Professor Punished for Witty Remark

Trei, Peter ptrei at rsasecurity.com
Tue Dec 11 13:25:26 PST 2001


> ----------
> From: 	Eric Cordian[SMTP:emc at artifact.psychedelic.net]
> 
> 
> Peter Trei writes:
> 
> >> There's also a blacklist on the Web of people in academia who have
> >> publicly stated less than glowing support for Bush's war against
> >> "evil."
> 
> > Where is it?
	[...]
> It was released by ACTA, formerly the NAF, run by Lynne Cheney, formerly
> arch-conservative Bill Bennett's heir at the National Endowment for the
> Humanities, and the wife of the federal government's favorite cardiac
> patient, Vice President Dick Cheney.
	[...]
> You might want to wade through http://www.goacta.org/ and see if you can
> find the report.  I took a quick look, but my javascript and .pdf
> patience levels were quickly exceeded.
	[...]

Well, http://www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf doesn't
actually name names, but the quotes are given enough
attribution that, at least on a given campus, the speaker
is probably identifiable. For example...

2 2 . "What the U.S. calls counter-terrorism is terrorism 
by another name. Operation Infinite Justice-the Bush 
administration's code name for proposed military action 
against terrorists - is 'cowboy law.'" 
Professor of linguistics, MIT.

...isn't too hard to identify.

On the other hand, ACTA has specifically condemned the
U of NM for their punishment of Berthold (which started 
this thread).

http://www.goacta.org/Press%20Releases/11-14-01PR.htm

AMERICAN COUNCIL OF TRUSTEES AND ALUMNI
    DEFENDS UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PROF

 Controversial Comment on Terrorist Attack Is Not Grounds
                for Punishment


WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 14, 2001) -- The American
Council of Trustees and Alumni today came to the defense of
University of New Mexico professor Richard Berthold who is
under investigation by the University for remarking: "Anyone
who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote."

"Professor Berthold's comment is certainly crude and
debatable, but it is not punishable," said Anne D. Neal,
ACTA's Vice President and General Counsel. "While we clearly
disagree, academic freedom requires a free exchange of
ideas-no matter how controversial."

[...]

"There is a big difference between criticizing someone's
comments, and punishing those comments," said Neal. "It is
the responsibility of a university to teach that the right way to
counter ideas with which one disagrees is with more speech,
not less," said Neal. 

-- end of quote - 

Peter Trei





More information about the cypherpunks-legacy mailing list