For those of us who have criticized the cancel culture in higher education for years, the attacks and shunning have been unrelenting. The media has played a role in that culture and none more prominently than the New York Times. Recently, however, the mob came for liberal professors and media who have remained silent for years as conservatives and others were targeted on campus. Suddenly, there is a new interest in free speech and academic freedom, including by the Times editors who blamed cancel culture for the recent demonstrations and disruptions on campus.
Until good liberals were targeted on campus, cancel culture was treated as free speech. It did not matter that preventing others from speaking or being heard is the very antithesis of free speech.
The New York Times reached true infamy in the controversy over publishing Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R., Ark.) op-ed where he argued for the possible use of national guard to quell violent riots around the White House.
It was one of the lowest points in the history of modern American journalism. Cotton was calling for the use of the troops to restore order in Washington after days of rioting around the White House. While Congress would “call in the troops” six months later to quell the rioting at the Capitol on January 6th, New York Times reporters and columnists called the column historically inaccurate and politically inciteful.
Reporters insisted that Cotton was even endangering them by suggesting the use of troops and insisted that the newspaper cannot feature people who advocate political violence. One year later, the New York Times published a column by an academic who had previously declared that there is nothing wrong with murdering conservatives and Republicans.
Later, former editors came forward to denounce the cancel culture at the Times and the censorship of opposing views.
At the same time, the Times has embraced “advocacy journalism.” Former New York Times writer (and now Howard University Journalism Professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones is a leading voice for advocacy journalism. Indeed, Hannah-Jones has declared “all journalism is activism.”
Now, however, liberal professors and writers are being targeted. After years of turning a blind eye to conservative and libertarian figures being purged from faculties or canceled in events, the Times is alarmed that
…students and other demonstrators disrupting college campuses this spring are being taught the wrong lesson — for as admirable as it can be to stand up for your beliefs, there are no guarantees that doing so will be without consequence.
For several years, many university leaders have failed to act as their students and faculty have shown ever greater readiness to block an expanding range of views that they deem wrong or beyond the pale. Some scholars report that this has had a chilling effect on their work, making them less willing to participate in the academy or in the wider world of public discourse. The price of pushing boundaries, particularly with more conservative ideas, has become higher and higher…
It has not gone unnoticed — on campuses but also by members of Congress and by the public writ large — that many of those who are now demanding the right to protest have previously sought to curtail the speech of those whom they declared hateful.
It is certainly good to see the “Old Gray Lady” have second thoughts about cancel culture. However, she might want to look inwardly before casting more cultural stones.
When they go belly up, what will people line their bird cages with or wrap 3 day old fish?
The NY Times should be called the Langley Bugle. This paper lies about Stalin and people being starved in Ukraine.
That’s just for starters. See Tablet mag piece “The New York Times Nazi Correspondent’. Bookends the Duranty Affair. They published the Nazi version of fake attack by Poland that started WW2 (along with Stalin). “The Gray Lady Winked” a book demolishing the ‘newspaper of record” with a century-long record of corruption, has been CENSORED by all “main stream media” and the fake “alt” things that spew about “truth to power”.
Mr. Turley, The NYT will never look inwardly to look for any mistakes it may have made in promoting one philosophy over another. They were Ground Zero for promoting Cancel Culture, The 1619 Project and Black Lives Matter. These movements have lost their steam because these people believed they were morally superior than the rest of us poor souls. Once it was discovered how the folks behind these movements were living “high off of the hog” donations fizzled out. I highly doubt the NYT has had a change of heart. They have had a change of pocketbook.
The hypocrisy of liberals is, and always has been, so great that it cannot be measured.
Actually, I think true liberals are consistent in their views. It’s the new brand of left-wingers who are not liberals but some form of creature who has difficulty with true liberal views so they metastasis into the hypocrisy we see today. An example, I remember when the ACLU fought for the right of a Nazi group to March in Skokie IL. Today the ACLU will never support a Conservative speaker shunned by Universities. The ACLU has become the poster child for the Woke left Wing creatures.
O T – Interesting talk by David Starkey, and English historian, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClDrkcSfKjk. At about the 44′ mark, he tells us that equality laws are designed to create privileged groups, and that the way freedom of speech laws are applied actually limit speech, and that anti-hate speech laws are designed to permit hate speech by privileged groups. The only important principle is equality before the law by every individual.
I bet – congress will finally stop civi assett forfeiture now that there are so many unbanked illegals going around with cash. Can’t really say cash is a fortori drug money when 25% are unbanked. Js
You have to be really careful about what you hear about the economy from the leftist elite posters on this blog. They leave out the part where groceries are up 30 per cent from when Trump was in office. They believe Joe Biden when he says that inflation was 9.5 per cent when he took over the Whitehouse when it was actually 1.5 per cent. You should be careful when they tell you that there is no open border. You should be careful when they tell you that inflation will be short lived. You should be careful when they tell you that the future looks so bright you gotta wear shades. You must however keep in mind that a majority of the American people say they are worse off under Biden than they were under Trump. You should also keep in mind that one commentator known as Anonymous has admitted that she works for the Federal Government and she is telling us that everything is just peachy keen now that her salary went from 69 thousand a year to 120 thousand a year now that she works for the Biden Administration. Now that there is a girl who’s got a dog in the hunt. Consider the self serving source when you remember.
