Publishing and Politics: Education Secretary Will Stick by Appointment of Illinois News Exec despite Two Controversial Columns He Wrote about David Duke

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Education secretary will stick by appointment of Illinois news exec despite two controversial opinion columns he wrote about David Duke

U.S. Education Secretary Lamar Alexander has no intention of dumping Champaign-Urbana (Ill.) News-Gazette president and chief executive officer John Hirschfeld from an advisory committee because of two controversial columns, a department spokesperson says.

Neither Alexander nor anyone else from the Education Department has contacted Hirschfeld about opinion columns he wrote last November saying former neo-Nazi and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke's "message is appealing, even if Duke is not," said Education spokeswoman Etta Fielek.

"It has not been a big issue here," Fielek said in a telephone interview. "It's kind of ironic that we've …