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Federal aid story prompted Falwell to block Lynchburg paper

avatar by Published Apr. 12, 2011 4:28 pm Updated Apr. 14, 2011 1:47 pm

Lynchburg News & Advance
News & Advance reporter Liz Barry wrote today that Jerry Falwell Jr.‘s Liberty University blocked access to N&A’s website for at least one day last week, and that “Falwell did not elaborate on the reason.” I asked the reporter via email if she had any idea what prompted Falwell’s move. Barry never responded, but another newspaper employee told me that some people there believe it was her earlier story that got the paper blocked:

LIBERTY TOPS STATE IN FEDERAL AID FOR ITS STUDENTS

By LIZ BARRY

Published: March 27, 2011
Liberty University students received approximately $445 million in federal financial aid money last fiscal year, according to U.S. Department of Education data, making LU the top recipient in Virginia.

The rapid growth of Liberty’s online program has fueled the increased reliance on federal aid dollars, said Robert Ritz, LU’s executive director of financial aid.

Last year, Liberty enrolled about 52,000 online students, plus another 12,000 through its residential programs. …

Falwell told the News & Advance that the block wasn’t related to the newspaper’s content, however.

Salon.com linked to Barry’s story and pointed out the conservative college got more government cash than NPR last year. My source at the newspaper told me that the Lynchburg paper’s aid story gave Liberty “a lot of headaches, to the extent they enlisted their DC public relations firm.”



CLARIFICATION: This post has been updated to note that Liberty told the News & Advance that the block “was not related to the newspaper’s content” and that the unidentified source works at the newspaper.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/libertycser71 Firstname Lastname

    I think that there is room for improvement in LU’s online program and these funds will allow for some necessary changes. The future of college education is moving into the online realm and Liberty is one of the first to really capitalize on this. Whether you like it or not, the school is receiving money and is obviously successful; it’ll be interesting to see just how much the online program will expand. I don’t think it was necessary to block the article but ultimately it’s the school’s decision.

  • http://twitter.com/yanqui Nancy Jones

    Hmmm. He says he has “since learned,” but didn’t say how he learned. I’d be interested in finding out how he found out. Just saying….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V53W4LLWADEVNZQIZU5FKEH47A Stephen

    It’s not difficult to see that the smoking gun is that conservatives to who claim NPR is the source of our economic issues ignore federal money flowing into things they agree with that do basically the same thing (promote their “point of view”).

    In other words, I’m scissors, paper is fine, eliminate rock.

  • Anonymous

    Is there something untoward or a smoking gun in this story? If so, it wasn’t spelled out.

  • http://www.jt10000.com John Forrest Tomlinson

    So LU fears the truth? Something in public records? That’s pretty pathetic for an institution of higher learning.

  • http://twitter.com/mtdukes Tyler Dukes

    Might want to specify that it was Falwell Jr. who wouldn’t elaborate. Senior died in 2007.