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July 26, 2007
Ward Churchill, by the Numbers
The Board of Regents of the University of Colorado voted on Tuesday night to fire Ward Churchill, nearly six years after the professor compared some American victims of terrorism to a Nazi bureaucrat. News of Mr. Churchill’s dismissal prompted the following calculations:
The number of months since Ward Churchill posted his essay “Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens,” in which he called victims of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center “little Eichmanns”: 71
The number of months since Mr. Churchill and his essay first came to the attention of Bill O’Reilly: 30
The number of subsequent episodes of The O’Reilly Factor in which Mr. Churchill’s name has been mentioned at least four times: 79
The number of American citizens that would need to be killed to “attain an actual proportional parity of damage” to exact revenge for Iraqis killed in the 1991 Gulf War and subsequent U.S. sanctions, according to Mr. Churchill’s essay: 7.5 million
The number of “Ward Churchills” on university campuses across the country, according to David Horowitz: Thousands
The number of American Indians killed by a smallpox epidemic that originated in 1837 at Fort Clark, in present-day North Dakota, after the U.S. Army intentionally distributed infected blankets, according to Mr. Churchill, who cites Russell Thornton, an anthropologist at the University of California at Los Angeles: At least 125,000
The number of American Indians actually killed by that smallpox outbreak, according to Mr. Thornton, who says the epidemic originated on a riverboat and was transmitted “perhaps by deckhands who unloaded merchandise, perhaps by chiefs who went aboard a few days later, or perhaps by women and children who went aboard at the same time”: At most 30,000
The approximate number of Google hits generated by the sentence, “Ward Churchill is right”: 2,320
The approximate number of hits generated by the sentence, “Fire Ward Churchill”: 24,200 —John Gravois
Posted on Thursday July 26, 2007 | Permalink |Comments
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The number of times this article mentioned why Ward Churchill was fired, as opposed to the ridiculous beat-up about the Eichmann comparison: 0.
— PM Jul 26, 03:22 PM #
It sounds as if you are a Ward fan. Listen, next time you speak to him, ask him to go to the dentist and have that tooth fixed. For someone that gets paid $100,000 per year to teach one class per week (maybe) he should be embarrassed. We all know he’s not really a native.
Number of monthe Ward would have been able to speak out in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, (-1) too bad
— Pete Congsigli Jul 26, 03:25 PM #
There was a previous article that mentioned why he was fired. This article is basically a pointless article about the Ward Churchill phenomenon using numbers, so talking about why he was fired wouldn’t have had much of a place unless they could have said, “Number of instances of research misconduct: X” from the school’s report. I’m not sure the Chronicle had those data.
— KS Jul 26, 03:31 PM #
Getting rid of a thinly credentialed, highly inflammatory, completely unoriginal, bullying, plagiarizing parasite on the good name of academics? Priceless.
— Gumby Dammit Jul 26, 03:40 PM #
Isn’t this the guy that lied about being a native American? I thought liberals/leftists/socialists only got to lie about sex. Hmmm, the rules change so fast for the rest of us!
— Jaime Jul 26, 03:41 PM #
Probability that I renew my Chronicle subscription given all of its leftist tripe: 0
— SRS Jul 26, 03:53 PM #
Has anyone accused Zionists of having him fired yet? Give it time.
— Mark Silinsky Jul 26, 03:56 PM #
Number of months since September 2001: 70
Number of months before 9/11 that Ward Churchill supposedly posted his looney-tune theory: 71
Number of months before 9/11 that Ward Churchill supposedly posted ditto: 1
Likelihood that Ward Churchill predicted 9/11 would happen before it happened: 0
— Dan Kirklin Jul 26, 04:12 PM #
The one reference to a MISTAKE is not reason for a professor to be fired.
From what I hear, everyone knew Ambrose was a plagiarist, but nobody cared.
Perhaps if this country would talk honestly about the genocide that is still being carried out against indigenous peoples, then we would get some where.
One generally doesn’t ask one’s oppressor to recognize their bloodline—if you go that route—you have already lost.
