Wheee! I’m featured on OneNewsNow, the Far Right Christian online ‘news’ organization. It’s the same old thing.
University of Minnesota-Morris Professor Paul Z. Myers has encouraged students to gather up and trash all copies of an independent student newspaper [Not true. I said the university ought to prohibit their racist rag in the same way we would refuse the Ku Klux Klan the right to insult our non-white students on campus] with which he disagrees [Not true. I said we do have conservatives on campus; the basis of my disagreement wasn’t their politics, but the racism of this particular small group of extremists. And also their incompetence.]. The politically radical [Sorry, no. I’m pretty much a rock solid liberal/progressive. Not very radical at all.] professor blogged that the Morris NorthStar student newspaper was a disgrace and has "worn out its welcome and must go."[Correct! When your approach is to hide behind Trayvon Martin’s corpse and accuse university administrators of racism because they aren’t nice enough to white people…you’re not really bright enough or responsible enough to appreciate an education, let alone benefit from it.]
"We ask UMM to publicly condemn these instances of theft and destruction [They did!], investigate what happened [They did! Although I haven’t seen any evidence that this ‘theft’ even occurred; it was a free paper, widely distributed across campus, and all of a sudden, we have known far-right media clowns claiming some were “stolen”. Really? How could you tell?], and prosecute those responsible, [Yes, even if it is a stunt by the students who put out the North Star. So why are you harassing me? I had nothing to do with it.]" Theriot says. "The university must take steps to protect the NorthStar [Not necessarily. They could also banish it from campus as a disruptive, dishonest, and scurrilous pile of shit.] and all other student publications from such viewpoint-based [Is that what Republicans are calling their racism now?] censorship [There is no evidence of censorship! Saying it over and over again doesn’t make it true.] in the future."
While copies of the newspaper were being stolen, trashed, and defaced, ADF attorney David Hacker says the university quietly stood by.[Again: no evidence of theft, except the claim by the North Star. It’s a free paper that students were encouraged to take. What was the university supposed to do, put guards around the distribution racks and yell at anyone who takes a copy?]
It is simply bizarre. The university throughout has repudiated any attempt to destroy the paper; the chancellor sent out a campus-wide email saying so way back in December. They’ve got no case against the university. I used my free speech rights to say that the paper is garbage and that we ought to have some standards and reject the distribution of the libelous, poorly written crap, and yet they’re claiming that there must be an absolute right to free speech everywhere and at all times. They are going to have a hard time making a case that a free paper could be or even was stolen, and they’ve made this patently bogus case against me based on the idiot editor’s claim that there was a sciencey smell
around one of the racks. That’s it. A contrived and implausible claim by a dope with an agenda, and that’s what these right-wingers are leaping upon.
It’s the same dishonest O’Keefeian tactics again. We’re just waiting for someone to ask if these people have any decency at all.
I suppose we can all go over their and say whatever we want in the comments. Surely they don’t moderate.
I can’t tell which is more sad: people complaining about stealing a free newspaper, or people freaking out about cracker desecration.
Looks like PZ hit the big time. Onenewsnow.
Oops, it is onenewsnow. A lunatic fringe fundie xian site. Babbling idiots.
They never get anything right. IIRC, their big thing is the imminent collapse of civilization, the Rapture, and Apocalypse.
In 2008, they claimed Obama was a Moslem and would make Islam the official US religion of the USA. It’s 2014 and it hasn’t happened yet.
Out of an abundance of fairness, I note:
The preceding paragraphs don’t at all make it clear that you’re speaking directly to university administration and not to students/staff/faculty/visitors as individuals belonging to the UMM community. (Anyone should feel free to read this in context at the link.)
Thus I would call this a reasonable mis-reading rather than a lie.
I don’t in any way think this tripe shouldn’t come in for criticism, and it’s been made clear that it is propaganda, not least (nor only) by their refusal to contact you. Nor do I think that this is an “honest” article. But that one statement did stand out as less likely to be an actual lie.
