Sheherazad Jaafari, a 22 year-old aide to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and daughter of the Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, will be attending SIPA in the fall, according to the New York Times Media Decoder. Why is the Media Decoder, a blog that primarily covers, well, the media, interested in this story? Because Jaafari may have gotten a little help in getting through the admissions process, courtesy of interview queen (and friend to the Assads) Barbara Walters.
Jaafari, who had previously helped arrange Walters' infamous interview with President Assad, had struck up a friendship with Walters, referring to herself as the TV journalist's "adopted child" in emails obtained by The Telegraph in Britain. When she applied to SIPA, she wrote Walters for help:
I applied for Columbia and I hope to get accepted. If there is any way you think you can give my application a push I would really really appreciate it. You did mention that you know a professor there.
