New York University has canceled an undergraduate journalism class that former New Yorker fact-checker Talia Lavin was scheduled to teach this fall after only two students signed up.
The decision to hire Lavin to teach the elective, “Reporting on the Far Right,” had drawn criticism since she resigned her New Yorker position last June after falsely accusing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of having a Nazi tattoo.
Adam Penenberg, director of undergraduate studies at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, said that low enrollment forced him to cancel the class. “Canceling the class had nothing to do with Talia’s writings, tweets, or anything else. We cancelled it because too few students enrolled,” Penenberg added.
Lavin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NYU journalism electives are capped at 15 students, though the department has run courses with as few as eight students under certain circumstances.
Penenberg also said it was unlikely his department would invite Lavin back. “It would make no sense to try it again, given how few students expressed interest,” he said. “We have no plans to offer Talia another course, simply because her main focus (and the focus of her upcoming book) is the far right.”
Lavin’s official NYU faculty bio — which lauded her as an expert in “far-right extremism and social justice” — was removed sometime around April 20, 2019, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
New Polling Puts Trump in Landslide Lead When It Comes to the Economy, Defying Democrats’ Biggest Mid-Term Narrative
Missing Virginia coach Travis Turner fuels tense school board meeting as judge seals case records: report
Trump tells Mexico to fix cross-border sewage problem flowing into US communities ‘IMMEDIATELY’
It Appears Jasmine Crockett Just Fell for a Trap Set by the Republican Senatorial Committee
Florida man allegedly crashes stolen BMW, gives bizarre explanation to deputies: ‘I teleported’
‘He had years to stop this’: GOP lawmakers blast Walz over massive Minnesota fraud scheme
The most googled people in US for 2025
Judge Boasberg seeks testimony from DOJ ‘whistleblower’ in criminal contempt inquiry
Late Breaking Video: Trump Announces Jerome Powell May Not Actually Be Fed Chair Since He Was Appointed Via Biden’s Autopen
US Chamber of Commerce accused of leading ‘woke corporate America’ as Trump dismantles DEI agenda
Alert: Cause of Death of Mitt Romney’s Sister-in-Law Revealed – Now We Likely Know Exactly Why It Happened, Too
Congressional Democrats widen 2026 battlefield, zero in on new House Republican targets
Charlie Kirk’s New Book Rockets to Top of Bestseller List on Day 1 – Publisher Scrambles to Print More Copies
Deep Dive: No, the Jews Do Not Teach Jesus Is Being Boiled in Filth as a Punishment
Minnesota college administrator accused of impeding ICE arrest to protect student sexual predator
In her original course, Lavin promised a fulsome exploration of the “far right,” saying she would show students how to track and identify online extremism.
“In an era when hate is on the rise, this course will provide student journalists with a thorough grounding in far-right and white-supremacist movements in the United States, briefly examining their history and delving into their sprawling present incarnations,” reads a now deleted course description, which also promised “a careful analysis of pieces that have fallen short of the mark.”
Lavin’s three-year career as a fact checker at The New Yorker was derailed last June after she tweeted an accusation that Justin Gaertner, a wheelchair-bound ICE agent, of sporting a Nazi Iron Cross tattoo over his left elbow. She later deleted the tweet and apologized after learning the tattoo represented a Maltese Cross, a symbol commonly used by members of the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Though the original misleading tweet was only up for a short time, Lavin earned a public rebuke from both ICE and her employer that led to her voluntary resignation.
New Polling Puts Trump in Landslide Lead When It Comes to the Economy, Defying Democrats’ Biggest Mid-Term Narrative
Missing Virginia coach Travis Turner fuels tense school board meeting as judge seals case records: report
Trump tells Mexico to fix cross-border sewage problem flowing into US communities ‘IMMEDIATELY’
It Appears Jasmine Crockett Just Fell for a Trap Set by the Republican Senatorial Committee
Florida man allegedly crashes stolen BMW, gives bizarre explanation to deputies: ‘I teleported’
‘He had years to stop this’: GOP lawmakers blast Walz over massive Minnesota fraud scheme
The most googled people in US for 2025
Judge Boasberg seeks testimony from DOJ ‘whistleblower’ in criminal contempt inquiry
Late Breaking Video: Trump Announces Jerome Powell May Not Actually Be Fed Chair Since He Was Appointed Via Biden’s Autopen
US Chamber of Commerce accused of leading ‘woke corporate America’ as Trump dismantles DEI agenda
Alert: Cause of Death of Mitt Romney’s Sister-in-Law Revealed – Now We Likely Know Exactly Why It Happened, Too
Congressional Democrats widen 2026 battlefield, zero in on new House Republican targets
Charlie Kirk’s New Book Rockets to Top of Bestseller List on Day 1 – Publisher Scrambles to Print More Copies
Deep Dive: No, the Jews Do Not Teach Jesus Is Being Boiled in Filth as a Punishment
Minnesota college administrator accused of impeding ICE arrest to protect student sexual predator
Lavin later worked as an “extremism researcher” at Media Matters for America, a liberal media watchdog organization, before being laid off in January.
Her part-time gig at NYU soon came under fire from right-wing critics as well. Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz suggested that journalism schools should be “neutron bombed” because of hires like Lavin. He later apologized. And Fox News host Laura Ingraham called Lavin and another NYU J-school hire, Lauren Duca, “little journo terrorists.”
In March, Lavin told the Daily Beast that the attention from right-wing media had resulted in death threats and harassment. “It’s very disconcerting when someone with 3 million viewers calls me a terrorist,” Lavin told the website. “I’ve gotten some death threats. I got lots of slurs. I have been called a ‘c—‘ 10,000 times.”
Story cited here.
