Michael Tracey has been great on some topics, though not so good on others. That’s fine — this is America, and he’s surely enjoying the benefits of being an independent reporter. He can do what he wants, and he’s an unabashed progressive. On Russian collusion, he was one of the original skeptics who did a good job tearing apart the so-called bombshells and exposing them as nothingburgers.
On most issues, you’d probably disagree, but in the Cornell case, he’s been one of the most vocal advocates for the judicial process. He wants the case adjudicated properly. He wanted to reveal the identity of Jane Doe, who alleges she was drugged and gang-raped at a fraternity in October 2024. She has filed a new civil suit against several men, which has triggered another national circus. The issue is real. Sexual assault and rape on campus aren’t new, but how the media reports on it remains abjectly awful, and most cases that have become national topics of conversation end up exposed as hoaxes.
Tracey is in Ithaca, New York, right now investigating this story, and decried the Ithaca common council’s suspension of special-events permits for Cornell University for a month without ever investigating the claims' veracity. He also says he was muzzled at the hearing (via CBS News):
The fact that @mtracey did this is so great The fact that he did it while wearing a CSPAN hoodie is legendary
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) October 8, 2026
The Ithaca Common Council voted Wednesday night to pass a temporary moratorium on special events permits at Cornell University and called on the school to hand over investigations into "violent sex crimes" to the Ithaca Police Department.
The moratorium will apply to Cornell University, its residential and nonresidential sorority and fraternity organizations, general student organizations, and university student affiliations, according to Ithaca's mayor, Robert Cantelmo.
Effective immediately, the city will not issue new permits to the affected parties for assemblies, parades, special events and noise. The moratorium, which is set to expire on Nov. 5, passed by a 9-1 vote and is designed so that the council can choose to renew it on a monthly basis.
Cantelmo said the council adopted the moratorium "based on substantial concerns for the safety, health, and welfare of the residents of, and visitors to, the city of Ithaca."
The council also amended the moratorium Wednesday night to include a resolution "that the city calls upon Cornell to hand over investigation of violent sex crimes" to the Ithaca Police Department.
The case is a mess. Based on early court documents after the incident from the 2024 investigation that led to no criminal charges, Jane Doe and these guys engaged in a wild night of drugs, alcohol, and group sex. These are consenting adults — no judgment — but if consent was reneged at some point during the activity, it’s a different story. Based on some of these accounts, making that determination will be very hard, which is why Doe opted for a civil suit and chose a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.