mao’s little red book

Ever wonder why some stories gain traction in the mainstream media, and others don’t? Here’s an interesting story in the New Bedford Standard Times that has gotten some play in the blogosphere the last couple of days.

NEW BEDFORD — A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung’s tome on Communism called “The Little Red Book.”
Two history professors at UMass Dartmouth, Brian Glyn Williams and Robert Pontbriand, said the student told them he requested the book through the UMass Dartmouth library’s interlibrary loan program.
The student, who was completing a research paper on Communism for Professor Pontbriand’s class on fascism and totalitarianism, filled out a form for the request, leaving his name, address, phone number and Social Security number. He was later visited at his parents’ home in New Bedford by two agents of the Department of Homeland Security, the professors said.
The professors said the student was told by the agents that the book is on a “watch list,” and that his background, which included significant time abroad, triggered them to investigate the student further.

If true, it’s a good story … but the problem is, it’s a bit thinly sourced. The S-T just talked to the two professors, but not the student, and not the Dept. of Homeland Security.

We were interested in writing our own article on this. I called and emailed Williams and Pontbriand at their office early this afternoon, but haven’t received a response. I tried a couple of Robert Pontrbriands and Brian Williamses from the phone book, but no luck. The UMass-Dartmouth spokesman had heard of the story, but couldn’t say much about it. (He did know the unnamed student isn’t interested in talking to the press). And a Homeland Security spokeswoman, Joanna Gonzalez, said only that the department “can’t substantiate the claim right now. We are investigating.”

So what were were left with? Not enough for a story, obviously. I’m not saying it’s not true. It very well could be. But we just don’t have enough to go on. (I was going to slam bloggers for accepting this uncritically, but it appears people are actually asking questions and doing their own research … see here, here and here ).

UPDATE 12/24: The story is a hoax.