Silence U: Did University Lawsuit Threat Close 'Indoctrinate U' Site?

Change font size:  A |  A

Is the maker of “Indoctrinate U“ being sued by “a major taxpayer-funded university?” A November 12 message at filmmaker Evan Coyne Maloney's personal site Brain-Terminal.com states just that:

Due to a threatened lawsuit from a major taxpayer-funded university, the Indoctrinate U homepage has been taken down temporarily. On The Fence Films LLC is deciding how best to proceed, and we will not be commenting on anything until after our final response has been executed.

Don’t worry, though, this will not derail the film.

Hopefuly this will be resolved soon, and this legal threat won't affect the film's local screenings and future downloads or DVD sales.

Maloney's “Indoctrinate U” addresses the worrisome campus trend of ideologically-driven speech codes and stifling political correctness in America's colleges and universities, but apparently even this one film is too much for academia.

The film documents several cases of students caught in the cross hairs of campus speech cops. Maloney describes how the university responded to a student who posted a flyer promoting an upcoming speech for Mason Weaver, a “black conservative author who wrote a book on economic empowerment called 'It's OK to Leave the Plantation' " (article about incident):

[The student] had the police called on him, he was ordered to see a psychologist, he was questioned by an attorney without being allowed to have one of his own, he was threatened with expulsion, and he was “convicted” by the university for an offense that they couldn’t even define when asked.

...[The flyer] merely had a picture of him, the title of his book, and the date, time and location of the event. Yet university regarded the flyers as “literature of an offensive racial nature,” and used it to railroad a student whose views they didn’t like. This case lasted 18 months and ended up in federal court before the student finally prevailed (bold mine throughout).

True stories like this pepper “Indoctrinate U,” along with Michael Moore-style segments and interviews on various college campuses. However, one of these universities does not like the spotlight and is apparently threatening to sue.

What happened to universities being the "real" defenders of free speech? Ah, right-- "hate speech is not free speech.” That's the Clinton-esque word game academics use to avoid giving speech they disagree with the same rights as the speech they revere.

“Indoctrinate U” shows university professors and administrators upholding policy that some speech is more equal than others. Don't they read the classics in colleges anymore?

 

 

**Thanks to NB reader Acumen who came up with the perfect title "Silence: U"

Lynn contributes to NewsBusters and can be reached with tips or even complaints at tvisgoodforyou2 AT yahoo DOT com