A new poll shows a further erosion of public confidence in higher education as faculty and administrators reduce colleges and universities to mere academic echo chambers. The poll from Gallup and the Lumina Foundation found only 36% of adults have a great deal or a lot of confidence in higher education, a drop from 57% in 2015. Continue reading “Gallup: Higher Education Plunges in Public Confidence”
Category: Academia
A proposal is circulating in Washington to dump President Joe Biden and hold a “blitz primary” to choose a replacement. The proposal is the work of Rosa Brooks, a Georgetown University law professor who worked in the Obama and Clinton administrations, and Ted Dintersmith, a venture capitalist and education philanthropist. The proposal is gaining support with party insiders and repeats the hyperbolic claim that this is essential to avoid a “democracy-ending defeat.” It is disappointing to see a law professor repeating this unfounded alarmist claim. Yet, the most glaring contradiction is found in the stated desire to give delegates a choice after the party worked to prevent any choice for voters in state primaries. Continue reading ““Our Finest Hour”: Democratic Insiders Support “Blitz Primary” After Blocking Primary Competition”
Below is my column in the New York Post on the vicious attacks being directed at Judge Aileen Cannon as she addresses pre-trial motions in the Florida prosecution of former president Donald Trump. The sheer hypocrisy in the media is overwhelming after denouncing any criticism of Judge Juan Merchan in the Manhattan prosecution. For Cannon, it is nothing short of a press pile-on.
Here is the column:
Continue reading “Cannon Fodder: The Media Piles on Federal Judge After Lionizing Manhattan Judge”
In my new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, and a recent academic work, I discuss a new rationale being used by administrators to punish free speech: threatening academic collegiality or campus tranquility. I was discussing the Fourth Circuit case of Porter v. Board of Trustees of North Carolina State University, which was unfortunately not reviewed by the Supreme Court. Now, as feared, it is being replicated by the Sixth Circuit in Gruber v. Tenn. Tech. Bd. of Trustees. The result is a new and serious threat to free speech in higher education to curtail speech where it would be “likely to cause disruption” or undermine the “fostering [of] a collegial educational environment.”
In my book out this week, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, I write about the anti-free speech movement that has swept over higher education and how administrators and faculty hold a view of free speech as harmful. Now Harvard is again at the heart of a free speech fight after Lawrence Bobo, the Dean of Social Science, rejected views of free speech as a “blank check” and said that criticizing university leaders like himself or school policies are now viewed as “outside the bounds of acceptable professional conduct.” Continue reading “No “Blank Check”: Dean Warns that Criticizing the School or its Leadership is Not Protected at Harvard”
There is a controversy in Oregon over a proposed change in the ethics rule from the Oregon Medical Board. At issue is the use of “microaggressions” to discipline doctors and to make reporting such transgressions mandatory for all doctors. It seems before you can give stitches, you have to join snitches under one of the most ambiguous categories of prescribed speech. Continue reading “Snitches Give Stitches: Oregon Moves to Make Reporting Microaggressions Mandatory for Doctors”
The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage is now released! It is available on Amazon and local bookstores. Absent breaking news, I will do my first television interview tonight on Special Report with Bret Baier (6-7 ET). As always, I am deeply appreciative to everyone who has purchased early copies of the first edition of this work.
Continue reading “The Indispensable Right Is Now Available!”
A new poll conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago (commissioned by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) shows that only 28% of Americans have a lot of trust in higher education. Academia has continued to alienate much of the country as an orthodox echo chamber. As with media outlets, the result has been falling interest and trust in these institutions. Continue reading “Poll: Only 28 Percent of the Public Has “High Confidence” in Higher Education”
As the first edition goes out this week, the Wall Street Journal has published its review of The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage. Tunku Varadarajan takes a deep dive into the book and its historical, philosophical, and cultural exploration of this quintessentially American right. I am profoundly grateful for this thorough and positive review of the book.
We have previously discussed the view of Michigan Law Professor and MSNBC legal analyst Barbara McQuade on free speech. We have strikingly different views on free speech. McQuade just published “Attack from Within: How Disinformation Is Sabotaging America” and calls free speech our “Achilles heel.” My book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, is out in the coming days with a more robust view of free speech.
McQuade’s call to limit free speech is justified as needed to combat disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. Yet, McQuade just went public with a full-throated defense of what the U.S. government now calls a “conspiracy theory.” She maintains that the Hunter Biden laptop should still be discounted or dismissed as Russian disinformation. Continue reading “MSNBC Legal Analyst and Law Professor Barbara McQuade Doubles Down on Laptop “Conspiracy Theory””
Various posters on social media have featured a video of a graduating McGill University student appearing to spit on the Dean and another faculty member. She then produced a sign demanding divestment from Israel. As she appeared to spit on the President Deep Saini and the other faculty member, the audience can be heard cheering. The school later reportedly edited out the ugly incident and would not confirm that it will be taking any action against the student. Continue reading “Graduating McGill Student Seen Spitting at President as Crowd Cheers”
For years, free speech advocates (including myself) have criticized the new rationalization for censorship in the cause of combating disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. As discussed in my new book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage, there is a burgeoning cottage industry in academia in helping corporations and government agencies to target certain political, social, and scientific viewpoints. One of those centers is located at the Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. Now, however, the faculty are accusing each other of misinformation over the departure of “misinformation and disinformation” expert Joan Donovan. Continue reading “Disinformation Allegations Fly at Harvard’s Disinformation Center”
UCLA Professor Hannah Appel has accused the school of human rights violations amounting to “torture” in the treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters. The reason is the denial of water and food from being brought into a building being unlawfully occupied by protesters, even though the students were free to leave at any time. Continue reading “Professor Accuses UCLA of “Torturing” Pro-Palestinian Protesters” The Harvard commencement ceremony this week received some press attention after Harvard’s Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi confronted Maria A. Ressa, a journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, on stage over her prior allegedly antisemitic comments. However, her commencement remarks were equally chilling in another respect; a full-throated condemnation of free speech principles and a call for a crackdown on disinformation. As is often the case with anti-free speech tirades, the speech included disinformation while seeking to silence others to combat disinformation. Continue reading “Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa Calls on Harvard Graduate to Support Censorship in the Name of Democracy”
In another victory for the mobocracy, Dickinson College canceled the commencement address of CNN host Michael Smerconish after liberal and pro-Palestinian students objected. The school decided to forego any speaker rather than risk the ire of radical students and groups. The greatest loss was not to Smerconish but to the college and the students. These graduates could have heard from one of the brightest legal minds in media and a person who has been a powerful and unflagging champion of free speech. Continue reading “Dickinson College Cancels Commencement Address by Michael Smerconish”