“It is puzzling to the court that the promotion of tolerance would take the appearance of such intolerance as is contained in the religious materials distributed with the Safe Space program.”
—Federal Judge Owen Forrester writing on diversity at Georgia Tech.
The Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC) may have taken the place of The New York Times as both the most liberal and least credible paper in America. And Andrea Jones may well be the least professional reporter at the AJC.
Some will recall Jones’ crass assertion that plaintiffs in the recent Sklar v. Clough federal case against Georgia Tech were suing for the right to be “intolerant.” When I called her out on this, she responded via email suggesting I lacked credibility by saying that I was just a “blogger.” This is significant because I have never “blogged” nor inhaled while doing so. In other words, Jones used a factual inaccuracy in an effort to defend herself against my accusation that she is prone to factual inaccuracies. People like Andrea Jones make my job very easy. Now, I can even wear pajamas while I work.
Of course, when a federal judge stated that, in this case, he was surprised by the level of intolerance in the name of tolerance exhibited by Georgia Tech, Jones was not there to give the statement the ink it deserved. But she did help Tech lie about crucial aspects of the case, which have now been brought to light by Judge Owen Forrester.
Judge Forrester seemed most appalled by a false press release in which Tech officials said that the institute “will not be required to take any action” and that “the judge ruled in favor of the Georgia Tech free speech zone policy and the use of student activity fees” and, finally, that “Georgia Tech practices are exactly the same as before the suit was filed.”
Here’s what Judge Forrester had to say: “Anyone with passing familiarity of the instant litigation would not be faulted for questioning the accuracy of numerous portions of this short press release. In fact, all three of the four challenged policies are materially different than they were before the suit. As to the fourth, although this court did not order a change, the court did not discuss Georgia Tech’s student activity fee program for 23 pages in any way to ‘rule in favor’ of the program …”
The fact that the federal court did not believe plaintiffs Sklar and Malhotra had standing to challenge the student activity fee program is not the same thing as saying that the plaintiffs lost and Tech won. For those who don’t understand what that means, Judge Forrester offers an explanation:
“(T)he court’s order on summary judgment certainly indicates potential constitutional pitfalls to the manner in which Georgia Tech administers its student activity fee program. Based on Head (the relevant precedent), the court finds that Plaintiffs are the only prevailing party in this litigation.”
Just in case Andrea Jones failed to grasp the meaning of the last paragraph, here is a translation that even a blogger could understand: Georgia Tech lost and is in danger of being sued again.
And http://www.DrAdams.org is looking forward to another battle with Georgia Tech. But there is little doubt that Tech will try to avoid an admission of defeat when they get caught with their pants down again.
Last time around, Judge Forrester ruled that “Defendants Dean Ray and President Clough in their official and individual capacities had violated the Establishment Clause by favoring one religion over another in the state-associated Safe Space Program…” Consequently, the court “directed Defendants to remove the religious information from the Safe Space training manual.”
Nonetheless, Tech tried to get out of paying legal fees to the prevailing party by saying they obeyed the order a year before it was issued. Judge Forrester called Tech out on this lie as well:
“Defendants motion for reconsideration is based on an assertion that religious material had been removed from the Office of Diversity Program’s Safe Space web site a year prior to the court’s ruling. This was certainly news to the court. This court had been dealing with motions regarding the religious material for about eight months and used every means known to it to encourage settlement. At no time did the Attorney General for the State of Georgia even hint that the issue was moot and instead continued to litigate aggressively.”
Judge Owen Forrester rebuked Georgia Tech in his latest legal ruling, which mentioned “the lack of candor of Georgia Tech throughout the litigation of this case.” Someone needs to do the same to Andrea Jones and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Their lack of journalistic integrity is an embarrassment to bloggers everywhere.
Editor’s note: Use our SEARCH tool to find several columns written by Mike Adams with regard to Georgia Tech. Use search term “Georgia Tech”.
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Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
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Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
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After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
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Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
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