner&period;&nbsp&semi; &ldquo&semi;I hereby apologize to the great Native American community for calling Senator Elizabeth Warren &lsquo&semi;Pocahontas&period;&rsquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; She is not really a &lsquo&semi;Pocahontas&period;&rsquo&semi;&nbsp&semi; She is not one of you&period;&nbsp&semi; So, henceforth, I will refer to her only as &lsquo&semi;phony Pocahontas&period;&rsquo&semi;&rdquo&semi; <&excl;-- [if &excl;supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <&excl;--[endif]-->&NewLine;Larry Horist is a conservative activist with an extensive background in economics, public policy and politics&period; Clients of his consulting firm have included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman, as well as the White House&period; He has testified as an expert witness before legislative bodies, including the U&period; S&period; Congress, and lectured at major colleges and universities&period; An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries appear frequently on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation&period; He can be reached at <a href="mailto&colon;lph&commat;thomasandjoyce&period;com">lph&commat;thomasandjoyce&period;com</a>&period;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&NewLine;