Controversial art project poses dilemma for media

The Yale Daily News found itself at the center of a bizarre tug of war over the truth this week when it reported Thursday that a student had artificially inseminated herself repeatedly and taken abortion drugs to induce miscarriages for an art project.

The story of senior art major Aliza Shvarts' project swept like wildfire across the Internet, showing up in news accounts and blogs. National groups on both sides of the abortion debate immediately condemned the project. Activists gathered at the school to protest.

On Friday Yale issued a statement saying the university had investigated the story and had found it all to be a hoax.

"Ms. Shvarts is engaged in performance art," said the statement by university spokesperson Helaine S. Klasky. "She stated to three senior Yale University officials today, including two deans, that she did not impregnate herself and that she did not induce any miscarriages. The entire project is an art piece, a creative fiction designed to draw attention to the ambiguity surrounding form and function of a woman’s body."

The statement went on to say that Shvarts "is an artist and has the right to express herself through performance art."

But Shvarts is standing by her project. In a convoluted guest column published in Friday's Yale Daily News, she described her process and in an interview she told the newspaper that the university's statement is "ultimately inaccurate."

The incident is even causing a stir on Wikipedia, where a report on the controversy was being "considered for deletion" and "flagged for rescue," according to the user-generated online encyclopedia's deletion policy.

Shvarts is scheduled to display the controversial senior art project, a presentation that supposedly includes video footage of the artist in her bathtub cramping and bleeding from a self-induced miscarriage, next Tuesday. She told reporters the work would also include a sculpture that incorporates her own blood from the forced miscarriages and a spoken piece describing what she had done.

Did Aliza Shvarts repeatedly impregnate herself and then abort the fetuses? Or did she stage an elaborate hoax? How can news organizations like the Yale Daily News learn the truth? How can newspapers -- student and professional -- avoid getting pulled into hoaxes?

It's a fascinating dilemma for the Yale newspaper and for student newspapers everywhere.

Princeton student admits fabricating attack

A Princeton student who claimed he was the victim of hate e-mail and a brutal physical attack for his conservative views has admitted he fabricated the whole thing, according to news reports.

Francisco Nava, a 23-year-old junior, told local police officials that scratches on his face were self-inflicted, and that he had sent threatening e-mail messages to himself, as well as to fellow members of Princeton’s socially conservative Anscombe Society, and to the group's adviser, Robert P. George, a professor of jurisprudence at the university, according to an article on the Chronicle of Higher Education news blog. The society opposes premarital sex and advocates for a return to traditional family values.

On Dec. 9 Nava wrote a guest column for The Daily Princetonian criticizing a recent health fair for distributing free condoms.

"How is a collegiate casanova to feel if his own school can stuff his pockets with condoms?" Nava wrote. "It is no wonder, then, that University Health Services (UHS) over the years has had to limit a student's daily allowance to 10 condoms per visit! What Princeton's condom campaign amounts to is a tacit sponsorship of hookup sex that is fundamentally unsafe for females and ethically unconscionable for the doctors and health professionals who promote it."

A few days after the column ran, Nava reported he and other members of the Anscombe Society had received hate mail. And on Friday night, he went to the University Health Center with scrapes and scratches saying that he had been assaulted by two men.

On Sunday, Nava confessed to police that the beating and the e-mails were part of a hoax.

In a brief interview, Nava told The Daily Princetonian he thought his actions would draw attention to the pro-chastity cause.

Princeton University officials are investigating the fabricated attack and threatening e-mail messages Nava reportedly wrote, actions that could bring disciplinary actions ranging from a warning to expulsion, according to The New York Times.

The Daily Princetonian left several stories about Nava up on its Web site with notes like this at the top: "Update: Francisco Nava '09 has since admitted that he fabricated the assault described in this article. Please see the updated story."

The case raises issues of how journalists -- students and professionals -- can be deceived and manipulated by sources.