It's tough to defend Churchill

The Denver Post ^ | 13 March 2009 | Mike Rosen

[A.A. Cunningham]

"As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy, not to just accept it." Really? Says who?
In this case, it's remorseless left-wing terrorist Bill Ayers. The co- founder of the murderous Weather Underground was in Boulder last week at a rally to defend his soulmate, Ward Churchill, in advance of Churchill's court date to overturn his firing from the University of Colorado.

It should be recalled that Churchill wasn't fired for challenging dogma, nor was he fired for his defamatory ravings against this country and the victims of 9/11. He was fired for academic fraud after an 8-1 vote by the University of Colorado regents, following a thorough investigation by his peers — two dozen faculty members serving on three separate committees — judged that he was guilty and should be held accountable for "repeated and deliberate" plagiarism, fabricated research, willful misstatement of facts, and violations of "bedrock principles of scholarship."

Ayers' notion of the role of a teacher is a self-serving rationalization. As left-wing revolutionaries, Ayers, Churchill and activists of their ilk only selectively challenge the "orthodoxies" they oppose. Can you imagine Ayers challenging the orthodoxy of socialism? Or the students who cheered Churchill, defending the academic freedom of an embattled conservative professor?

Churchill's lawyer, David Lane, has forsaken any hope of winning his case by defending Churchill's indefensible scholarship. Instead, he will seek to occupy the high ground of "academic freedom," arguing that his client was really fired for his public statements which, outrageous as they may be, are protected as free speech.

Personally, I've never believed that the principle of academic freedom is absolute, that it automatically makes any tenured instructor bulletproof for everything he or she might say or advocate in or out of the classroom. What would be the fate of an astronomy instructor who routinely insisted to his students that the world is flat? Or a women's studies professor who preached that women should be kept barefoot and pregnant?

In fact, there's case law supporting the disciplining of tenured faculty members for things they've said. It might have been interesting to see this tested again in court if Churchill had actually been fired by CU for his public statements. But he wasn't!

In making his specious academic-freedom argument, Lane will claim that Churchill's inflammatory speech was what drew attention to him. Yeah. So what? Should inflammatory speech serve as an impervious cloak of protection for fraudulent academics?

Suppose the police stop a motorist who's driving, not illegally but erratically, then discover he's stolen the car. Should he be immune from prosecution because of the way he was detected? Churchill's faulty scholarship and false claims of Indian identity had been called into question by academics and others in the past without serious consequence. It's a shame that CU hired and promoted him under questionable pretenses and hadn't followed up on these complaints earlier. But that's no reason for granting him immunity.

Grasping at the only straw he has, Lane will doggedly cling to his academic-freedom defense and hope to con the jury into believing that academic fraud was merely a pretext for firing Churchill. For the jury to buy this lame argument they'd need to be able to read the minds of CU administrators and faculty who investigated and condemned Churchill's scholarship, and conclude that all these people are lying about their real motive.

Lane will be hard pressed to produce any credible evidence to support this.

E-mail Mike Rosen at mikerosen@850koa.com

[nickcarraway]

"As a teacher, your responsibility is to challenge dogma and orthodoxy, not to just accept it."

How come most teachers seem to perpetuate, "dogma and orthodoxy?"

[randog]

How come most teachers seem to perpetuate, "dogma and orthodoxy?"

$$$$$$$

[gorush]

Great article...but today’s “zeitgeist” (if I may repeat myself) suggests that our republic has outlasted it’s life-expectancy. We are experiencing a communist coup brought on by two+ generations of “public education”.

[counterpunch]

This must be why 0bama sent that bust back to England.

[mountainlion]

So if they have to rehire Churchill then the students can just buy or borrow someone Else's Theseus and graduate.

[gigster]

For any Freepers who are unfamiliar with Mike Rosen,he is one of the best radio hosts,anywhere.
He’s on in the early mornings on 850KOA.com.
As good as Rush (IMO).
Check him out.

[Stayfree]

Just another turd in our sewer!

[Don Corleone]

He was fired for academic fraud

Fraud, deceit and mendacity are the hallmarks of the socialist/communist/democratic party. Why should anyone be surprised? They wouldn't speak the truth if their lives depended on it.

[castlebrew]

So “now we are all teachers”? (hat tip: Newsweak)

[2harddrive]

Broadcast the new acronym:

O ne

B ig

A ss

M istake

A merica!

[DeLaine]

I read the comments. Because conservatives and honest people don’t like him, therefore he’s innocent of all charges. It can’t be that he actually plagiarized, lied, falsified....oh no, it’s just that we don’t like him, that’s all, nothing more.
ack