For people in education your statements and this article are WEAK!
— Max Macias Jul 26, 04:15 PM #
Number of times that Gravois mentions that Churchill was fired for academic dishonesty and not for the content of an article: Zero.
— Michael Jul 26, 04:25 PM #
Is this piece supposed to be humorous? It isn’t. Is it supposed to be serious? It isn’t. What it is is a waste of newsprint and bandwidth.
— marci Jul 26, 04:26 PM #
I have been very disappointed that the Chronicle, like the other commercial media, concentrates almost exclusively on the “free speech” issue rather than the reason for dismissal – repeated instancies of plagerism, fabrication, and other instances of academic misconduct. Would you want a person who thinks this is OK teaching your children? You would do better to read the report of the investigatory commiteee. I would hope that the Chronicle would uphold academic intergrity instead of sensationalist journalism.
— Carol lynch Jul 26, 04:47 PM #
Churchill’s citations are notoriously poor. There are Native scholars who have long refused to use his material because his work cannot be properly traced back to the original source. In other words, his citations can be random. If they are not random, as is the case with Thornton’s work, then they are completely misleading. It is not one mistake, but a body of sloppy and stolen work.
— laura Jul 26, 05:05 PM #
It is unfortunate that Professor Ward Churchil resorted to unprofessional and vitriolic behavior. He should have been dismissed long time ago for his inflammatory remarks. He is not an academician or a professional. People hide behind Constitutional guarantees.
— Kan Chandras Jul 26, 05:26 PM #
For an explanation as to why Churchill was fired see the opinion in today’s Wall Street Journal, “Why I Fired Professor Churchill” by UC President Hank Brown.
— Patrick Mattimore Jul 26, 06:17 PM #
He never would have been investigated, much less fired, were it not for the controversy over his comments. All of you who think it is great that he got fired, I wonder how you will feel if it is YOUR academic freedom under attack. If it weren’t so sick, it would be amusing that the same folks that led the mob to get rid of Ward Churchill are the ones who complain about the rights of conservatives being violated when they speak up on supposedly-liberal college campuses. The “fire Ward Churchill” crowd is pretty selective when it comes to academic freedom!
— John Farley Jul 26, 06:19 PM #
“Probability that I renew my Chronicle subscription given all of its leftist tripe: 0”
Number of tears I will shed for wing nuts who do not renew their subscription to The Chronicle because of its so called leftist slant…0. I hope the door DOES hit you on the way out. I’m no Churchhill apologist by any means, but some of you are obviously missing just as many screws as he.
— paleotn Jul 26, 07:36 PM #
The number of debates this firing will generate, in relation to the accuracy of academic research and publication, will number in the gazillions. All one has to do is read historical journals to see that accepting, questioning, or vilifying the legitimacy of an author’s research and interpretation is the bread and butter of scholarly pursuits. The inquisitors at the U of C have opened a Pandora’s Box, in a big way! The outcome and the debates will be fascinating.
— B. G. Bailey Jul 26, 09:09 PM #
As an alumnus of CU I am glad to see the university deal with this issue. So many competing issues threatened to muddy the reputation of an institution that has long held academic honesty in the same high regard as academic freedom. They were never intended to be mutually exclusive.
How I wish we could stop running to polarizing opposite corners on every issue and start grappling with the challenges of upholding multiple ideals in a complex world!
— Anne Jul 26, 09:41 PM #
It was not a simple calculation. When he said “Eichmann”, everything had to be examined. For instance, people sympatised with the victims and their relatives. Did it mean that in Churchill’s mind they sympatised with Eichmann? Who else could potentially have it in his mind? Etc., etc., etc. The number of months the official brains remained swollen is 71, that’s correct. Some of them burst, and that eventually led to firing Churchill.
