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🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

Apr 14, 2023 • 18 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185

Benjamin Ryan is a bad repoter, a bad writer and seems like a bad person and I encourage no one to cooperate with him on this, or any, story. Yesterday, there were horrific anti-trans stories in Wyoming, Nebraska and Missouri. Fuck the NYT & Ben Ryan for seeking “misgivings.”

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185

I don’t like to bring up my day job bc it causes headaches but I’ll do so here bc it’s so important: as the holder of the 1st journalism professorship to focus on LGBTQ issues, much of Ben’s work—and this piece specifically—is dangerous to the wellness of LGBTQ people.

I have a big piece in edits now in Scientific American about this matter, which shows how bad this type of “journalism” is. The Times & Ryan have no business shaking the trees to elevate some doctor, somewhere who is opposed to scientific consensus abt the benefit of transcare.

It’s like the NYT looking for a physicist who doesn’t believe in gravity or a oceanographer who doesn’t believe in climate change. Such cranks or bigots ain’t news, and the Times should be ashamed of elevating lone voices out of step w medical and scientific consensus.

https://twitter.com/jabarocas/status/1646878753556135939

It is always mediocre, know nothing white dudes (Singal, Chait, Ryan) who NY mag and the NYT are like “Yes, YES, that’s the person! That’s the voice we NEED! No MD? No MPH? No PhD? Hated by and not a part of the community he’s writing about? But he’s white? Commission HIM!!!”

https://twitter.com/jabarocas/status/1646878753556135939

https://twitter.com/RS_McNeil/status/1646879081164599297

Same guy. And he even stole that from someone else, I believe. (He was noticed by several of us before that for his bad, dishonestly framed reporting prior to that…if I remember right he seemed to steal that joke to try to get attention, which is all he wants.)

https://twitter.com/RS_McNeil/status/1646879081164599297

https://twitter.com/lldiedrich/status/1646879945384181762

A very Times-speak form or grotesque “reasoning.” I would say ignore this troll. But he’s too dangerous. He’s in the stable of big commissions and when the Times or NY mag or Guardian or whoever commission him, they put a LIBERAL stamp of approval on transphobia…

https://twitter.com/lldiedrich/status/1646879945384181762

…much as the fucking Biden administration put a big liberal stamp of approval on transphobia amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/04/06…

Benjamin Ryan is a bad repoter of HIV/AIDS, Covid, queer history, and transcare. He is not the “enfant terrible” “only person who will speak to power” crusading journalist he wants anyone to think he is.

He’s just a bad reporter, but one who gets commissioned bc of editors who are homophobic, transphobic and ableist.

@lareinamalvada

I’m so sorry to hear this, @lareinamalvada. It is amazing men this sexist work in profiles and settings most of us never could—and it tracks to his history (cc @sarahschulman3)

https://twitter.com/lareinamalvada/status/1646886189818089472

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185?s=20

Also, for all its evil, like most things, there is something to be learned in Ryan's email. It's a good insight into what I forbid my students to do - trying to "reverse engineer" a story.

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185?s=20

Don't go looking to find sources that will support the story you've already decided to tell. Or fish purposefully for a contrarian "character." LISTEN. STUDY. And as you see patterns, let the story find you. Don't just say "Can I find one physicist who will say gravity's bunk?"

I’ve been alerted Ben Ryan says I know nothing about him.

1. He interviewed me for a story! BADLY! And wrote a bad story w all kinds of dishonest moves along the way!

2. I read! He’s a bad writer!

3. I know more ppl than I can count who’ve had bad expeinces w his reporting!

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185

4. I know many people who have been hurt by his reporting and framing!

5. He trolls trans ppl online!

6. Even if I knew more about him than this email, that would be enough to see what piss poor, reverse engineer style “journalism” he practices!

https://twitter.com/Esqueer_/status/1646868751562973185

7. A reporter shoudn’t be the center of a news story! Trans ppl are under attack! The TWENTIETH (!!!!!!) state just banned trans kids from school sports! Ppl CANNOT GET medical care in Florida, TN, Texas, Missouri…and this hack is whining? About HIS fate??? GTFOH!

https://twitter.com/chasestrangio/status/1646995911090872321

8. The lack of reporting by the Times on Missouri BANNING TRANSCARE FOR EVERYONE is OBSCENE! That Ben Ryan is out here looking for an MD, any MD, who is *happy* abt this bc they are uncomfortable w providing transcare which saves lives shows that Ryan has poor news judgment!

https://twitter.com/chasestrangio/status/1646995911090872321

https://twitter.com/SamuelRGalloway/status/1647082125374390274

I am sorry this happened to you Prof. Galloway but I am not, unfortunately, surprised. These dudes just roll through anyone and everyone.

https://twitter.com/SamuelRGalloway/status/1647082125374390274

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More from @thrasherxy

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

May 12

I have been thinking through something and it won't go away. I do not in any way want to minimized the horror of Gaza. I have seen three of these solidarity encampments grow, thrive and be dismantled, and I see how they are a metaphor for life in Palestine in some ways.

