Mark Crispin Miller

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Mark Crispin Miller
Mark Crispin Miller.png
Miller speaking at New York City's Open Center in 2012
Born1949 (age 71–72)
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProfessor
Academic background
Alma materNorthwestern University (BA)
Johns Hopkins University (MA, PhD)
Academic work
DisciplineMedia studies
InstitutionsNew York University (NYU)
Websitehttps://markcrispinmiller.com/

Mark Crispin Miller (born 1949) is a professor of media studies at New York University.[1]

Background and career[]

In the introduction to Seeing Through Movies, Miller argues that the nature of American films has been affected by the impact of advertising.[2] He has said that the handful of multinational corporations in control of the American media have changed youth culture's focus away from values and toward commercial interests and personal vanity.[3]

Conspiracy-theory and disinformation promotion[]

In his social and political commentary, Miller frequently espouses conspiracy theories.[4][5]

On social media and in other statements, Miller has promoted conspiracy theories and falsehoods, including conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks; anti-vaccine misinformation; the claim that Joe Biden stole the 2020 presidential election; the claim that the beheading of the journalist James Foley by ISIL was fake; and the claim that the Black Lives Matter movement is funded by the CIA.[5] Miller is a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement[6] and a member of the 9/11 Truth movement.[5][7] He dislikes the term "conspiracy theory", calling the phrase a "meme" used to "discredit people engaged in really necessary kinds of investigation and inquiry."[5] In a 2017 New York Observer interview, he said anyone using the term "in a pejorative sense" is "a witting or unwitting CIA asset".[8] In a June 2001 New York Times profile by Chris Hedges, Miller called himself a "public intellectual" and criticized television news "that is astonishingly empty and distorts reality".[9]

Election fraud conspiracy theories[]

In his book Fooled Again, Miller claims that the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections were stolen.[10] He has since claimed that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was stolen.

9/11 hoax conspiracy theory[]

Main article: 9/11 conspiracy theories

In 2016, Miller gave a speech to the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth.[4] After a "truthers" symposium on 9/11, Miller told Vice that the official explanations for 9/11 and John F. Kennedy's assassination "are just as unscientific as the ones that everybody feels comfortable ridiculing".[11]

Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre hoax conspiracy theory[]

In a blog post, Miller suggested that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax; in a subsequent interview, he denied that any children died in the shooting and voiced "suspicion" that "it was staged" or was "some kind of an exercise."[4] Miller praised a Sandy Hook denial book by James Fetzer as "compelling" (a $450,000 defamation judgment had previously been entered against Fetzer, after the father of one of the murdered Sandy Hook students sued him for false statements made in the book).[4]

Anti-vaccination misinformation[]

Miller has invited Del Matthew Bigtree, a prominent anti-vaccination activist and promoter of COVID-19 misinformation, as a guest speaker to his classes on multiple occasions.[5] Miller has also screened for his students the anti-vaccination film Vaxxed, produced by disgraced former physician Andrew Wakefield (who was struck off the medical register in the UK for scientific misconduct).[5][8] He has appeared on the Useful Idiots podcast and was praised by its host, Matt Taibbi.[12][13]

Miller has spread COVID-19 misinformation, including misleading claims about the efficacy of masking and false claims that COVID-19 vaccine alter recipients' DNA.[4]

Academic sanction[]

As of September 2020, Miller is under a behavioral review by New York University; the complaint was prompted by a letter to the Steinhardt School dean and the NYU provost signed by 25 of Miller's departmental colleagues, requesting such a review.[4][14] The letter alleged that Miller used "intimidating tactics, abuses of authority, aggression and microaggressions, and explicit hate speech, none of which are excused by academic freedom and First Amendment protections."[15] The letter also stated that Miller used his "highly visible website" to espouse the "characterization of transgender surgery as a eugenic form of sterilization, direct mockery and ridicule of transindividuals, and denial of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting."[4] Miller denies these allegations, and responded by suing 19 faculty colleagues in state court, alleging defamation.[4][15]

Books[]

Miller's books include:

