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.

Lawyers, experts urge Tennessee governor to commute Christa Pike’s sentence after botched execution

Trans NYT Executive Faced Child Cruelty Charges Before Shooting Death – Police Say In-Laws Opened Fire

Texts cited by Eric Schmitt at Jack Smith hearing lacked team names: Report

Breaking: Trump Economy Notches Win as US Jobless Numbers Plummet to Half-Century Low Last Seen in 1969

College professor accused of sending explicit Snapchat messages in child solicitation case: sheriff’s office

EXCLUSIVE: Supreme Court prayer grotto case could impact ‘every single zoning law’ in America, attorney says

DOJ reindicts DC pipe bomb suspect after FBI confession transcript released

‘Conspiracy’ Speculation Erupts After Botched Execution of Christa Pike: ‘There’s No Way’

Rerun of ‘America’s Most Wanted’ Leads to Arrest in Cold Case That Haunted Detectives for Decades

Mamdani pledges millions to combat antisemitism while leaving key question unresolved

Sleeper Senate race emerges as unexpected headache for Republicans ahead of midterms

Fox News Poll: Turek, Hinson in close Iowa Senate race

Watch: Comedian Pete Davidson Calls Out Mamdani on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ – Right Before the Mayor Walks Onstage

GOP Senator Who Had a Party for His Dog Last Week Complains ICE Is ‘Dragging People Away’

Illinois officials released more than 500 criminal immigrants despite ICE detainers, House GOP report finds

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.