University Tweets Out Provost’s Direct Response to Bret Stephens ‘Bed Bug’ Complaint
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens Streisand Effect-ed himself into a whirlwind of blowback and mockery for writing an email to the George Washington University associate professor who called him a bedbug on Twitter.
The bedbugs are a metaphor. The bedbugs are Bret Stephens. https://t.co/k4qo6QzIBW
— davekarpf (@davekarpf) August 26, 2019
But as Professor David Karpf noted, the university provost was cc’d on the email.
Well, GW provost Forrest Maltzman actually responded, and the university publicly posted his response to Twitter this afternoon.
“As you know, as an academic,” Maltzman says, “Professor Karpf speaks for himself and does not take direction from me. His opinions are his own. Our commitment to academic freedom and free speech are integral to GW’s mission.”
He notes Stephens’ “invite” to Professor Karpf and concludes, “I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to come to our campus to speak about civil discourse in the digital age.”
— GW University (@GWtweets) August 27, 2019
Since the online blowback, Stephens has left Twitter and gone on MSNBC to link his situation to how historically “totalitarian regimes” analogized groups of people to insects.
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