As a result, we are in the middle of a huge legal mess, and as the
Editor-in-Chief I chose to pull both letters. The student claimed that
the paper had taken the panelist's side. Since we are student media,
run entirely by students and are completely self-sufficient, we have
little resource (sic) when it comes to legal matters.
I hope this answers your question. Unfortunetly (sic) I cannot go into further
detail at this time.
Thank you for your interest and participation with the Seahawk,
Katie Trapp
Editor-in-Chief
So, according to Pollard, Pomarico is lying about what she said in the forum and the newspaper is lying about her threat of a lawsuit.
But it gets worse. Another UNC-Wilmington professor (not the author of this editorial) is reporting that Pollard has accused her of organizing a conspiracy to falsely accuse her of claiming to have ties in terrorist networks. In other words, a professor has put the students up to it.
And it gets even worse than that. Several weeks ago, numerous students told me that Pollard had been attacking me in the classroom daily. Among her wild accusations were: that I have started a website devoted to maligning her character, that I have threatened to call the FBI unless Pollard could prove that she is not friends with terrorists, that I don’t have a doctoral degree, and that I don’t have tenure. Of course, none of these claims are true, but I haven’t threatened to sue Pollard.
Of course, I have considered calling Pollard to verify these claims. But the response will be predictable: those students are a part of the conspiracy, too.
Two weeks after Michael Pomarico’s editorial was pulled and one week after Lisa Pollard assumed de facto control of the student newspaper, Pomarico wrote a rebuttal editorial claiming that he can produce the names of several dozen students who can corroborate his story; namely, that Pollard did say she had friends in terrorist networks. And, to date, not a single person has come forward to state unequivocally that she was misquoted. Her defenders instead vaguely assert that her remarks were not to be construed as meaning that she supports terrorism. Of course, that was never Pomarico’s contention.
But the editor of the student newspaper (editor@theseahawk.org) will not publish his rebuttal. They are understandably intimidated by the threat of litigation and by the lack of support from university faculty and administrators.
I am writing this editorial to urge the paper to reverse its position and to open up the newspaper for statements from both Pollard and Pomarico. I hope that readers will write to the editor to encourage her to take a stand against Pollard’s threatened litigation. I am certain that several attorneys will write offering to represent the paper in the event of a lawsuit. But I don’t think that litigation is likely.
If the paper does not reverse its position, the message is clear: If you threaten a lawsuit, you control the student newspaper. And the paper will believe you, no matter how many times you cry “wolf.”
Mike S. Adams (adams_mike@hotmail.com) is an associate professor at UNC-Wilmington. He remembers a time when people settled their differences in the court of public opinion, not in a court of law.