Lisa Foderaro left some things out of her brief Metro section story [1] on an alleged assault by a Columbia University professor against a colleague at a campus bar, "Assault Charges For a Professor In a Bar Dispute."
A Columbia University professor has been charged with assault and harassment after an another Columbia employee accused him of punching her in the eye at a Morningside Heights bar Friday night.
The professor, Lionel McIntyre, 59, was arrested on Monday, three days after the confrontation. According to a police report, Professor McIntyre and Camille Davis, a theater production manager in the university's School of the Arts, were having a discussion that "escalated in a verbal dispute," and Mr. McIntyre punched Ms. Davis in the eye.
This is as close as the Times got to the meat of the matter:
The encounter happened in Toast, a popular, noisy bar and restaurant on Broadway north of campus, where the chatter often runs to current events and politics. Professor McIntyre liked to engage fellow patrons on the subject of race, according to one regular customer, Daniel Morgan, who considers himself a close acquaintance of both Professor McIntyre and Ms. Davis.
The Times' blandishment left out a couple of salient points. By contrast, New York magazine [2] got to the heart of the matter without regard to liberal sensitivities:
Apparently McIntyre, who is black, and Camille Davis, a white theater production manager, got into a heated debate about "white privilege" at Toast, a Columbia-area bar. McIntyre, who often engages bar patrons in uncomfortable debates, first shoved Davis. When someone tried to break it up, McIntyre punched Davis.