Untrue. Most professors in teaching schools are teaching 3-4 classes per term. That includes classtime, grading papers, meeting students, preparing for lectures/labs, etc. Then there's committee work. And, in case you haven't heard of 'publish or perish' before, even in teaching schools you have to do some kind of research and writing to get tenure. For most profs with classroom responsibilities, that's done during the 'free summer.'
Even in research environments where the teaching load is less, the burden on your time for research and writing takes up the time that other profs use in the classroom.
I was a lawyer in private practice. I know what long hours are. I am now about to get my PhD and I fully expect my hours to be just as long. The benefit is that I can do some of my work from home, on my own time and I don't have to be in an office from 9-5. The profs I know work long and hard to get tenure. The tenured profs continue to work hard. Maybe things are different in small schools, but at a major Research I school, people are putting in their time, all year long.
Many people get nice retirements (profs contribute to theirs, like other Americans) and vacation time. We can discuss the benefits/problems of tenure until the cows come homw. That's a different issue. But tenure aside, I think most non-academics have no idea what kind of time and effort a prof in a Research I school does, or how much effort teaching many class sections takes. Is it ditch digging? No. But many Americans do knowledge work (rather than product creation) these days, and profs are no different in the time and effort they put in on the job.
The University of Colorado's report on the investigation of Ward Churchill's alleged scholarly misconduct has just been released.
Churchill was found guilty of deliberate false assertions, misrepresentation of sources, and plagiarism.
Among other things, Churchill was found guilty of passing off others' work as his own (plagiarism), but also of passing off his own work as others'.
This "permits the author to create the false appearance that his claims are supported by other scholars when, in fact, he is the only source for such claims"...
http://www.homofactuspress.com/2006/05/south_end_press_needs_damage_c.htm