Cities 92.9 Fake News Roundup # 3

This fake news story is a bit old, but still worth mentioning here.

Shortly after the election of Donald Trump, a noticeable change took place at the studios of Cities 92.9. Rather than lying about things like unemployment statistics, or flamingos, or climate change from behind a facade of journalistic professionalism, they've now adopted a new arrogant tone that more closely aligns with the same level of nasty we've come to expect from our new commander in chief.

Cities 92.9 has always had a sneering tone of nastiness, but since the 2016 election, the intensity has increased significantly. One aspect of that increased nastiness is reflected in the attacks on institutions of higher learning. Cities talking heads have always found time to attack colleges and universities, and those so called "liberal elites" who reside there, but now those attacks have been incorporated into an official segment under an official name. The new segment is called "Campus Crybabies."

Whenever something occurs on a campus from anywhere in the world, Tom Davis will pounce on it if he thinks he can tie it to his perceived failings of those "bastions of liberalism." Naturally, if you've been listening to Cities 92.9, and been paying attention, you know there is always more to the story. This story is no exception. With that said, here's the next installment of the Cities 92.9 Fake News Roundup.

Claim: College wants to ban teachings of white philosophers.

On January 9, 2017, Tom Davis made the following claim:

TOM DAVIS: "Oh boy, some more campus cry babies. This time from Europe. Students at one of Europe's top universities - get this - they're calling for philosophers such as Plato, Socrates, Emanuel Kant, Bertrand Russell to be dropped from the curriculum because they're white."

Accuracy of Claim: False

The university Tom is talking about - but fails to name - is the School of Oriental and African Studies or SOAS. The name of the University is significant for purposes of context, since it becomes easier to understand why students at a University devoted to Eastern studies might have a preference for Eastern philosophers.

Each year at SOAS, the Student's Union creates a list of non-binding educational priorities that it would like to see incorporated into the curriculum. For the 2016/2017 year, that list  included the following:

"To make sure that the majority of the philosophers on our courses are from the Global South or it’s diaspora. SOAS’s focus is on Asia and Africa and therefore the foundations of its theories should be presented by Asian or African philosophers (or the diaspora)."

- and -

"If white philosophers are required, then to teach their work from a critical standpoint. For example, acknowledging the colonial context in which so called “Enlightenment” philosophers wrote within."

If you read the entire statement, you'll learn two things. First, that a request to drop philosophers because they are white is not present in the proposal.. The proposal simply asks that when a white philosophers' work is taught, that it be taught critically in the context from which it came. Secondly, you'll learn that Tom Davis couldn't possibly have read the proposal himself, he simply repeated what he heard or read in the right wing echo chamber.

There are serious criticism that can be made against this particular proposal, and a cursory search of the internet shows that some people have done just that. This right wing criticism isn't serious, it is simply a lie that Tom Davis is more than happy to repeat.

Origin of Claim: This story probably originated in the Daily Mail, which is a London based tabloid that churns out sensationalized stories on a daily basis, many of which seamlessly work their way into America's right wing media due to its un-quenchable thirst for sensationalism.