ABFFE Opposes Investigation of University of Colorado Professor

The American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) this week called on the University of Colorado Board of Regents to halt its investigation of the writings and speeches of Ward Churchill, an ethnic studies professor who has been at the center of a storm of controversy over an essay that he wrote in the days after the September 11 attacks. The essay argued that the attacks were not terrorist acts but a military response to the destruction by the United States of Iraqi water purification and sewage facilities in 1991, which Churchill claimed led to the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children. Churchill also wrote that the people who died in the World Trade Center were not innocent victims but "little Eichmanns" who were participating in an economic system that oppressed Iraqis.

Churchill's essay received little public attention until he was invited to participate in a program at Hamilton College in upstate New York in January. When Bill O'Reilly of Fox's "O'Reilly Factor" and others publicized the essay, college officials canceled the program, "The Limits of Dissent," citing threats of violence. In Colorado, the governor and members of the legislature called for Ward's dismissal. The university regents announced that they would investigate Churchill's writings and speeches to see if there were grounds for firing him.

In a joint letter to the regents on February 15, ABFFE and the National Coalition Against Censorship charged that Churchill was being investigated solely because of his controversial views and that any disciplinary action against him would violate the First Amendment and undermine academic freedom. "Efforts to censor Churchill undermine the 'free trade' in ideas and implicitly encourage threats and intimidation that will stifle open discussion," the letter said. "We are particularly concerned that the controversy will create 'a pall of orthodoxy' over higher education." To read the letter, click here. Click here for Churchill's essay, "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens."


"Academic Bill of Rights" Threatens Academic Freedom

ABFFE has taken a stand against another threat to academic freedom by opposing a bill in the Ohio legislature that creates a so-called "academic bill of rights" in public colleges and universities. The legislation is the brainchild of conservative activist David Horowitz, whose organization, the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, is dedicated to eradicating "the idiocies and the viciousness of the radical leftism in universities." Ohio State Senator Larry Mumper, the chief sponsor of the bill, sees it as a counterweight to the purported dominance of left-wing professors. "Eighty per cent of them are Democrats, liberals or Socialists or card-carrying Communists," he said.

The academic bill of rights legislation, which has also been introduced in California, New York, Indiana and Rhode Island, would require public colleges and universities to establish a procedure for challenging violations of the rights enumerated in the bill, including the right of students to be exposed to "a plurality of scholarly methodologies" and to receive grades "solely on the basis of their reasoned answers." Professors are barred from "persistently introducing controversial matter into the classroom or course work that has no relation to their subject of study" and must make their students aware of "serious scholarly viewpoints other than their own."

In a letter sent to members of the Ohio Senate Education Committee on Feb. 10, ABFFE and other free expression groups argue that the proposal will restrict, not enhance, academic freedom. "No single course can present all points of view," the letter said. "Without the freedom to present strongly held views, even if those views are contested or controversial, education will be reduced to a robotic narrative consisting of "on the one hand versus the other." Students and faculty already possess a First Amendment right to protest when they believe their ideas have been given short shrift, the letter says.


TV Show "Friends" in Free Speech Fight

When Amaani Lyle was hired to take verbatim notes of the meetings of the writers of the TV show "Friends," she was warned that these sessions involved a lot of sexually explicit jokes and banter. She said at the time that such talk did not bother her, but she changed her mind after she was fired by the show. She filed a lawsuit against Warner Brothers Television alleging that she had been the victim of racial and sexual harassment. While Lyle acknowledges that none of the sexual remarks had been directed toward her, she claims that they created a "hostile environment" for women. Warner Brothers has replied that the sexual talk was a creative necessity for the writers of a show that dealt frequently with the sex lives of its young protagonists.

A California state appeals court recently ruled that Lyle may have a point and ordered a jury to decide whether the sexual talk was a creative necessity or sexual harassment. The decision has alarmed not just TV producers but everyone who produces and distributes works with sexual content, including newspapers and book publishers. ABFFE has joined other media groups in filing an amicus brief that argues that the creative process cannot be made subject to the second guessing of juries without creating a strong chilling effect on the conversations that are involved in producing works that are protected by the First Amendment. It points out that Jon Stewart's "America (The Book)" was produced by the same collaborative process that is at issue in the Lyle case.