Professor Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama-Birmingham has been a lightning rod of controversy, particularly on conservative news sites, for her calls for banning books and “how to” instructions on toppling public art like obelisks in violent protests. She is now under fire for saying that she hoped that conservative figures like the recently deceased radio commentator Rush Limbaugh “suffered until their last breath.” She has since taken her Twitter account private to bar general access, but some are calling for her to be fired. As will come as little surprise to many on this free speech site, I strongly oppose such calls even though I find Parcak’s extremist and unhinged views reprehensible.On Twitter, Parcak declared “When a terrible piece of scum who caused immeasurable harm to millions dies, there is no sympathy. Only a desire that they suffered until their last breath.” She is not alone in such hateful statements celebrating the death of another human being.Parcak is not alone in the race to the bottom. Various liberal sites have celebrated the death with some joyously declaring things like “rest in piss.” Huff Post ran a virtually jubilant headline.As an academic, Parcak’s words are particularly concerning since she extends her desire for suffering to the broader array of conservatives. This includes viewpoints that are likely shared by many faculty and students at her university. It reflects a type of raging intolerance and hatred that undermines the faith of many that they will be treated with respect and civility in classrooms and on campus.UAB President Ray Watts issued a Wednesday night statement that said the university is “disgusted and extremely troubled” that Parcak engaged in such speech that is “so unprofessional and blindly inhumane and cruel.”However, what concerned me was the statement that the university was “reviewing the matter.” Parcak’s public commentary is vile and extremist but it is also, in my view, protected as free speech. She has a right to speak her mind about figures like Limbaugh even when her views are grotesque and offensive for many. We do not need the First Amendment to protect popular speech. Popular speech is not targeted precisely because it is popular. The test of our commitment to free speech is to protect speech that we find objectionable and wrong.We have previously discussed radical voices on faculties who defend violence and even murder. One professor recently called for more Trump supporters to be killed. Rhode Island Professor Erik Loomis, who writes for the site Lawyers, Guns, and Money, said he saw “nothing wrong” with the killing of a conservative protester — a view defended by other academics. I have opposed calls for terminating such academics. Indeed, while sites like Lawyers, Guns, and Money feature writers like law professor Paul Campos who call for the firing of those with opposing views (including myself), it is not their commitment to free speech but our own that must guide our actions.
If Professor Parcak has displayed bias or discrimination against students in her classes, there is every reason to investigate. However, I have not seen any account alleging such misconduct. This appears her personal views of Limbaugh and other conservatives expressed on her personal Twitter account. I would have preferred a statement simply declaring that the university will continue to support the free speech rights of all of its faculty and students regardless of personal or even widespread condemnation of such speech.
Professor Parcak has an impressive academic record in Archaeological Studies. Absent allegations of misconduct in her classes or on campus, I do not see the basis for investigation by the university. Being a good person is not a condition for teaching so long as you are a good academic.
Parcak and others are the price we pay for free speech.
Her comments on the death of Mr. Limbaugh are pathetic. Taken in conjunction with comments in the “Twitter sphere” and in this supposedly adult conversation illustrate the intolerance present in our society. Just because you do not like an individual or their politics or speech is not a reason to celebrate their suffering or death.
Agreed. The sickness , the hate , the vitriol and absolute propensity of these left botzis to lie should be enough to marginalize their stench in society. But sadly due to socialism and social fascism these alleged intelligentsia types indulge in this is not likely to ever happen in our lifetime. All these left of center types have in common is peddling of hate & lies. It is their religion whether they see or admit it or not. It is telling in our society that these demented “provocetuers” spew their hate , their biased screed with no public shaming …for which they richly deserve a dose or more of. The media whores circle these agitprops as though they are newsworthy and good people. And this my friends is what the demoratzi zeig heil party has become, before our very eyes.
It’s another indication, in case you needed one, that faculties have decayed into collecting pools of arrested development cases. Parcak will be left alone and suffer no loss of esteem among people whose opinion interests her. Compare her with a benign figure like the late MS Adams, who suffered unending harassment at UNC Wilmington for being playful with liberal pieties. Academicians are not admirable people in our time, or are so only in discrete venues.
“suffered until their last breath.”
