Juvenile Anti-Trump Fear-Mongering Takes Over Friday’s New York Times

November 18th, 2016 10:34 AM

If it’s Friday, it must be juvenile anti-Trump fearmongering New York Times.

In “Is It Safe for Me?’ Foreign Students Consider College in Trump’s U.S,” Nida Najar reported from New Delhi  with Stephanie Saul in the U.S.) about international college students foreign possibly forgoing American universities, or at least those in “red states,” for fear of a Donald Trump presidency:

At a college fair on Wednesday at the Le Méridien hotel here, 20 American universities made their pitches to aspiring students, many of whom had long hoped to study in the United States. But as the students checked out presentations from colleges ranging from the State University of New York at Binghamton to Abilene Christian University in Texas, several expressed concerns about going to America under a Donald J. Trump administration.

“It’s the main topic of conversation among my friends,” said Palak Gera, 21, who is applying to graduate programs in pharmaceutical science in North Carolina, Illinois and North Dakota. “They don’t want to apply to the U.S. under Trump.”

....

College admissions officials in the United States caution that it is too early to draw firm conclusions about overseas applications, because deadlines for applications are generally in January and February. But they are worried that Mr. Trump’s election as president could portend a drop in international candidates.

....

Rahul Choudaha, an international education consultant in New Jersey, has been traveling for the past week in India, where he said there was a palpable worry among students and their parents.

....

“It’s an anti-immigrant tone,” he added. “Just stylistically, he seems to be a very different person than people thought would be taking leadership in America.”

As she prepared her applications to prestigious American universities, Naina Lavakare, a senior at the British School in New Delhi, developed a Plan B.

....

Ms. Lavakare, 17, has adjusted her college aspirations. While she still has several American colleges on her list -- in New York, California and Rhode Island -- she dropped universities in “red states” to focus on colleges in Britain and Canada, her mother said, because she was concerned about Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant talk.

Ms. Lavakare and her friends, Ms. Pande said, “view Trump as a bigot and a misogynist.” She added, “I think that is what is freaking them out more than anything else.”

Sounds like her friends all read the New York Times.

Reporter Niraj Chokshi, straining hard to squint a silver lining, found it with the tale of left-wing nonprofits getting a surge in donations thanks to Trump’s victory -- donations from liberals on behalf of Trump voters they know -- in Friday’s “Nonprofits That Stand Against Trump’s Views See a Surge of Support.”

Chokshi credited liberal hero/comedy news host John Oliver for the juvenile tactic. Missing from Chokshi’s warm, supportive story: Any hint that the left-wing groups he featured, like Planned Parenthood, CAIR, Sierra Club, or the ACLU, were remotely controversial or ideological. No liberal or left-wing labels marred the happy windfalls.

On Saturday, Steve Mendelsohn received an unexpected phone call.

A staff member with the HBO comedy show “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” had a small question about the Trevor Project, the nonprofit where Mr. Mendelsohn works and which the show planned to feature in a comedic call to arms.

In the segment, which was broadcast the next day, Mr. Oliver urged viewers to donate to causes he felt were being threatened by President-elect Donald J. Trump -- and to do so on behalf of friends or loved ones who voted for him. The list of groups he encouraged his audience to support included the Trevor Project, which provides help to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth.

“It’s working,” Mr. Mendelsohn, the nonprofit’s deputy executive director, said on Wednesday, adding that the on-air mention helped sustain an outpouring of donations that had begun in the days after the election.

The Trevor Project has company. At least a dozen nonprofits that oppose Mr. Trump’s policies or actions have reported similar, in some cases explosive, surges in support since Nov. 8.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which supports women’s reproductive rights, received donations from nearly 200,000 people in the week after the election, about 40 times more than in a typical week, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Of those, more than 46,000 people donated in the name of Vice President-elect Mike Pence, a vocal opponent of abortion who has fought to deny federal funds to the group.

After skipping over Planned Parenthood’s abortion services, he mainstreamed the liberal ACLU, Sierra Club, and NARAL.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which defends the rights of the individual, said on Monday that it had received more than $7 million from about 120,000 donations over the five days after the election. During the same period after the 2012 election, the group collected less than $28,000 from 354 donations.

....

The Sierra Club, an environmental conservation organization, said on Wednesday that it had gained 11,000 new monthly donors in the week since the election, more than had signed up in the first 10 months of the year. That figure is set to eclipse, by about tenfold, a previous monthly record.

Other groups have also reported surging support.

The Anti-Defamation League, which combats anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination, saw a fiftyfold increase in online donations on the day after the election. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil liberties and outreach group, gained more than 500 volunteers in the two days after the election. Naral Pro-Choice America, which fights for abortion access, reported on Wednesday that it had signed up 290 times as many volunteers since the election as in an average week.