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NYU cancels ‘Reporting on the Far Right’ class by ex-New Yorker fact-checker, and libs lose it

May 31, 2019 | | Print Article
Screengrab Talia Lavin

Perhaps, there’s hope for America just yet.

New York University, not exactly a bastion of conservative thought, has canceled an undergraduate journalism class former New Yorker fact-checker Talia Lavin was set to teach due to a lack of interest.

The elective class, “Reporting on the Far Right,” was scheduled for this fall and only two students signed up, according to The Wrap.

Lavin, as you may recall, resigned from the New Yorker last year after falsely accusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo.

Not that Lavin’s troubling actions, which show how easy it is to get hit with a label of being a white supremacist in post-Obama America, deterred the school from inviting her.

The director of undergraduate studies at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, Adam Penenberg stressed that the class cancellation had “nothing to do” with that.

“Canceling the class had nothing to do with Talia’s writings, tweets, or anything else. We cancelled it because too few students enrolled,” Penenberg told The Wrap.

Penenberg said it was unlikely that Lavin would be invited back to teach another class, given her limited focus — see “obsession” with far right.

“It would make no sense to try it again, given how few students expressed interest,” he said. “We have no plans to offer Talia another course, simply because her main focus (and the focus of her upcoming book) is the far right.”

The now deleted course description read: “In an era when hate is on the rise, this course will provide student journalists with a thorough grounding in far-right and white-supremacist movements in the United States, briefly examining their history and delving into their sprawling present incarnations.”

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The Wrap reported that Lavin’s official NYU faculty bio — which was deleted in April —  touted her as an expert in “far-right extremism and social justice.”

And while that may be up for debate, the course description also promised “a careful analysis of pieces that have fallen short of the mark,” of which, her expertise is clear, given how the tattoo blunder blew up in the liberal journalist’s face.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement responded to her assertion in a tweet: “Justin Gaertner is a combat wounded U.S. Marine who continues to serve his country as an ICE computer forensics analyst, helping solve criminal cases & rescue abused children. The tattoo shown here is the symbol for his platoon while he fought in Afghanistan.”

It was also clear that Lavin, who apparently has plenty of free time on her hands, did not appreciate the news value of the piece by Jon Levine, as she responded in a series of tweets belittling his efforts.

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There was no shortage of unhinged, Kool-Aid drinking liberals who failed to see the significance of reporting on the class being cancelled.

Here’s a sampling of some other responses from Twitter that suggest there may be hope for mankind just yet.

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https://twitter.com/amber_athey/status/1134142675748343808

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Tom Tillison
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