Ward's phony 'discipline' ( Churchill's falsification, fabrication and plagiarism )

Daily Camera ^ | May 23, 2006 | Editorial

[george76]

Ward Churchill, the pugnacious professor of ethnic studies, insists that scholars who rebuked him for falsification, fabrication and plagiarism just don't understand his discipline.

Churchill is, of course, the University of Colorado professor whose misconduct was "deliberate and not a matter of an occasional careless error," a CU investigative panel has concluded.

The panel also condemned Churchill for "serious deviation" from accepted research practices.

In turn, Churchill and his righteous entourage insist that he's been targeted because of his "alternative historical perspective." Churchill complains that "individuals knowledgeable in my discipline" were excluded from the panel and that he had to spend time teaching them "rudimentary procedures employed in American Indian Studies."

"Had qualified individuals been included on the panel, this preemption of my ability to respond to substantive matters would not have occurred." Churchill writes.

This is a lot less complex than the professor and his dittoheads would have you believe. Sources cited by a scholar should confirm — not contradict — the scholar.

Factual assertions should be tethered to actual, verifiable facts. Prose should be the scholar's own, or credited to its rightful owner.

Churchill argues that such basic integrity is somehow irrelevant to the "rudimentary procedures employed in American Indian Studies."

All who value ethnic studies should be angered by Churchill's suggestion and indignant by the ignominy he's brought to the field.

[Alex Murphy]

Ping to read later.

[CFC__VRWC]

Notice what's absent in this bit of self-righteous hectoring disguised as an editorial in one of Churchill's biggest media pom-pom wavers? Any demand for his firing, or even his suspension. All we're supposed to do, I guess, is be "angered" by the fact that Churchill exposed the ethnic studies "field" as an affirmative action sewer whose only function is to provide lifetime employment to amoral, incompetent Marxists who couldn't even hold down a burger-flipping job in the private sector.

This screed reminds me of the phony outrage over Bill Clinton's tryst with Monica expressed by people like Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews. They were just throwing a tantrum because his behavior embarrassed them; they weren't angered at all by what he did. In fact, I'm sure they cheered his actions in private. Just like the Camera with Churchill.

[aquila48]

"All who value ethnic studies should be angered by Churchill's suggestion and indignant by the ignominy he's brought to the field."

Well if he accomplished that it would be a wonderful contribution. I can't think of a bigger waste of resource and time than "ethnic studies". Well, OK - women's studies.

[Alex Murphy]

Perhaps the validity of ethnic studies as an academic discipline should be questioned.

IMO universities will confer "validity" to damn near anything if enough people are willing to pay tuition to sit through a lecture on that subject. Lecture Halls aren't much different than the local cinema multiplex in that way.