Michael Smerconish, a political independent who promotes civility and democratic discourse on his Sirius XM radio show and CNN television program, will no longer deliver the 2024 commencement address at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Here is Penn Live:
Dickinson College has scrapped a commencement speech by a political commentator who defended racial profiling at airports after an apparent outcry by students and faculty.
In a letter to the Dickinson community published Saturday, college president John E. Jones III wrote that the school had rescinded its offer for Philadelphia-based pundit Michael Smerconish to speak and receive an honorary degree at Dickinsonâs commencement, which is still scheduled for May 19.
Read the rest here:
Smerconish recently responded to Dickinson’s decision to cancel his speech. Here is Penn Live again:
Itâs not the speech he hoped to give, but no one should be surprised Philadelphia-based political commentator Michael Smerconish has some things to say about being disinvited as speaker at the collegeâs Class of 2024 commencement ceremonies.
The SiriusXM and CNN host condemned the decision in an online post Monday morning.
âThose members of the college community who pressured to get my speech cancelled are surely celebrating today that their censorship-fueled campaign succeeded. But my guess is that more than a few who remained silent and succumbed to the mob are at least a little bit embarrassed at having done so…
âI wish the Dickinson Class of â24 all the very best for a wonderful graduation day and a bright future. And I hope for them a world where volume no longer eclipses reason.â
Smerconish was originally scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the May 19 ceremony on the Carlisle campus, and to receive an honorary doctorate in public affairs.
His appearance became a point of contention in late April, after students leading a demonstration for Palestinian rights in solidarity with student protestors at other campuses across the nation draw attention to what they considered anti-Arab hate speech from one of Smerconishâs books.
As the protest evolved, students added the disinviting of Smerconish to their list of demands, which also included the establishment of a scholarship for Palestinian students, and divestiture of any college-held investments with firms that support the Israeli Defense Forces.
On Saturday, Dickinson announced its choice, and it was to cancel his appearance and rescind the honorary degree.
Dickinson President John E. Jones III said he was motivated to act by strong campus opposition to Smerconishâs appearance, and an overwhelming desire that the Class of 2024 – most of whom saw high school graduations cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic – get to celebrate their accomplishments without distraction.
âIt has become clear that our selected speaker, Michael Smerconish, faced overwhelming opposition from our faculty and students, particularly after recent comments he made,â Jones wrote. âAs a result, with the support of our Board of Trustees, I have decided to rescind the honorary degree and invitation to speak at Commencement.â
Jonesâs reference was to comments Smerconish had made in a May 1 livestream of âHeadlines from the Smerconish.com Newsletter,â where Smerconish commented on an April 30 opinion piece published in Dickinsonâs campus newspaper, âThe Dickinsonianâ.
The op-ed writer argued the senior class deserved better than Smerconish due to his statements supporting airport profiling of Arab Americans and Muslims in his 2004 book âFlying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9/11.âł
Smerconish argued that his position then came in the context of his opposition to a federal policy that he believed undermined airport security efforts.
Smerconish has doubled down on his comments advocating for loosening the capacity of airport screeners to investigate Arab-Americans numerous times, including in this 2012 column for The Philadelphia Inquirer, in which he wrote, in part:
âWeâd never tell an organized-crime task force to ignore Italian Americans while investigating La Cosa Nostra, and Iâm certain no one told British intelligence to overlook the Irish while investigating the IRA in the 1980s. Political correctness should not stand in the way of street smarts… Eleven years later, the lesson is the same: Everyone needs to be screened, some more than others. Who they are is constantly evolving.â
In his livestream last Wednesday, Smerconish said he would reread âFlying Blind,â but added: âChances are that given the acquired wisdom of the last 20 years and all the knowledge that I have gleaned and, you know, reflecting on my life experience, my hunch is I will probably stand behind every single word in the book.â
Some at Dickinson said they were also angered by what they took as a dismissive tone by Smerconish and his co-host in that May 1 posting.
âOn one thing we agree,â Smerconish wrote Monday in his online response to the Dickinson cancellation. âI would never want to take attention from the Class of 2024, especially recognizing that COVID robbed its members of celebrations when they graduated from high school in 2020.â
But he is clearly hurt about Dickinsonâs, and Jonesâs, public statements.
Smerconish said he believed they unfairly tarnished his reputation based on âsurgically selectedâ quotes from his 2004 book.
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This is insane. I regularly watch Smerconish’s Saturday morning show on CNN. Though I don’t always agree with him (but do most of the time), I have always found his program to be a model of civil conversation. What does it say about the modern academy in this moment when a staunchly anti-Trump moderate cannot speak at a liberal arts college? This is embarrassing for Dickinson, a school I long understood as a model of free speech and democratic discourse. Really Dickinson? You are canceling, of all people, Michael Smerconish?
Here’s a piece of Dickinson trivia: President John Jones III was the George W. Bush-appointed federal justice who presided over the Dover, Pennsylvania intelligent design case.
Here is Smerconish: