Media Coverage

On the 50th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's "silent majority" speech, writer David Shribman draws a line to current politics and divisions and quotes Sandy Maisel, Colby's Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government. In analysis published in the Boston Globe, Shribman writes that Nixon was convinced that "the leading news organizations and antiwar protesters did not represent mainstream American thinking" when he appealed to the "silent majority." Maisel told Shribman, “What was the silent majority has become very loud. ... The people who formed the silent majority in 1969 represented a majority in the Electoral College in 2016, and they defined their mission as making America great again.’’

Wadsworth Professor of Economics Michael Donihue ’79, who served at the president's Council of Economic Advisors in a prior administration, provided economic data about the scale of the lobster industry in Maine for a Nov. 1 Washington Post business article headlined "Lobster on the Line: China loves Maine lobster, but Trump’s trade war means Canada is filling the demand." The article reports that Donihue's data show that the "economic impact of just the lobster distribution supply chain exceeds $1 billion each year—or at least 1.6 percent of Maine’s GDP."

The Washington Times quoted Professor of Government Anthony Corrado on early fundraising for upcoming elections for U.S. Senate races. "Some of the Democratic challengers have been unusually successful for this point in the campaign and a number of the Republican incumbents are not showing much fundraising momentum," Corrado told the paper for an Oct. 28 story.

Wadsworth Professor of Economics Michael Donihue '79 is part of a multi-institution study to determine if Maine seaweed added to the diet of cows can curb bovine methane emissions, which contribute to climate change. Donihue, Assistant Professor of Economics Jennifer Meredith, and students in the Economics Department's laboratory for economic studies will see if a final product of the feed testing—research led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and the University of Vermont—would be cost effective. The Bangor Daily News covered the story Oct. 30

The Portland Press Herald reached out to Professor of Government Anthony Corrado to comment on a story titled "Out-of-state donors flood Maine’s closely watched U.S. Senate race" regarding the state's 2020 Senate race. “What you’re seeing is just the tip of the iceberg – there will be an enormous surge of online giving next year, particularly if the race is so close," Corrado told the Herald.

Colby's 2019 Lovejoy Award was covered by several media outlets in Maine, including a Portland Press Herald op-ed by David Shribman, chair of the Lovejoy Selection Committee and retired vice president and executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.  Maine Public interviewed filmmaker Martin Smith, a panelist at the award ceremony and creator of the PBS Frontline documentary The Crown Prince of Saudia Arabia. 

In a Washington Post essay by Assistant Professor of English Aaron Hanlon titled "The real threat to free speech on campus isn’t coming from the left," Hanlon argues that, "For years now, conservative pundits and politicians have amplified and exploited a small number of elite-college speech controversies for political gain. The benefit of hindsight shows they’ve been crying wolf."

Steve Simon, professor of the practice of international relations, is coauthor of an article in the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs titled "America’s Great Satan: The 40-Year Obsession With Iran." When historians look back at countries most feared by the United States following the end of the Cold War, "only one country would be depicted as a persistent and implacable foe: Iran," the authors wrote. "In its official rhetoric and strategic documents, Washington has, since Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, consistently portrayed the country as a purely hostile and dangerous actor."

On Oct. 15 Colby announced results of an independent economic impact study, which received attention from various media outlets around the country.