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.

Backlash erupts over viral video of CAIR leader as Newsom funding draws scrutiny

Kentucky man enters insanity plea after admitting to beating his grandmother to death in recorded attack

California immigration judge sues DOJ, alleging she was fired for being a registered Democrat, a woman over 40

Trump’s Psychedelic Push May Open a Door Christians Should Question

Schumer’s ‘No. 1 target’ says voters will see her Democrat Senate challenger as too extreme

Leftist Influencer’s Mangione Celebration Resurfaces After He Opposes Death Penalty for Child Murderer

Obama Presidential Center looks to ‘put presidency in context’ as tickets sell out

DOJ investigating left-wing Fairfax County prosecutor over alleged unlawful discrimination

DOJ dangles massive signing bonuses for lawyers ready to fight ‘lawless’ cities far beyond DC

Rubio heads to Rome amid Trump’s unpopular feud with Pope Leo

Dem representative admits to working with Mexico to sneak oil into Cuba, despite blockade

Merz ends first year as most unpopular German chancellor in post-war history

US Forces Strike as Iranian-Flagged Vessel Attempts to Violate Blockade

Cole Allen’s alleged Trump assassination attempt may have been driven by Iran war: intel report

DHS blasts Minnesota board for unanimously pardoning illegal immigrant convicted of 3 assaults

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.