— Michael Pyshnov Jul 26, 09:54 PM #
Number of people in jails or hospitals confined against their will in US Over 1 million
Number of people confined in concentration camps in Germany before 1938- Many not sure of number
Number of people with mental illness confined against their will in American hospitals- Many
Number of people confined in hospitals in Germany pre 1938- Similar to the US currently
Number of people not allowed to visit family in US-Many
Number of people not allowed to visit family in Nazi Germany -Many but a Red Cross mission under demands by the people of Denmark visited people in Theresienstadt Czech Republic
Number of people not able to go outside in american hospitals-Many
Number of people not able to go outside pre 1938 in Germany- Many but people in ghetto did have access to outside
Number of groups discriminated against by Nazis- Many including Jews, Gypsies, Romas, Jehovah’s Witnesses
Number of groups which are discriminated against by US-There are still Jehovah’s witnesses who have to go to court about their views on blood transfusions. There is discrimination in the US
Number of people transmitted to ghetto or concentration camps by people in World Trade Center- 0
Number of people transferrred to concentration camps by Adolf Eichmann-Played a role in Wannsee conference so answer is many people
— JT Strakalaitis Jul 26, 10:58 PM #
Ok. This is so comical, if it weren’t so damn sad.
Stephen Ambrose has been accused of plagarism, yet he was only slapped on the hand for being a naughty author.
Chruchill serves his role as a polemic. Is he always right? Is a polemic alway right?
The answer is probably not, but they serve a purpose, which is succeeding in this case—to start a debate, to get people to think about something other than Lindsay, Brittany or Paris.
If more people would actualy read the article the comment comes from you’d see how simply and how ignorantly the great loudmouth Bill Smear O Reilly greatly misinforms the right with his own brand of fear-mongering. “Balanced Reporting” my butt.
As to the tone of this article—I agree—not funny, no point and generally insulting—but then so are most of these comments here—including mine!
— J. White Jul 27, 09:04 AM #
My boy Ward shouldn’t have said that, but he has the free speech right to say it. I’m feeling him… who let the dawgs out on free speech ?!
— Michael Vick Jul 27, 03:03 PM #
Do I need to point out that this (Michael Vick)is a racist remark? Looks like all the little toads have come out from under their white sheets on this one. For shame!
— Joy Jul 27, 06:46 PM #
The number of Dollars Churchill will be awarded for the wrongful firing from his tenured position: $2,000,000 (a pure guess).
— MK Jul 27, 07:34 PM #
As usual, the far left – far right hysteria (ie. Churchill vs. Horowitz) dominate a decision that should have been a dispassionate judgement regarding academic misconduct, not the implication that Churchill was really fired because he was a bad guy.
— Viktor Black Jul 28, 12:13 AM #
Ah, the missing tooth. That is the crux of the matter, isn’t it? Let’s spend more time talking about that.
— Andrew Jul 28, 12:26 AM #
I taught native people’s history nearly 30 yrs and always warned students away from Churcill. His writing was intemperate and poorly sourced. His claim to native ancestry was obviously phoney. Such claims by insecure whites is insulting to the people who they supposedly study. CU never should have hired him (not proper graduate study), certainly should not have given him tenure, so removal is undoing an long-time injustice.
— Frank D. McCann Jul 28, 05:46 PM #
Churchill was an idiot for using needlessly inflammatory language to make an argument worth considering. Now all you hear is “he called the victims ‘little Eichmanns’” without any sense of the context in which that shamefully constructed passage appeared. The offensive reference basically points out that in any empire, people routinely go to work and make money doing things that harm others. Churchill should simply have asked whether there were organizations in the World Trade Center that could credibly be said to harm or exploit people in developing countries. Now, it’s impossible to raise that question without appearing to exonerate Churchill’s shrill tone.
— Midwest Prof Jul 28, 10:46 PM #
I’m adopting A Little Matter of Genocide for my race and ethnicity class. His arguments are throught provoking, unlike most work on the subject.
What a blatant ad hominem construction: “Don’t read Churchill because he’s insecure.” And what a terrible thing to do to students, warn them away from books. I encourage students to read books I disagree with. That way, they will get the other side, as well.
— Andrew Jul 28, 11:12 PM #