Drexel University professor George Ciccariello-Maher has caused a firestorm of controversy by tweeting how “All I Want for Christmas is White Genocide.” He then followed up with a taunting clarification that “To clarify: when the whites were massacred during the Haitian revolution, that was a good thing indeed.” Drexel has said that it respects the professor’s right to free speech but has called him into for a meeting. Ciccariello-Maher maintains that he was using satire to taunt white supremacists.
Category: Media
The Obama Administration and many Democratic leaders have made “fake news” a rallying cry for more government and private regulation of the Internet — as well as a rationale for the devastating loss of Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump. Below is a column exploring the dangers of this new justification for speech regulation, which are already becoming evident in various countries around the world. I recently discussed the issue as part of an interesting segment with Ted Koppel.
Continue reading “THE REAL DANGER OF FAKE NEWS”
There is a controversy at the University of Oregon that embodies our long debate over the free speech rights of employees over statements and conduct in their private lives. Law professor Nancy Shurtz triggered a firestorm after she wore blackface to a Halloween party. She was dressed as Dr. Damon Tweedy, the author of Black Men In A White Coat. The school launched a formal investigation and found that, while there was no “ill intent”, Shurtz violated the school’s anti-discrimination policies. That has caused a debate over the extension of such rules to the conduct of faculty or students off campus and off hours.
It is not uncommon for presidents to rush through regulations and changes in their final months or even days in office. Thus, the move of President Obama to protect pristine areas from drilling is not unprecedented, particularly as the continuation of his long-standing policies on the environment. However, as I discussed yesterday on NPR, the President made a move that runs against the grain of tradition this week. Obama negated the regulations underlying the dormant National Security Entry-Exit Registration System or NSEERS program. That was not action to advance a positive policy but a purely obstructionist move targeting your successor. There was no reason to destroy the structure except to delay any effort of President-Elect Donald Trump to carry out his campaign pledges to tighten entry rules and impose greater scrutiny of people coming from Muslim countries. NSEERS would have given Trump a readily available structure and pro-immigration groups lobbied Obama to destroy the program. It was a move that was reminiscent of General William Tecumseh Sherman. General Sherman famously left a scorched earth behind his March to the Sea and Obama appears intent to leave the same charred path for his successor.
Given our previous discussion of the rising popularity of the electoral college, the final vote tallies are interesting. They do confirm that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million. However, it also shows that Clinton lost to Trump by 3 million outside of New York and California. The results will tend to reinforce fears that the abandonment of the Electoral College would hand the outcome of presidential elections to voters in New York and California. Trump however issued signature tweets about how Clinton focused on the wrong states.
Continue reading “Final Tally Confirms Clinton Won Popular Vote By 2.8 Million But . . .”
We have long dealt with the plague of fake news, a particular problem on the blogosphere where stories are picked up and replicated. Sometimes however questionable stories arise from allegedly false claims rather than false reporters. The Knoxville News Sentinel has suggested that it may have been hoodwinked in a bizarre and disturbing account by a professional “Santa” who recounted how he granted a dying boys heart-wrenching final wish: to die in the arms of Santa. Eric Schmitt-Matzen gave his emotional account of how the boy died in his arms as the family looked on in a hospital. The problem is that reporters have not been able to verify that the boy existed and Schmitt-Matzen has said that he is withholding the family name out of a concern for their privacy. The New Sentinel posted a warning that it could no longer stand by the story.
Continue reading “Newspaper Suggests That Touching Santa Story Is A Hoax”
It is unfortunately not uncommon to see people tweeting about getting rid of a particular race or gender on social media. It does cause a bit more of a stir when that person is the spokesperson for the public schools in Washington, D.C., Hilary Tone. In a heated response to word that former Texas governor Rick Perry would be picked as Energy Secretary, Tone dashed off a statement on Twitter that “If wanting to get rid of something qualifies you to run it, I want to be Secretary of White Men.” Not exactly what one expects from a spokesperson, but the D.C. schools have been remarkably quiet in response to the posting (which was later withdrawn) by its spokesperson.
