This story in The Record of New Jersey compares Larry Summers to Princeton president Shirley Tighman. Less than favorably.

Key quote: “If the president of Harvard thinks women are innately inferior, how far have we come? The reassuring answer from the president of Princeton: We’ve not only come a long way, but the young women coming after us will go a whole lot farther.”

But here’s the real problem. The piece is headlined: “Princeton to Harvard: Girls Rule.”

I’d guess at least one newspaper in every state in the country has done a similar piece. The common theme: Despite what Larry Summers might say, girls in our state are good at science, and don’t care if the president of Harvard thinks otherwise

This is obviously a caricature of what Summers said, but that’s the way the media works. The problem for Summers—and for Harvard—is that the caricature is taking root.