What’s funny is that the slymes were passing around that Todd Starnes essay as proof of “PZ’s abuse of his students”. I guess this will also be making the rounds.
But it’s YOUR fault for not hiring a greasy PR agent to tell these fools NO COMMENT! Way to control that message, PZed! Oh, wait, you mean even without speaking to them they just went ahead and reported a bunch of BS about you anyway? Gosh, whodathunk?
Indeed. Though, that may make more sense if you had said “anyone who takes more than one copy.” I would assume one copy would have to be OK.
Don’t let people take the papers. Hand them out. Have boys out on the streets yelling, “Extry! Extry! Read all about it!” That way they can note anyone who smells of science.
Off topic, but I notice some liberals/progressives have this same problem. It was on some article about a mock Twitter account making fun of some Indiana mayor…I think…and the police were called in as the account was said to be impersonating a public official, which is a crime. The “free speech!!!11!1!!” comments defending the account were ridiculous because they were essentially doing just this — implying an absolute right to free speech. The account, by the way, was pretty bad. It used the mayor’s name and apparently posted the mayor’s email (I would assume the official office email, not his personal email), so it was over-the-top.
@Leo Buzalsky, 9:
That should probably go over here, where there’s still an active thread on the topic of misunderstandings/misuses of “free speech”.
Yell? Shoot, surely. Haven’t the guards learned to stand their ground?
CD wrote:
referring to PZ’s:
CD, you’re attempting to be too even-handed; i.e. *regardless* of who PZ is talking to, he is simply advising everyone to treat the paper as trash, and dispose of it. Maybe some took it to the extreme and trashed entire stacks of the paper, but still; does that advice make PZ responsible for their actions? Onenewsnow, show us the rascals who took PZ’s advice to the extreme and trashed entire stacks of the NorthTrash rag. Otherwise, pffft to you.
@#9 Leo Buzalsky
Good hard hitting expose of the facts there, Leo! Are you bucking for a job as a Fox News reporter?
@Leo Buzalsky #9: For what it’s worth, the bulk of the criticism of this raid that I’m finding comes from right-wing sources like the Washington Times, Jonathan Turley, and Reason magazine.
Aren’t they kinda shooting themselves in the foot by admitting that their paper moves so slowly off the racks, they can be sure that the bunch were “stolen”? Couldn’t they have been snapped up due to the in-depth, incisive journamatism therein?
@twas brillig:
What? No.
I was taking on the very limited notion that the article’s claim that
was “not true”.
I’m not talking about liability for action relating to trashing the papers (if that happened) at all.
Now I’m wondering…there’s part of what you’re saying that’s clearly aimed at ONN, and part at me. I hope that I’m just drawing the cut-off in the wrong place.
This whole thing is rather ridiculous, even before we get to news articles about it.
@Leo Buzalsky, 9:
The Peoria situation strikes me as precisely one to which a guarantee of free speech applies. If nothing else, the First Amendment should prevent the government from raiding a home based on the speech of those inside. To the extent that the Indiana “impersonation” statute encompasses parody, it is overbroad, and therefore, unconstitutional. You say it was an “over-the-top” account, but over-the-top speech is protected (think of the Ku Klux Klan in Skokie, for instance). Moreover, though I have not been able to find a citation, I believe the statute at issue is Ind. Code Ann. § 35-44.1-2-6 (West), which reads as follows:
“Sec. 6. A person who falsely represents that the person is a public servant, with intent to mislead and induce another person to submit to false official authority or otherwise to act to the other person’s detriment in reliance on the false representation, commits impersonation of a public servant, a Class A misdemeanor. However, a person who falsely represents that the person is:
(1) a law enforcement officer; or
(2) an agent or employee of the department of state revenue, and collects any property from another person;
commits a Class D felony.”
Therefore, unless the Twitter account “inten[ded] to mislead and induce another person,” the statute is inapplicable. Thank you.
