The ivory tower isn't the real world
The report on Ward "Little Eichmanns" Churchill is out and the investigative committee has found more than enough evidence that the University of Colorado professor is a plagiarist, fabricator and an all-around academic fraud.
Findings
The conclusions of the investigative committee that examined seven allegations of research misconduct against University of Colorado ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill:
Charge A: That Churchill misrepresented the General Allotment Act of 1887 in his writings by incorrectly writing that it created a "blood quantum" standard that allowed tribes to admit members only if they had at least half native blood.
Finding: Falsification, failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications.
Charge B: That Churchill misrepresented the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990 by incorrectly writing that the act imposed a "blood quantum" requiring artists to prove they were one-quarter Indian by blood.
Finding: Falsification, failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications.
Charge C: That Churchill incorrectly claimed there was "some pretty strong circumstantial evidence" that Capt. John Smith introduced smallpox among the Wampanoag Indians between 1614-1618.
Finding: Falsification and fabrication.
Charge D: That in several writings Churchill falsely accused the U.S. Army of committing genocide by distributing blankets infested with smallpox to Mandan Indians in the Upper Missouri River Valley in 1837.
Finding: Falsification, fabrication, failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications, and serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research. The committee also found that Churchill was "disrespectful of Indian oral tradition."
Charge E: That Churchill claimed as his own work a 1972 pamphlet about a water-diversion scheme in Canada titled "The Water Plot." The work actually was written by a now-defunct environmental group, "Dam the Dams."
Finding: Plagiarism.
Charge F: That Churchill plagiarized part of an essay written by Rebecca L. Robbins in a book he published in 1993.
Finding: Research misconduct
Charge G: That Churchill plagiarized the writings of Canadian professor Fay G. Cohen in a 1992 essay.
Finding: Plagiarism.
Any one of those is enough to get a journalist sacked post haste, yet only one of the five committee members believes that this is a firing offense. Two think he should be suspended without pay for five years and two others think two years without pay is sufficient punishment.
If this isn't enough to drum you out of academia, then you'd better think three or four times before you believe any history book. The guy is a fraud and these people don't think enough about their profession to give him the heave ho. In fact, two of the committee members "believe his dismissal would have an adverse effect on other scholars’ ability to conduct their research."
Well, if you've only got a fleeting familiarity with the truth, then other scholars should be worried. New rule: "If you plagiarize, fabricate and or falsify research, then maybe you shouldn't be a college professor."
Oh, thanks for making journalists look good -- at least for a day.
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One would think that, for the sake of the integrity of their profession, let alone for its reputation, they would kick him out posthaste.
I guess this tells us what they think of (1) integrity and/or (2) their reputation and/or (3) their profession. Like, they hold all of them in contempt. (Like good little Marxoids would, don't you think?)
And their indecision and lack of will are just about as condemnatory of them as their findings are condemnatory of him.