ABSTRACT
The Columbia student uprising was big news, and most of the media played it that way. The New York Times, which had the most comprehensive coverage of the Columbia protest after the Spectator, and whose front page is as good a first draft of history as any, moved the story above the fold after the second day of protest, when two more buildings were occupied and the university was forced to cancel classes. Rosenthal's story, headlined COMBAT AND COMPASSION AT COLUMBIA (the compassion was on the part of Police Commissioner Howard Leary, portrayed as showing remarkable restraint in the face of angry taunts from students), read like a post-Armageddon account by someone who had seen a civilization destroyed. Life had the good sense to hire a bunch of students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism to bridge the generational chasm and to do some excellent inside reporting.
