Evan Coyne Maloney and the Fictional
Film “Brainwashing 101”
Or, How Maloney Lies Repeatedly In Pursuit of His
Extreme Agenda
With the Assistance of Members of the Bucknell University Conservatives Club
Evan Coyne Maloney is a
liar. He must have attended the Fox News
school of journalism, because his films are so full of
fictional material that they are a joke to anyone who is seriously interested
in finding out what is happening on college campuses. His behavior at Bucknell University has been
so boorish and unprincipled that he has been banned from filming on campus, and
his work has been condemned by the administration, various student groups, and members
of the faculty. In fact, his only
defenders are his partners in crime: members of the Bucknell University
Conservatives Club (BUCC). Here are some
of his more egregious transgressions.
Misleading, Selective Editing
Maloney’s true creative
genius is in selectively editing people to make reasonable statements seem
outrageous. He has a long history of
this, as anyone viewing his film segments can see. Take his “Protesting the Protestors”
video. Maloney jams a microphone into
the face of a surprised anti-war protestor.
The protestor clearly does not want to talk to Maloney, and tosses off a
flippant response. If the protestor does
make a more sophisticated comment, Maloney edits it out, leaving only the
flippant one. Maloney then implies that this
response is typical, and puts this forward as an example of
how simple-minded all of the protestors are.
Maloney uses similar tactics
repeatedly in “Brainwashing 101.” For
example, according to Professor Schneider, who was featured in several segments
of the film, he discussed at length how balanced the Bucknell curriculum in
economics is. The curriculum covers the
ideas of Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, and Karl Marx, among others. What part of this conversation made the film? Only the bit about Marxist
material. Then Maloney puts forth
sections where Professor Schneider clearly is joking (hint: this is when he’s
smiling and talking in a sarcastic manner) as if they were serious statements
of fact. As anyone who has had Professor
Schneider in class knows, he frequently takes outrageous positions to provoke a
reaction. But that doesn’t make such
segments true.
There are numerous other
examples of misleading editing in the film, as anyone paying careful attention
can see. Probably the most outrageous is
the segment where Professor Schneider seems to say that he opposes the
presentation of a pro-American view of American history. Professor Schneider has stated publicly that he
went on to say that the university already presents a balanced view of American
history including substantial pro-American material, so no change in the university curriculum is needed. Why did Maloney edit this portion out? We can only guess that he is so bent on
portraying all professors as outrageous indoctrinators, that he can’t handle
the truth that they are not. His fear of
the truth is also apparent in how he lied to all of the non-conservatives who
appeared in the Bucknell portion of the film.
Lying and Manipulating People into Appearing in the
Film
Every single non-conservative
featured in this film was misled regarding what the film was about and how the
film footage would be used. Professor
Schneider, for example, was told that the film would be about efforts to censor
professors. Bucknell college democrats
were told that the film would be used to talk about free speech in general
terms, and that a balanced view of speech and the curriculum would be presented. Instead, the comments were edited to promote a conservative agenda and a conservative vision of campus
dialog. Mr. Maloney must have feared that if
people knew the truth about his project, no one other than right wing
conservatives would be willing to appear.
Lies by BUCC Members Denise Chaykun
and Charles Mitchell
As if the above
transgressions aren’t enough, the film features statements from members of BUCC
that are either outright lies or completely misleading. For example, Denise Chaykun
says, “You can’t just take general history or sociology.” This is particularly
hilarious given that, on its own Rate the Profs website, BUCC members offer
rave reviews of a number of History and Sociology professors. Why the disconnect,
Ms. Chaykun?
In a similarly misleading
statement, Charles Mitchell says, “I feel like we only get one point of
view. I’m an econ major. I’ve never been assigned Hayek. I’ve never been assigned Mises. I’ve never been assigned Friedman.” When it was exposed that Mitchell had indeed
been assigned Friedman, he changed his story, saying that he wasn’t assigned enough Friedman! But that doesn’t change the fact that his
statement was a bald-faced lie. The rest
of his statement is also misleading.
Just because Mitchell didn’t have classes in which Hayek and von Mises were assigned doesn’t mean they aren’t featured in
several economics classes. We know economics
majors who have been tortured with Hayek’s The
Road to Serfdom in at least 3 different classes, and that have been
assigned von Mises as well.
Maloney and BUCC Want to Raise Your Tuition
Perhaps the most outrageous
action of all was Maloney’s attempt to persuade Bucknell alums not to donate to
Bucknell unless the university agreed to reshape itself along the lines he envisions. Maloney posted the Bucknell portion of “Brainwashing
101” on a website, and used the film's distortions to try to promote an extreme
version of what Bucknell is like. He
then called for alumni to reconsider their donations to the university in light
of the things he exposed in his film.
What is the potential impact
of such an action? If others are
persuaded by Maloney’s lies, then the effect would be higher tuition for
Bucknell students. Maloney is so
single-minded in his agenda, that he would harm every single current and future Bucknell
student to get his way. Meanwhile, BUCC
has supported Maloney’s agenda, refusing to condemn the website and arranging a
campus screening of “Brainwashing 101” to help Maloney promote the film.
Return of the Culture Wars
Maloney’s film and BUCC's actions
together indicate a return to the culture wars of the past. Plus, they indicate that the far right today
will say anything, no matter who is hurt or how untrue it is, to promote their
radical agenda. We can only hope that
fair-minded people will see them as the liars they are, and ignore what they
say.