When one wonders how the people of Germany could fall behind the Nazis and do such terrible things all one has to do is listen to people like Professor Sarah H. Parcak. We are getting a lot of comments like that demonstrating these people are no different than the Germans that slaughtered Jews, Catholics, gypsies, and others.
Take note Leftists, (though it can be anyone) at this time you can see the fuel for a movement that can become a Nazi-type movement that can easily jump to killing people.
Sarah Parake’s friend should try to make sure she gets the mental healthcare/meds she needs.
I know now days we’re not supposed to make fun of these retards, but they need pointed out & kept away from any leadership roles.
I see Parcak is an anthropologist, so her deeply hateful views are very much in line with her field.
I agree she should not be “cancelled” over her statements, as long as her opinions do not affect her job performance, but I also note the sad state of academia in general and anthro in particular, that such vile opinions and sentiments are rewarded rather than condemned.
I agree with Turley on most topics concerning free speech and expression including this one. I understanding those who disagree.
What I find fascinating are those who have a difficult time understanding how one can abhor and condemn this woman’s comments finding them vile while still feel it is protected speech. Free speech isn’t just for poets and comedians…
clay, there was no “free speech” for those who would offer opposing views to Limbaugh’s right wing hate rhetoric 3 hours a day. One year before he began his career, conservatives killed the Fairness Doctrine which would have required his stations to provided counterpoint. We now have large chains of stations programming nothing but right wing shock jocks and phony patriots coast to coast on limited public airwaves under FCC regs. Twitter on the other hand – besides still offering accounts to right wingers like Rep Greene and Don, jr
– operates on unlimited media, not under FCC regs. Turley is full of manure pretending he cares about free speech without addressing this.
I remember media during the era of the Fairness Doctrine, and THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE WAS NOT FAIR.
Folks, anybody who wants the government to decide what’s fair speech is dangerous to your speech.
Of course. See Nat Hentoff’s account of the implications of the Fairness Doctrine when he was a young radio broadcaster in 1948. (See also how the Kennedy Administration was quite self-conscious in using it to squelch opposition expressed over the radio).
Whatever possible misuses of the fairness Doctrine might occur, none would be less fair than the 24/7 coast to coast right wing shock jocks broadcast by mega- media companies. Dumb asses like The Puny One with the HIgh Voice Levin and Lying Limbaugh pretend to be geniuses because they never have to actually debate anyone except callers who are screened and then subject to being cut anytime things get out of hand.
Free Speech my ass. You don’t want it and neither does Turley.
“none would be less fair than the 24/7 coast to coast right wing shock jocks broadcast by mega- media companies”
As opposed to Rachel Maddow’s left wing shock jockeying broadcast by a mega-media company?
If you actually believe that a leftwing version of Limbaugh, with Limbaugh’s following, wouldn’t also be picked up by radio stations all over the country, you’re incredibly naïve.
Conversely, all of taxpayer funded NPR & it’s State run affiliates, constantly parrot various far left agenda’s non-stop.
So, your argument is dead on arrival.
Hey Anon joe Friday. Please tell us about your demands to CNN and MSNBC to have more people from the right on their programs. You could tell us about every presentation of Republicans on these channels because you make a comment here and then you tune into CNN then you make a comment here and switch to MSNBC. You are so tuned in it would be easy for you to report how the fairness doctrine is exercised by your favorite venues. We await your report.
Why are you stooping to ad homjnem?
Free Speech my ass. You don’t want it and neither does Turley.
You’re getting rather brazen here.
You’re problem is that you cannot process opposition. You’ve had 75 years to grow up and you’re not getting the job done.
JF on the one hand wants conservative speech cancelled and on the other hand wants leftist speech supported. Leftist speech can be on any radio station. They were and they failed financially so they went off the air. JF could have paid for the advertisements needed and that leftist speech would still be there. JF acts like a authoritarian fascist.
