By Janet Phelan
An NYU professor has filed a lawsuit against a number of his
academic colleagues, alleging libel after an uproar of official
reaction ensued when one of his students called for his firing
based on in-class comments he had made on the utility of masks.
The pleadings, filed in the Supreme Court of the state of New
York on November 30, 2020, stated that a letter signed by nineteen
of Professor Mark Crispin Miller’s academic colleagues included
“numerous misstatements of ‘fact’ maliciously intended to
portray plaintiff in a negative light” and intended to
“diminish, if not destroy, his professional reputation and
standing.”
In a modern day rendition of the silencing of Socrates, the
furor surrounding Professor Miller began shortly into this semester
at New York University. Miller has for many years taught a course
on propaganda in the Department of Media, Culture and
Communication, in which he discusses current events and historical
trends in the light of their propagandist purposes. This semester,
he states he had encouraged students to research the scientific
utility of masks.
One student took public issue with Miller’s mask comments and
launched a Twitter campaign against him, stating that he was
“spouting dangerous rhetoric that serves to cultivate fear and
confusion during a pandemic” and called for his firing.
I hope @nyuniversity,
@nyusteinhardt,
and @mccNYU agree
that this professor should not be trusted with educating and
advising students, and I hope they take immediate steps to relieve
him of these duties. 8/— Julia Jackson (@julia_jacks)
September 21, 2020
First, his department chair, Rodney Benson, tweeted his thanks,
saying “We as a department have made this a priority, and are
discussing next steps.”
At that point, the University disseminated a cautionary email to
Miller’s students, which he states was sent out prior to any
conference or consultation as to the veracity of Jackson’s
claims. According to Miller, Department Chair Benson then pressured
him to cancel the propaganda course for next semester.
A month later,
the letter from Miller’s colleagues, condemning Miller’s
actions, was sent to Dean Jack Knott and to Provost Katherine
Fleming.
And Miller became the subject of a review board hearing.
Professor Miller’s political activities and viewpoints have
sparked prior attention from NYU. An effort spearheaded by Miller
to stop a physical expansion by NYU ended up in court, several
years ago. He is also a named plaintiff in a class action suit
concerning NYU’s mismanagement of the faculty’s retirement
plans.
Earlier this year, Miller was called in to the Office of Equal
Opportunity to explain some comments he had made in articles
concerning transgender politics, including
this one. Miller has unequivocally stated that he bears no
animus towards transgender individuals and that his comments
reflected concerns that the transgender movement had eugenics
implications. He was quickly exonerated by the OEO concerning these
statements.
Interestingly, the letter from the NYU colleagues to the
University tries to resurrect these concerns and states that Miller
has engaged in “direct mockery and ridicule of trans
individuals” as well as “discrimination” and that he has
created “an unsafe learning environment.” While paradoxically
stating their support for academic freedom, the signers of this
letter, all of whom are academics “…call on Steinhardt and
University leadership to publicly support the NYU community and
undertake an expedited review, as per the Faculty Handbook and
Title IV, of Professor Miller’s intimidation tactics, abuses of
authority, aggressions and microaggressions, and explicit hate
speech, none of which are excused by academic freedom and First
Amendment protections.” Curiously, the letter gives no concrete
examples to support these allegations.
Miller’s situation seems to reflect a mounting campaign of
political correctness, which is taking place on a number of fronts.
The concept of the University as a stronghold of free speech and
inquiry seems to have fallen under the sword of specific political
imperatives.
In a recent conversation with this reporter, Miller had this to
say:
What I am going through, my experience at NYU, is just one
example of an ever -worsening wave of censorship that actually
began decades ago with the Kennedy assassination, when questioning
the official story was taboo. Anyone who attempted to investigate
it honestly was dismissed as a “conspiracy theorist.”That tactic has been used more and more through the years to
shut down inquiry into major scandals of all kinds. This trend has
been worsened by political correctness prohibiting debate over many
other important topics, from climate change to “transgender
medicine” to BLM/Antifa.This year has seen the culmination of those trends, along with
iron censorship of all divergence from the official story of
Covid-19 .� Any deviation from that narrative is instantly attacked
as misinformation — even dangerous misinformation — and blacked
out.All three trends are apparent in my plight at NYU. First, I was
publicly attacked for suggesting that my propaganda class read
scientific articles about the effectiveness of masks, and then my
colleagues piled on, accusing me both of promoting “conspiracy
theories†in my classes and of “explicit hate speech†against
transgender people. Those three propaganda clichés have the same
purpose: to inhibit critical inquiry into propaganda narratives
that serve some very powerful interests.
The ability to question underlying societal precepts has always
been considered nearly sacrosanct inside the ivy- covered walls of
higher learning. Following 9/11, a slew of professors were fired or
put on “academic leave†due to their public comments about
those events, including
Steven Jones,
Ward Churchill and
Sami al-Arian.
A petition has been launched concerning Professor Miller and
academic freedom. Signed by over 18,000 people to date, including
such luminaries as journalist Seymour Hersh, filmmaker Oliver
Stone, Robert F. Kennedy Jr and Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng,
the petition states the relevance of Miller’s cause:
We see his situation as but one example of a growing global
trend toward rigid censorship of expert views on urgent subjects of
all kinds; so this petition is not just in his defense, but a
protest on behalf of all professors, doctors, scientists and
journalists who have been gagged, or punished for their rights to
freely research, study, and interpret data on a variety of matters
regardless of their controversial nature.
Miller’s lawsuit asks for both compensatory and punitive
damages, totaling $750,000.
Jack Knott, Dean of the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education
and Human Development at NYU, did not respond to queries by this
reporter.
Mark Crispin Miller is the author of a number of books and has
been the recipient of fellowships from the Rockefeller, Guggenheim
and Ingram Merrill Foundations. He has taught at NYU since
1997.
Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the
groundbreaking exposé,
EXILE. Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream
venues as the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, Long Beach
Press Telegram, etc. In 2004, Janet “jumped ship†and now
exclusively writes for independent media. She is also the author of
two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive. She
resides abroad. You are invited to support her work on Buy Me A
Coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JanetPhelan
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NYU Professor Under Fire for Mask Comments Files Libel
Lawsuit