We have previously discussed the alarming rollback on free speech rights in the West, particularly in France (here and here and here and here and here and here) and England ( here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). Much of this trend is tied to the expansion of hate speech and non-discrimination laws. We have seen comedians targeted with such court orders under this expanding and worrisome trend. (here and here). Even politicians have been charged under the ever-widening standard of criminalized speech. Now Spain has made clear that it is committed to the same trend of curtailing free speech. In a moment worthy of Franco, Spanish police arrested five Catalan independence activists for allegedly burning photos of King Felipe VI. Much like arrests in Russia, destroying or disrespecting the image of the national leader is all that is required in Spain.
Continue reading “Spain Arrests Five Activists For Burning Picture Of King Felipe VI”
One of the most controversial potential nominees for President-Elect Donald Trump just got more controversial. John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been listed as the possible second in command at State. He previously served as ambassador under a recess appointment because he was heavily opposed by Democrats and some career State Department officials. He can now likely add intelligence officials to his opposition. In an extraordinary interview on Fox News, Bolton dismissed the CIA report finding Russian interference with the election and hacking of emails. Instead, he suggested that the entire controversy could be a “false flag,” or a false story planted by parties in the United States. That would sound like the American intelligence community and specifically the CIA to many. (The FBI was widely criticized by the Clinton supporters for its own alleged influencing of the campaign). It is an entirely unsupported and rather unhinged suggestion, particularly from someone being considered for a high office. It could make an already hot potential nomination into a positively radioactive one.
Continue reading “Bolton: Russian Hacking May Be “False Flag””
There is an interesting criminal investigation that seems to fulfill the Washington DC adage “One week on the cover of Time, next week doing time.” The point is that sometimes press is not a good thing. That would seem the case of Special Forces Maj. Matthew Golsteyn who went on Fox News for an interview. In the course of the interview, Golsteyn appears to admit to murdering a suspect in his custody in Afghanistan. Army investigators also watch television and immediately reopened the investigation into the death of the accused Taliban bombmaker.
It seemed that during the campaign the media could not spend enough time on Donald Trump’s attacks on the media. I thought it was well-earned criticism and I was shocked by Trump’s lashing out at the media. This included accounts from various people who claimed that there were call made to intimidate them. However, Mika Brzezinski has now claimed that not did the Clinton campaign try to pull her off the air but that the brass at MSNBC knew about it and said nothing publicly.
Continue reading “Did The Clinton Campaign Try To Sack Mika Brzezinski?”
We have previously discussed the increasing criminalization of speech. Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders has been the focused of another of these past cases, which I have criticized as undermining free speech values. Now Wilders has been convicted of hate speech and inciting racial discrimination for espousing his far right views. One does not have to agree with Wilders — and many vehemently condemn his views — to see the implications of the criminalization of speech in Europe.
Continue reading “Conservative Dutch Politician Geert Wilders Convicted For Hate Speech”
The Washington Post has been under fire for its publication of an article entitling “Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say.” The article by Craig Timberg relied on a controversial website called PropOrNot, which published what is little more than a black list of website that the authors deemed purveyors of fake news including some of the largest sites on the Internet like Drudge Report. However, the previously unknown group was itself criticized for listing “allies” that proved false. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton ramped up the call for action against “fake news” which she described as an epidemic. Now the Washington Post has published a rather cryptic correction to the fake news story. The controversy is the subject of my latest column in USA Today.
Continue reading “Washington Post Issues Correction To “Fake News” Story”
The Weather Channel is not where one would expect a media scrum but the venerable channel went after conservative site Breitbart with a haymaker of a video after Breitbart used one of its reporters, Kait Parker, for a story suggesting that the Earth is actually getting colder. The video is below.
Continue reading “Weather Channel Gives Glacial Response To Breitbart’s Climate Change Denial”
We have yet another example of Islamic Sharia “law” after an Iranian court eight female modes and four male models to jail for simply modeling clothes. Declaring such standard pictures as unIslamic and “vice,” the models were sentenced to periods ranging from one year to six years.
Continue reading “Iran Jails 12 Models For “Vice” After Merely Modeling Clothes”