NYU Cancels Former New Yorker Fact-Checker Talia Lavin’s Journalism Class

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.

Colorado lawyers say court e-file system now makes them certify they won’t assist ICE

Patel, McCormick warn foreign terror threats inside US grew during Biden years

Illegal immigrant accused of murdering wife in Texas just weeks after marriage, ICE fights release

Legendary Fleetwood Mac Guitarist Lindsey Buckingham Attacked with ‘Unknown Substance’ in California

‘It’d Be Better Not to Talk About it at All’: Mamdani’s Good Friday Message Draws Backlash from Christians

Fox News True Crime Newsletter: Ted Bundy unmasked, Guthrie sheriff dragged to hot seat, Hawaii doc testifies

Final charge dropped in yearslong Harris-era case against pro-life activist

DOJ poised to appeal after judge affirms block on Powell subpoenas

Vance tapped as ‘fraud czar’ as Trump targets blue states over taxpayer theft

Here’s who Trump could choose as his next attorney general after firing Bondi

White House Calls for Historic Increase in Military Spending in 2027 Budget Proposal

Watch: Trump Shares Video of Iran’s Tallest Bridge Crumbling, Warns Regime of More Strikes to Come

Dem fundraising giant ActBlue rocked by allegations it misled Congress about foreign donations

French court overturns police ban on ‘Gathering of the Muslims’ over Easter weekend

US pilot rescued from downed F-15E fighter jet in Iran, search for second crew member ongoing

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.