The students in Professor Michael Goldman's "Media Politics and the Law" did not expect to witness one of the most shocking events in American history unfold during their second week of class. Goldman didn't anticipate it either, and quickly found his intended syllabus - the clashing ideologies of America's diverse cultures - overshadowed by the significance of the Sept. 11 attacks. But instead of holding a brief discussion and then pressing on with his original lesson plan, Goldman decided to radically change his course, replacing books with recent news articles on the reading list.
"Suddenly, the country rallied around the image of the attack. It didn't make sense to look at what separates us, but rather the things that bring us together," he said. Though it's a bit chaotic at the moment, junior Kathryn Price says Goldman is working hard to reorganize the class.
"He's being very good about it. Right now he's just throwing articles at us, but later on he's going to divide the material into sections and sub-topics," Price said.
While other classes struggle to get back on schedule with what faculty members feel is their responsibility to present the semester's material as completely as possible, Goldman feels that his duty as a professor has changed.
"To even begin to contemplate teaching a course on Media Politics and the Law and not respond to this would be educational malpractice," he said.
Goldman points out that in a country that was essentially split on its choice for president, there is now a 90 percent approval rating for Bush's efforts. And, according to Goldman, this change was made "without [an] understanding of how America has changed and how it continues to change."
While many have lauded Bush's speeches regarding America's commitment to fight terrorism worldwide, Goldman cautions his students to be wary of Bush's intentions.
"What does the speech really mean? Does it mean that America has to go to Sri Lanka to fight the Tamil terrorists? Does it mean taking on Jamas in Israel? Do we really want to be fighting every single terrorist in every country?" Goldman asked, emphasizing that America is embarking on a type of fight it has never seen before.
"We made a mistake in the first World War of thinking it was going to be fought like the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. We made a mistake in the Second World War of not reacting quickly enough based on our horror of the first World War. When we went to Vietnam in the 1960's, we made the mistake of fighting it like we fought World War II," Goldman said.
"How do we determine what victory is? How do we decide if we're going to put seniors, juniors, and sophomores at Tufts University in harm's way? How do we guarantee that they have the maximum opportunity for success?" he continued.
While Goldman does not foresee a draft in the near future, he feels that the issue is important for everyone at Tufts to consider, whether they favor military action or not.
"We're looking at the potential of people whom I teach being called upon, as America has done, to fight for their country. [But] the last thing that this administration wants to do is initiate a draft that is going to create an anti-war movement," Goldman said. Goldman has also spoken about the importance of maintaining an atmosphere of calmness and tolerance in the US as tensions are rising in the Middle East. He asks his students to consider the effect of public opinion.
"If there is, God forbid, a second attack, will that suddenly radicalize people against the Islamic community?" Goldman asked. "One thing that Bush has done extremely well is to get out the message that the Muslims in our country are not our enemies."
The question of enemies is another aim of Goldman's class discussions. He believes that the lack of a tangible enemy will make this military conflict unlike any other the nation has seen.
"We don't even know who our enemy is," he said. "When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, we knew where Tokyo was... You're not fighting an entire nation. You're fighting a band of one or two thousand people," he added.
In addition to lecturing at Tufts, Goldman is president of Goldman Associates, a Boston communications consulting firm and frequent commentator on such television programs as "Larry King Live" and "The Today Show," as well as Fox Cable News, MSNBC, CNN, and Court TV broadcasts. Goldman's opinions have been quoted extensively by publications including The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. Currently, Goldman can also be heard as host of "The Saturday Morning Schmoozefest" on WRKO radio in Boston, and his client list boast such politicians as Bill Clinton, Bill Bradley, Ted Kenedy, Tip O'Neill, and Michael Dukakis.
Price believes Goldman made the right decision in taking the class in this new direction.
"I definitely think that changing the focus of the class to the events of Sept. 11 was an appropriate thing to do," Price said. "It's still in tune with media politics and the law."
