Five months ago, I tried to get Richard Roth to qualify his public statements -- that freedom of the press in Qatar was being limited by journalists' self-censorship, and that the authorities were pushing the newspapers to become more liberal. I told him that his private hotlines to senior figures were useless. He replied with this insult:

With that kind of cynicism and negativism, I’m surprised you are still here. Go home, or believe in a better tomorrow. I came here to make a difference, not to despair about what is or what was.

Eventually, people in Chicago will start to wonder what the feck Northwestern is doing in this country, beyond providing cover for an increasingly difficult environment for journalists. Roth should be ashamed of himself.