Each camp is its own little world. Life is modest, and not easy, but people carve out a little world, and they make something beautiful. Jews, Christians and Muslims live together relatively peacefully, until the police or Zionists show up and create chaos and bring violence.

People share what little they have, and give one another a sense of abundance. They make little worlds out of color, language, music, dance, the sun. They share real community. But eventually, either thru deceptive negotiations or brute violence, the little world is destroyed.

Read 7 tweets

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

May 7

Today I am meditating on two of Baldwin’s quotes about children— “For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become” and the one below. They both mirror how I feel about students—as teachers, they are all ours to protect.

I am a college professor, and I teach and learn with (and from) adults, and I do not mean to infantilize them. But I do feel protective of them, and I am aware that all faculty have a responsibility for the wellbeing of students, whether they are on our campus or others.

https://twitter.com/lococravey/status/1787846762905878700

Thank you. I had a touching but sad exchange w a young person at DePaul, when they were having a tough moment. I asked them if they were a student there and they said kind of sheepishly no, they were a student at a community college but they wanted to join the protests.

https://twitter.com/lococravey/status/1787846762905878700

Read 8 tweets

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

May 4

Greetings friends from Lincoln Park, Chicago and Day 5 of DePaul University’s Liberation Zone. It’s a GORGEOUS day. To counter the lies fed to you by cops, uni admins, the mainstream media, the White House & Netanyahu himself, let’s look around at what’s happening here!

This is a Catholic Vincentian school and its Christian values are being interrogated by students in many places. As you enter the Liberation Zone, there a wall (50 feet long?) of names of children killed in Gaza.

As soon as I walk in a lady asks me if I would like some lunch. I demur bc I am going to a BBQ after but I accept some coffee. The lady and I recognize each other from Day 2 and I ask her it she works here. No, she’s “just Palestinian” and here to support the students. I say

Read 10 tweets

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

Apr 29

BREAKING: for weeks, @shahanmufti & I have worked together to co-author & gather 50 signatures for a letter demanding the New York Times commission an independent investigation of "Screams Without Words." @laurawags has the story @washingtonpost washingtonpost.com/style/media/20…

Our letter was signed by more than 50 professors of journalism and communication at more than a dozen universities across the United States and Canada. It was delivered to A. G. Sulzberger and the NYT editor of standards and can be read in full here: washingtonpost.com/documents/adc3…

As we laid out in our letter, there is a lot of precedent for this. The Times itself followed up an internal investigation of its staff reporter Jayson Blair. And @RollingStone commissioned @columbiajourn to do just this after their UVA disaster. cjr.org/investigation/…

Read 7 tweets

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

Apr 26

No, I am not tenured. How will I account for yesterday and today and tomorrow? Will our board forgive me when I go up and let me stick around? Doesn’t matter. This is the job: to speak about important matters. And protecting our students is the only thing that matters right now.

We must speak against the genocide. We must speak about the state and corporate suppression of free speech on our campuses. And we must backup our brilliant, brave, creative and wonderful students—putting our bodies between them and uni admin or cops if we must.

This is the job. It has been disappointing, but not surprising, to see how few tenured profs show up and speak up compared to untenured and contingent faculty, grad student workers, librarians and staff. But many GOT tenure BECAUSE unis reward silence in moments like these.

Read 4 tweets

🍉Prof. Thrasher is on summer writing hiatus 🔻

@thrasherxy

Apr 25

Wrapping up my first shift as an EJP faculty support for the Northwestern Gaza Solidarity encampment. An exciting day, and I’ve never felt more connected with my students. Heading home before my shift tomorrow, but first, let me share some things about the camp.

The camp is a sight of music, political education, mutual aid and sign making. The students are experimenting with how to teach, feed each other, make art and organize together.