NPR hasn’t gone off the air. That network thrived by making use of production values and content that appealed to the professional-managerial bourgeoisie. Since commercial radio was not (outside of a few large cities, perhaps) serving that segment, this part of what they had to offer was satisfactory. By 1975, if you lived in a 3d tier city and wanted to hear concert and chamber music, opera, jazz, folk / acoustic, or popular music from abroad, the NPR station was the place to go. If you were interested in world news, the NPR station was the place to go. If you were interested in think pieces, it was the place to go. The problem is that they never strived for political neutrality or diversity on their staff, because liberals fancy common institutions are their’s by right. And you know that because their first President, who ran the network for 8 years, had been George McGovern’s campaign manager. Stories were framed in the form of a puzzle to which the preferred liberal solution was the answer. (Robert MacNeill and Jim Lehrer put some brakes on this sort of thing at PBS; the brakes came off when Lehrer retired). As for NPR, I’d refer you to Fred Barnes critique of their Central America coverage published in 1986; NPR thought it totes OK to hire and rely on stringers from the ranks of political pilgrims bumming around in Sandinista Nicaragua. (AM Rosenthal at The New York Times wasn’t having any of this and the paper elected to recall and re-assign Raymond Bonner when it concluded he was acting as a press agent for Latin American reds).
Surely you jest. Are you overlooking CNN, MSNBC, and numerous others that spew left wing propaganda 24 hours a day? I get it – you believe that only left wing opinions should be allowed to be expressed. Only left wingers tell the truth and should be believed. America has become completely polarized politically, and it is destroying all those it touches.
Cable TV is not public airwaves and not regulated by the FCC like broadcast TV and radio.
You’re rationalizing.
ABC, NBC, CBS routinely parrot the Democrat party talking points and their newscast are decidedly left. There are no “right wing” or conservative television network news sources. The fact that you feel the need to resort to name calling with regard to Levin and Limbaugh illustrates your own projection and inability to debate you subject with objective facts. As for fairness, stop being so childish, little, if anything, in life is fair.
AnalJ ; there is some free speech lefdt…as long as your side of the coin can not stifle it all with some absurd “fairness zeig heil doctrine”. Seems you are upset that People Like Rush Limbaugh could not only sell their brand of ideas , but wake people up to same , and all the while exposing the lies of the left doctrines. He wisdom and love did show through. Those magnificent years we had him with us no doubt will be hard to replace. Yet you chime ” there was no free speech for those of opposing views “. Do you not see the laughable hypocrisy n your POV…that false statement…You do see this right ?. There is plenty of your pov on sanctioned media and the left. You are stymied so spout lies…veritable falsehoods as you know. The reason there is no social fascist , never was , nor will be for the left in opposition to views and truths of people Like Rush Limbaugh is simple. To be anything as stellar as Rush was as a human , to reason his opinions and truths THE OPPOSITE WOULD HAVE TO BE A LIAR , WOULD HAVE TO WISH TO SUBJEGATE , WOULD HAVE TO PREACH A DOGMA ANTITHETICAL TO GOD AND PEACE.
These are the tenants of the left…truth to them is what they “feel or demand” at the moment to fit their narrative. Their belief that the state and or fearless leader of their ilk is akin to god/god’s word and must be obeyed …or else. Turning common sense and humanity upside down…you know for the children they squeal..yet demand the “right” to turn babies into puree on a whim. This whole LBGTQABC is greater than god…a must for them to push diversity of their bent and damn all else to include common sense.
The left spectrum has tried to have personalities to be as loved and truthful as Rush….. but as you know they have all failed. Nobody buys their lies for long , nobody supports their warped idioms , nobody in large numbers buys the half truths and demands of them to make them financially supportable in a free market. The reasons of the left sphere in broadcast media being so inept and failed in comparison to Rush Limbaugh are more numerous and obvious to bother to list. You know this too.
Only in a society where people are purposely kept stupid , purposely fed only one POV and made cogs in a wheel “for the greater good” would your model succeed. And it’s success would necessarily be based on COERCION & FEAR to work. Do you want that Orwellian dystopia ?. I’m sure you don’t… but that is the conclusion your dogma leads to logically.
phergus, please hit your Enter button in between paragraphs. I really want to read what you wrote but find it hard to do so without paragraph spacing. 😉
The state university in my town puts on classes for “seniors” each semester. One that I participated in this semester was titled Fake News. That day there had been an article in the Boston Globe about the MA GOP beginning a program against censorship. One of the attendees asked the lecturer what she thought about censorship. The lecturer feels that people should not be able to publish lies. Fair enough. I said in my opinion censoring and cancelling can become a slippery slope. If we believe something is untrue, we must do our own research, find the truth and then speak it. Call them out.