NYT Reports On Another ‘Free Speech’ Issue: Election Results
Less than six months out from the presidential contest, leading Republicans, including several of Donald J. Trump’s potential running mates, have refused to commit to accepting the results of the election, signaling that the party may again challenge the outcome if its candidate loses.
In a series of recent interviews, Republican officials and candidates have dodged the question, responded with nonanswers or offered clear falsehoods rather than commit to a notion that was once so uncontroversial that it was rarely discussed before an election.
The evasive answers show how the former president’s refusal to concede his defeat after the 2020 election has ruptured a tenet of American democracy — that candidates are bound by the outcome. Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans are now emulating his hedging well in advance of any voting.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/us/politics/republicans-election-denial.html
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Word has gone out, not just to VP hopefuls, but to ‘all’ Republican candidates: ‘Do not acknowledge Trump’s 2020 loss and do not commit to the 2024 results’.
This policy of denial is coming straight from Donald Trump. It guarantees this year’s election could end with baseless claims and possible violence.
Before Donald Trump, denials like this were not common practice in the United States; especially on the national level. But thanks to Donald Trump, denial is becoming a new norm; threatening what’s left of our now fragile democracy.
The better question is: Do Democrats agree to accept the results of a Trump victory, or will we see another Russia-Collusion hoax and or continued Lawfare in some form?
Ahhh, I guess you have forgotten that Hillary Clinton for years after the 2016 election said over and over again “Donald Trump knows that he didn’t win the election, he knows he is not a legitimate President.” So, one could say she started the ball rolling.
Denials were not common, huh lefty? Does this ring a bell?: “He knows he’s an illegitimate president,” said Hillary Clinton in 2019. She repeated this sentiment in 2020, telling The Atlantic the election “was not on the level,” and said “You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you.” How about this?: “He lost the election and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf,” (ex president Jimmy Carter, 2019). Many other liberals denied he won, and even started the Russia Collusion hoax to remove him from office. The hypocrisy of liberals is immeasurable…constantly squealing that anyone who contests the 2020 election is an ‘election denier’, but liberals openly believe Trump ‘stole’ the 2016 election. You people have zero credibility when you cry because some republicans and millions of Americans don’t believe a demented fossil, pathological liar, with a 5 decade history of accomplishing nothing got more votes than any president in history, while campaigning from his basement.
Challenging the election results in the electoral college is an American tradition contrary to the pretentiousness of alarm exhibited by leftist socialist supporters. Nancy led the pack as one of most recent exercises so there’s really nothing new under the sun. Should Biden be reelected, hell no! Should Trump be elected, hell no. The problem is the 2-party system that excludes worthy candidates, the amount of money needed to run a campaign, the complexities of getting on a ballot, and a media industry dedicated to profiteering instead of the search for truth.
Why would anyone pre-commit to upholding the 2024 election “results” after witnessing the utter fiasco that was the 2020 election? Following the 2016 election, America was paralyzed for two years while Robert Mueller conducted an “investigation” of Soviet interference in the election, an utterly laughable proposition from the very start that was found to be baseless. Then, in 2020, when the election-night shenanigans were obvious for all to see (what do you mean, stopping the count???), Democrats and their propaganda arm, the mainstream media, suddenly became oblivious to what everyone else saw all around them.
With precious little having changed to ensure a credible election in 2024, sane Americans remain skeptical of any “election” run by Democratic machine operatives, with boxes of “votes” appearing and disappearing seemingly out of thin air. Any repeat of the 2020 electoral manipulations will fracture the country, perhaps irretrievably.
Ah yes, you can smell the scent of a coming election in the air. The Times is figuring out that the American public is not buying their DEI, CRT and censorship BS. Even good old Joe from Scranton is now saying that we need to keep bad people from crossing the border. They’re finally figuring out that the campus protests DEI, CRT, an open border and government censorship just might cost them an election so they turn on a dime like a clown ballerina at the circus. Like Houdini they’re trying to make it all disappear before your very eyes. Be not fooled. If ring master Joe should return to power they will revert to the three card monty game. Don’t you understand? Their very core philosophy is based on one thing and one thing only. There’s a sucker born every minute.
The New York Times has successfully reinvented itself as America’s toilet paper!
Mobocracy— history over and over.
journalism is the caner of society op. cit.
It’s because the NYT and the elites are now having a turn at being canceled. Hilarious.