Last week The University of Chicago’s John Mearsheimer debated the topic of the Israel Lobby’s influence with lobbyists Martin Indyk and Dennis Ross at Cooper Union (site of the 1860 Lincoln-Douglas debate) in New York. The London Review of Books sponsored the event, and Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson Center’s Anne Marie Slaughter chaired it. I’m on the lookout for such news, but learned of it late when I was forwarded this article, which concludes:

The packed audience in the hall was often partisan, cheering for particular sides in this debate, but it seemed largely supportive of Prof. Mearsheimer and was kept in balance by the able hand of Dr. Slaughter. It was a travesty of news coverage that it was not televised, not even by C-Span, and no major media covered the event, including the major newspapers.

Were these nobodies debating an arcane topic in some hole-in-the-wall? No, the topic was timely, and the participants, sponsor, chairperson, and venue of the highest quality.

Would only a conspiracy nut conclude that our major media’s gatekeepers simply decided to black out the “undebatable” — even when it is in fact debated?