[Air-L] Please get your facts right

[Dr. Emma Briant]

Hi Rod,
Just to clarify the below please… Are you saying you sent a legal threat to
NCA over this and as a result they stopped discussion of issues on the
listserv?
Thank you,
Emma

On Thu, 17 Nov 2022 at 17:54, Rod Carveth via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org>
wrote:

> I had indicated that I was going to stay out of any further comments
> related to my observation that I doubted U of Arkansas was going to be
> attracting top candidates given the election of the seriously unqualified
> Trumpster, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as governor, and the educational
> policies that she advocates.
>
> But, I do have to respond to Daniel Greene's post today, particularly this
> passage:
>
>
> *Dr. Carveth was previously involved in a similar debate on the National
> Communication Association's list serv, regarding the rights of faculty to
> opine on "the illegal immigrant threat and the history of illegals [sic]
> murder and rapes, and threatened to sue
> <
> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/26/national-communication-association-suspends-discussion-listserv
> <
> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/09/26/national-communication-association-suspends-discussion-listserv
> >>
> anyone accusing him or colleagues of racism. *
>
> First of all, what I said on this list has absolutely nothing to do with
> the incident involving the CRTNET listserv.
>
> Second, Greene has conflated facts regarding that incident.
>
> My friend and colleague, Dr. Richard Vatz (Towson University) made a
> comment on the CRTNET listserv about how media coverage failed to include
> sufficient news coverage about "illegals." For this, Dr. Vatz was attacked
> for being a racist on both the CRTNET listserv and on a Facebook group
> called Communication Scholars for Transformation (CST).
>
> Dr. Vatz and I differ on many political issues, as he is conservative and I
> am liberal. But, over the years, I know that he is a principled
> conservative (unlike many in the GOP). I also believe in the First
> Amendment -- which NCA purports to be as well -- and called out the ad
> hominem attacks against Dr. Vatz as a way of muzzling his speech. For that,
> people on both CRTNET and CST labelled me a racist as well. Teaching at an
> HBCU and having members of your field calling you a racist is an awkward
> situation at best.
>
> Around that time, I had a conversation with a friend who is a First
> Amendment lawyer, and among the topics to come up was this issue with
> CRTNET and CST. The friend said one of the things I could do would take
> legal action. The friend said that it would be a long shot, but sometimes
> the threat is just as effective. My friend was correct. Dr. Vatz and I
> posted on CRTNET that if the false charges of racism did not stop, we would
> seek legal action. NCA at that point stopped having CRTNET have discussions
> about issues. Rather, CRTNET now carries announcements about conferences
> and research opportunities, jobs and obituaries.
>
> I hope this clarifies Greene's passage that not only erroneously tries to
> equate the two events, but also provides important context.
>
> Rod Carveth
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-- 
Dr Emma L Briant

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