Posted by
A Real American on Monday, December 31, 2007 2:51:34 PM
After writing a
moronic column for the Daily Princetonian decrying the presence of condoms on the Princeton campus and how the school's "tacit sponsorship of hookup sex" leads female students towards "falling GPAs, numerous visits to the counselors, bottle after bottle of antidepressants, alcohol abuse, leaves of absence, self-injurious behavior and suicidal ideation," Nava and three other students (all members of the conservative Anscombe Society campus group) and a well-known conservative professor received email death threats.
Then, on December 14, Nava
reported that he had been attacked and beaten unconscious by two black-clad men who allegedly told him to "shut the f*ck up", a phrase that was also included in the death threats. Conservatives decried the lack of outrage over this incident, claiming this was violent proof of American colleges' dangerous liberalism, ignoring the fact that Princeton is one of the most conservative schools in the Ivy League. Conservative author David Horowitz told Rupert Murdoch's conservative
NY Sun:
“It’s a terrible incident, but it doesn’t surprise me,” a conservative author who has campaigned against a culture of left-wing conformity on college campuses, David Horowitz, said in an interview. “The left has now become the hate group.”
But apparently the right still holds the title as America's "hate group" — Nava faked the whole thing. On December 17, Nava confessed to police that he himself had sent the death threats and had beaten himself so badly that he gave himself a concussion. Not only that, but the news had broken over the weekend that this wasn't even the first time he'd done something like this — while a high school student at Groton, Nava had sent a death threat to himself and his roommate.
Nava's story was pure junk, a total lie meant to paint conservatives as victims and liberals as violent extremists willing to physically insult those they disagree with — some of the right's favorite talking points. That made it a perfect fit for FOX. Unfortunately, they were a few hours too late.On December 17, the same day Nava confessed to faking the whole thing, FOX's Brit Hume featured the Nava story on the Grapevine segment of Special Report:
Conservative students and faculty at Princeton University are questioning the absence of campus and community outrage — following the beating of a student leading a morality movement at the school. The New York Sun reports Francisco Nava was attacked by two men last week and told to shut up. The beating came two days after Nava received death threats by e-mail.
Nava — who is a Mormon — wrote in the student newspaper that a school campaign to distribute free condoms on campus was a — "tacit sponsorship of hookup sex." Three other members of the morally conservative Anscombe Society also received the threats, along with a conservative professor.
Princeton graduate Michael Fragoso tells the Sun — "There would rightly be outrage had the student been part of some other minority on campus. I have yet to see that right now, and that's rather disappointing."
FOX fraud Hume mentioned the Nava story at 6:30pm. The Daily Princetonian posted the TRUTH at 1:41pm ET about Nava's confession. Firstthings.com had an alert up at 1:43pm. NJ.com, a site dedicated to New Jersey news stories, had a story up by 2:37pm.