🙂
Unity, eh?
Are you under the illusion that Limbaugh sought unity?
Are you under the illusion that Limbaugh sought unity?
In a 2018 article, Rush announced the following:
This program has gone through various stages of growth over its 30 years, 29 years — and the first four years, nothing was like it. Every week we were adding a station or two. Some weeks we added 10 stations. We started with 56, and in four years we’re up to 500 stations. And throughout that four-year period the excitement of adding an affiliate and announcing it and going out doing a Rush to Excellence show in these various markets, I mean, it was exciting. The growth, we were chronicling it.
https://news.iheart.com/featured/rush-limbaugh/content/2018-01-25-30-years-later-the-eib-network-continues-to-grow/
In a 2020 follow up, Rush announced the following:
You don’t know, folks, ’cause you don’t know radio survey models, but that is phenomenal. The average time spent listening is like two hours and 25 minutes. I mean, nobody comes close. But the latest model runs that we have (you know, we run ’em ourselves) shows 43 million. That’s up from 42.5 million last week.
https://news.iheart.com/featured/rush-limbaugh/content/2020-05-07-pn-rush-limbaugh-eib-audience-models-project-43-million-listeners/
Illusion? Nah, he has been remarkable at unifying Americans to a conservative (America First) worldview. And it won’t end there.
After all the sqawlking about free speech and Twitter by Turley and others on the right, note he and they have never complained about the end of the Fairness Doctrine on public airwaves which made Limbaugh and ubiquitous right wing radio possible., Even he acknowledged this as it ended in 1987, or 1 year before he began his career. Unlike the unlimited internet and the ability of private companies to operate on a medium not under FCC regulations or considered public, broadcast radio and TV is a public forum that is of limited capacity. If Turley and the rest of teh right was serious about free speech – they are not – they would be trying to re institute the Fairness Doctrine which they killed to their benefit. This si just another example of Turley’s hypocrisy.
Learn your history.
Time for your meds or a nap!
😉
Would the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine require CNN & MSNBC and all of Main Street media to give equal unbiased time to Conservative/Libertarian views?
People do have the right to freely express their opinion and she did, however it is a stretch to say it is simply opinion when the comments are purely defamatory. Limbaugh did not preach a message of hate, those who believe so, obviously never really listened to him. To hate him because one disagreed with him shows who is truly consumed by hate, and it wasn’t Rush.
In the U.S., one cannot legally defame a dead person, so this isn’t an example of defamation.
Limbaugh said a lot of hateful things. Here’s a sampling –
https://people.com/politics/rush-limbaugh-most-controversial-moments/
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rush-limbaugh-mock-aids-gays/
They keep recycling the same few things (indubitably taken out of context) from over 20,000 hours on the air. Wonder which sorosphere outlet has been trolling through transcripts looking for usable material (when not just fabricating it).
The interesting things that Rush did 20,000 hours of that show in his own name. Anonymous the Stupid can’t even use an alias and then complains.
What is amazing is that over that length of time there were relatively few comments that perhaps should not have been said, but he was a big man and apologized for those. We have to recognize that context, time and place means everything. Sometimes the comments that are today quoted as bad were sarcastic, but the American left doesn’t care about the truth, they care about winning. Based on the looting and rioting, the American left is capable of the atrocities of the fascists in the twentieth century.
This is Anonymous the Stupid providing links instead of comments. Everyone says things that are inappropriate including Limbaugh. Let’s take Joe Biden who in one speech before the Senate used the “n” word about 13 times. I don’t have to mention all the other things he said or what was said by any prominent person who has been vocal. 3 hours a day for 30 years is a lot of content .
Of course one has to consider time and place, but Anonymous the Stupid is too dumb to understand how time and place factor in to what is said. Nor does that fool know what context means or what an apology means. I’ll take Anonymous the Stupid’s own article to demonstrate that Rush would apologize for statements made that he shouldn’t have made or inadvertently made.
Quoting from a link from Anonymous the Stupid.
