Elite journalists are mad. Pro-Palestine student protesters have a media strategy, complete with press liaisons and message discipline, and journalists at some of the country’s most prestigious publications don’t like it one bit.

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter, lamented in a piece that a “beautiful” student without media training refused to talk with her. Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, didn’t see students’ unwillingness to talk as a reflection of the students’ excellent message control. In a condescending tweet, Baker claimed student protesters politely declining reporter’s requests aren’t interested in “explaining your cause or trying to engage journalists who are there to listen.”

It is a stretch to claim that students who have, in some cases, risked their education and job prospects to support a movement they believe in are not interested in convincing their opponents. Protest itself is one way to persuade, of course, and convincing the world that Israel’s assault on Gaza is a moral disaster is why students are demonstrating.