A violation of free speech that threatens the American public or a protection against terrorism

for the safety of the American people.

This is the question at the center of one of this week's top stories.

I'm Jenna, and this is Smarter News.

Well, here's the headline.

A 30-year-old former student of Columbia University who emerged as a leader of campus protest is detained by the U.S. government. The government says he violated immigration law. So what should we know about this story? The background here really matters, so we're going to go big picture,

and then we're going to zoom way back in. Over the last year and a half, as you know,

we've seen huge protests in university campuses related to the war between Israel and Hamas.

Columbia University in New York City became one of the flashpoints for these protests. As students clashed between support for Israel or those critical of Israel who are often referred to as

pro-Palestinian protesters. Israel is a lone Jewish state in the world. Palestinians live in a

variety of areas, including in Israel and Gaza, in the West Bank and beyond. Now, here's a really

important reminder about why in journalism we have to really think about our editorial calls.

Hamas is a foreign terrorist organization as designated by the United States government.

But many media outlets have declined to use the term terrorism to describe any terrorist group,

including Hamas. Why is that? Well, the Associated Press, for example, says the term has become

politicized. So what happens instead is

often Hamas is called a pro-Palestinian militant group or just a militant group or a Palestinian group.

And this story is one of the reasons I do not agree with this editorial call. Even if you do not

want to label Hamas, a terrorist group for whatever reason, we can all report that the United States

has designated this

group as such. This is a fact. It is not a new designation. It is decades old. It has survived

Republican and Democratic administrations. And one of the reasons why I call Hamas a terrorist group

...