Leo Buzalsky,
I hope you’ve alerted the police to the “crime” being committed by those flaming progressives at Popehat
Why do we have to ask all over again??? They very obviously don’t. The concept of decency is completely foreign to them. They can’t even spell it, much less understand it.
Why do we bother?
As far as their rag goes, there ought to be a parade of students – no faculty or staff at all, mind you – who parade past the distribution rack(s), each take a copy, and then rip it up, dumping the pieces in a conveniently placed receptacle. There should be a journalism student team taping the parade for posterity.
Some formaldehyde should be dumped in the vicinity.
Then when they scream about the “sciencey smell” and complain that their rag was stolen, they can be dragged into court for libel and the tape shown as evidence.
You’ll see just how fast they cave in.
Many years ago I was involved in a similar action against an obnoxious foe. It got as far as discovery. When our evidence was displayed to their attorney (we had counter-sued) in the process of discovery they dropped their suit so fast they not only burned rubber but they offered to pay our legal bills if we dropped our counter-suit.
Personally, I enjoy the smell of science in the morning. It smells like… victory.
“The politically radical [Sorry, no. I’m pretty much a rock solid liberal/progressive. Not very radical at all.] professor…”
Oneneuronnow considers rock-solid liberals/progressives to be politically radical. It’s just more of their standard rightwing hysateria. Makes me wonder how much longer thay can go on like this before their adrenal glands give out.
The right-wing echo chamber strikes again.
So how exactly do you steal a free newspaper? And if I on my own volition take the said free newspaper and throw it away or burn it, what exactly have I done wrong? And how do you go about protecting a free newspaper. So throwing away free news papers now constitutes censorship. Maybe UMM as conditions for admission, should make students get a copy, register that they only took one copy, take a weekly quiz on the contents and return it to a designated spot once they’ve read it. That way right wing fairness can be imposed.
Also, are people concerned about all the junk mail that is needlessly thrown away and destroyed each an every day all over the USA. Why don’t Faux news and these Christianist news orgs report on this ongoing holocaust of junk mail?
this is great really great pretty soon I hope to hear some major republican leaders sound off on this outrageous situation. About how from the intellectual elite comes this attack on freedom of the press! Has anyone thought to ask Jeb Bush or Christy what they think of these atheist professors and their advocating destroying of the truth.
I can’t wait !!
uncle frogy
I just posted this in their comments:
“I don’t think it is “unconstitutional censorship” for Professor Myers to exercise his First Amendment right to call a racist piece of crap paper a “racist piece of crap paper”. There has been no evidence put forward that he “stole” anything. Oh I forgot the “crime scene” smelled “sciencey”. Case closed.”
me @ 25 …and it was deleted.
we may need to just put this atop every post on the issue
*moving hands like a conductor* “Only the first one is free”
They now have a disclaimer charging 5$ for each after the first
Defaced!
ROFLMAO
Were they spindled, folded, and mutilated too? How about desecrated? What a hoot.
PZ:
I still have hope for you.
OneNewsNow = ONN
Onion News Network = ONN
Coincidence?
The bigots are bound and determined to have an issue so they can play the victim card and have a ‘bloody shirt’ to wave. There is absolutely no need for the stories to be based in reality.
Simple fact is that you would almost be better off if you had done everything they claimed. As it is now they smear you and you play nice. It is the right thing to do but it never feels very good.
From OP:
Brilliant observation. It helped me end my night with a hearty laugh.
Interestingly, I have twice posted a link there to PZ’s rebuttal, but it was deleted both times.
Does anyone know of a bath soap that out there will give me a “sciencey smell?” It could be sexy.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. I happen to think you’re not only radical, but gnarly and righteous to the max as well.
Depending on what was in it tbp1 it may have triggered the spam trap and been moderated. If so it will probably appear when PZ has time to go through unless it was deliberately and grievously offensive.
Never mind. Ignore that. Misread as only just awake. Sorry