  • Miller, Mark Crispin (1988). Boxed in: the Culture of TV. Evanston, IL. ISBN 0-8101-0791-0. OCLC 18017073.[16][17][18][19]
  • Seeing Through Movies (edited, 1990)[20]
  • The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder (2001)[21]
  • Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order (2004)[22]
  • Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them) (2005)[23]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Mark Crispin Miller: Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication". NYU Steinhardt. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  2. ^ Rothenberg, Randall (March 13, 1990). "The Media Business: Advertising; Is It a Film? Is It an Ad? Harder to Tell". The New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  3. ^ "Interview: Mark Crispin Miller". Frontline. PBS. 2012 [2000]. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Dery, Mark (May 12, 2021). "The Professor of Paranoia: Mark Crispin Miller, who is suing his colleagues, used to study conspiracy theories. Now he pushes them". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Kennedy, Dominic (June 13, 2020). "Conspiracy theories spread by academics with university help". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved June 14, 2020. (subscription required)
  6. ^ Rossmier, Vincent (11 September 2009). "Would you still sign the 9/11 Truth petition?". Salon. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
  7. ^ Keate, Georgie; Kennedy, Dominic; Shveda, Krystina; Haynes, Deborah (April 14, 2018). "Apologists for Assad working in British universities". The Times. London. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved June 14, 2020. (subscription required)
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Stutman, Gabe (July 26, 2017). "NYU Professor Uses Tenure to Advance 9/11 Hoax Theory". Observer. New York. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  9. ^ Hedges, Chris (June 15, 2001). "Public Lives; Watching Bush's Language, and Television". The New York Times. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
  10. ^ Kaminer, Ariel (2012-11-08). "Long Day for a Professor Suspicious of Voting Machines". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-15.
  11. ^ Thompson, Alex (September 12, 2016). "9/11 'truthers' vow to never, ever forget". Vice. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
  12. ^ Taibbi, Matt; Halper, Katie (December 31, 2020). "Stimulus Checks, Larry Summers, Plus Mark Crispin Miller on Academic Freedom". Rolling Stone.
  13. ^ Taibbi, Matt. "Meet the censored: Mark Crispin Miller". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
  14. ^ "NYU Student Calls for Professor's Firing After He Urged Masks Are Propaganda". NBC New York. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  15. ^ Jump up to: a b Saltonstall, Gus (December 3, 2020). "NYU Professor Sues Fellow Faculty Members Over Mask Controversy". Yahoo! News. West Village Patch. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  16. ^ Rabinovitz, Lauren (1991). Marc, David; Miller, Mark Crispin; Kaplan, E. Ann; Fiske, John (eds.). "Television Criticism and American Studies". American Quarterly. 43 (2): 358–370. doi:10.2307/2712935. ISSN 0003-0678. JSTOR 2712935.
  17. ^ Fromm, Harold (1989). Levine, Lawrence W.; Miller, Mark Crispin (eds.). "Cultural Power". The Georgia Review. 43 (1): 179–188. ISSN 0016-8386. JSTOR 41399517.
  18. ^ Peck, A. (1988). "I Am a VCR, by Marvin Kitman and Boxed In: The Culture of TV, by Mark Crispin Miller: Chicago Tribune". Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ^ "Books". Journal of Communication. 40 (2): 128–192. 1990-06-01. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1990.tb02266.x. ISSN 0021-9916.
  20. ^ Seeing Through Movies, Pantheon, 1990. Reviews: James E. Vincent ETC, JSTOR 42577289; Janet. Staiger, Journal of Communication, doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.1991.tb02325.x; Publishers Weekly
  21. ^ The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder, W.W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-32296-3, 2001. Reviews: Jill Ortner, Library Journal, [1]; Elayne Tobin, The Nation, [2]; Publishers Weekly
  22. ^ Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order, W.W. Norton & Company, 2004, ISBN 0-393-05917-0. Reviews: "Early Evaluations of the Bush Presidency", Karen M. Hult and Charles E. Walcott, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, JSTOR 41940149; Michael A. Genovese, Library Journal, [3]; David Lotto, Journal of Psychohistory, [4]
  23. ^ Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), New York: Basic Books, 2005, ISBN 0-465-04579-0. Reviews: Publishers Weekly; Kirkus Reviews; Farhad Manjoo, Salon, [5]

External links[]

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