Veritas-ish at Harvard & news from the Garden State

Bringing you the latest free speech news (3/17/2024)

Stories of the week

• Harvard Tramples the Truth: When it came to debating Covid lockdowns, Veritas wasn’t the university’s guiding principle by Martin Kulldorf

Most Harvard faculty diligently pursue truth in a wide variety of fields, but Veritas has not been the guiding principle of Harvard leaders. Nor have academic freedom, intellectual curiosity, independence from external forces, or concern for ordinary people guided their decisions.

Harvard and the wider scientific community have much work to do to deserve and regain public trust. The first steps are the restoration of academic freedom and the cancelling of cancel culture. When scientists have different takes on topics of public importance, universities should organize open and civilized debates to pursue the truth. Harvard could have done that—and it still can, if it chooses.

• Trenton lawmakers are about to make New Jersey’s public records even worse. They must not by Adam Steinbaugh

Several years ago, officials in Irvington Township were fed up with transparency. Eighty-two-year-old resident Elouise McDaniel had asked for one too many public records and complained when they wouldn’t hand them over, as the state’s Open Public Records Act requires. So Irvington’s officials tried to take Elouise to court, complaining that she had “bullied and annoyed them.” When the public found out, Irvington became a national laughingstock and its officials sheepishly abandoned their thin-skinned lawsuit. 

This week in ERI

• The Skeptics Were Wrong, Part 1: Campus free speech was in trouble in 2018, and the data shows it has gotten much worse by Sean Stevens& me

This week in FIRE’s blog

• Are younger faculty really more tolerant of unpopular opinions than older faculty?—Spoiler Alert: No by Emily Nayyer & Sean Stevens

• Ten questions to a media lawyer by Robert Corn-Revere (originally published in the October 2023 issue of the Media Law Resource’s MediaLawLetter)

• Queens College calls cops over Muslim student group’s Instagram posts by Angel Eduardo

‘Canceling of the American Mind’ in the news

• You may know Mike Rowe from the TV show “Dirty Jobs", but I’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with him a few times now to talk free speech. Check out this special edition of his “The Way I Heard It” podcast.

• Check out my conversation with John Matze on his “Greater Perspectives” podcast.

In other news

• Joe Cohn, formerly the head of FIRE’s legislative department, is running for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd District. I posted about why anyone who lives in his district and cares about civil liberties should vote for him. Learn more about his campaign here.

Video of the week

• New achievement unlocked: John Cleese says hello to my mum!