Speakergate 2012
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the current President of Iran. Invitations for him to speak at the university during the annual autumn World Leaders Forum ignited controversy in both 2006 and 2007; a private dinner invitation the president extended to Columbia groups renewed the uproar in 2011. Ahmadinejad once again was the center of the campus dialogue as a conspiracy within the Columbia University College Republicans (CUCR) drew in both Bwog and The Spectator. This event ended in the resignation of both the conspirators, William Prasifka, CC ’12, President and David Paszko, CC ’12, Director of Finance from the CUCR Board.
The Spectator Breaks the News, Bwog Challenges
On February 26, 2012 Spectator Senior Staff Writer Yasmin Gagne, after two weeks of research, published an article based on - what turned out to be fake - CUCR Draft invitation to Mahmoud. Bwog, also receiving the same documents but assuming they where false, quickly published
Sources
(1) http://bwog.com/2012/02/27/ahmadinejad-not-invited-to-campus-bwog-confirms/ (2) http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/02/26/college-republicans-look-invite-ahmadinejad-campus (3) http://bwog.com/2012/02/27/college-republicans-exec-board-addresses-media/ (4) http://bwog.com/2012/02/28/former-cucr-president-casts-even-more-doubt-on-ahmadinejad-invitation/ (5) http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/02/28/editors-note (6) http://bwog.com/2012/03/01/we-know-what-cucr-did-last-week/ (7) http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2012/03/01/two-cucr-board-members-resign-after-circumventing-board