“Limbaugh would later say he regretted the segment as it made fun of people who were dying excruciating deaths.” to which the site said “True”
Anonymous the Stupid always leaves us with the feeling that everything he says is worthless.
So the comments made were only after his death? As I stated, you clearly never listened to him. It is easy to take pieces of any conversation and make them what you want them to be. It is also easy to believe that parody is truth and that your feelings of what was said are the only thing that matters. Limbaugh was not perfect, no on earth is, but to imply that he spread hate is ignorance and, oddly enough, hate.
It seems, Professor, you have your share of hate filled idiots on this blog. Disgusting, sick people.
Rush used to run segments where he mocked those who died of AIDS. And that was not the most disgusting thing that he said.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/rush-limbaugh-mock-aids-gays/
Also I thought JT was a huge supporter of free speech? Or does that only apply to speech he approves of?
Well, he hasn’t blocked you or your associates, so there’s some proof
JT defends a woke wingnut from being fired for her speech, and Molly still attacks JT. Give the guy some credit!
Is it any wonder there’s such hard feelings toward trolls on this comment board?
She may not show blatant bias against students in the classroom, but knowing her bias, her students are sure to self-censur. They will giveup their free speech for decent grade. I have seen this happen over and over in college courses. Students pick up the biases of their teachers and then try to do an end run around them. Teachers like Parcak surely realize this. She isn’t teaching, she’s bullying.
I don’t plan to attend Limbaugh’s funeral, but I will say that I approve of it. [Not original, but apt]
I agree she should be able to say whatever she wants. Her vitriol is likely to turn on her and devour her. I believe people who hate so vehemently are suffering a life with a complete lack of true joy and companionship that transcends political views. Their horrific rhetoric is a mirror of the condition of their soul. A teacher who condones and encourages murder of others for their political views is insane which can be validated by historical massacres.
Just curious, were you, Professor Turley, condemning all the vile hateful things rush said about people who died? Or all the vile hateful things he said about so many living people? Or about denigrating science? The guy was a major A whole who did more to degrade our society than about anybody, except perhaps our ex prez baby trump.
To correct the record, Saturday Night Live made horrible, cruel and vindictive skits about Ronald Reagan before I even heard of Rush Limbaugh. Other mainstream entertainers are well known for their hateful comments against conservatives before Rush was even on the air. We could give you book and verse about that.
These leftwing entertainers and commentators who were around before Rush, did they not “degrade our society?”
“Or about denigrating science?”
OMG!
I didn’t know he was guilty of blaspheming your god?!
Perhaps Turley is unaware of Limbaugh’s regular joking about the deaths of his perceived political by describing them as having “assumed room temperature”.
Live and get rich by low level and gross hate mongering, die by it. Normal respect for the dead is something he breached and deserves none himself now.
The words “assumed room temperature” and “When a terrible piece of scum who caused immeasurable harm to millions dies, there is no sympathy. Only a desire that they suffered until their last breath.” are the same how?
awake, the difference is as you note, but also should be balanced by Limbaugh’s talking to millions everyday, saying much worse while striving to create divisions in America everyday, while the professor would remain in obscurity if not for people like Turley, busy creating more MAGA porn. No one cares about her otherwise, while we are being submitted to the attempted canonization of yet another bragging and lying dirt bag from Palm Beach.
while striving to create divisions in America everyday,
IOW, he took exception to the regnant attitudes in the media. Whenever liberals open their mouth, they reveal they find opposition per se to be illegitimate.
Limbaugh no longer cares what you say of him. By smearing him, you insult the tens of millions who enjoyed his show
Thus, you continue the attack against the 75 million hated Trump voters who pretty much liked his show too.
You keep on sowing division, do not be surprised by what you may reap
Sal Sar
Biden’s call for “unity” is taking shape, just like getting our kids back in the classroom.
The beatings will continue until unity improves.
Ms Parcak is consumed with hatred.
We have all met people like that and we avoid them.
Can you imagine how pathetic she is in person?
Rush, rush, bo bus…
Banana fanna foe huss..
Rush!
If the first two Limbaughs are ever the same..
You pop them both and say they’re lame.
I liked Rush. I knew his grandfather.