Stanford professors try—and fail—to deplatform conservative Hoover Institute

Professors at Stanford University in California published a report on Feb 11 as part of a failed attempt to censor the Hoover Institute, a conservative think-tank at Stanford University.

The report attacks a number of fellows of the Hoover Institute. One fellow, Dr. Scott Atlas, who worked in the Trump Administration to help devise a response to coronavirus, was accused of "[violating] the [American Medical Association’s] standards for ethical medical conduct." The letter falsely claimed that he endorsed mass infection of the population to achieve herd immunity against coronavirus and opposed the use of masks.

In reality, Atlas's comments regarding herd immunity focused around vaccinations, and he only said that masks are unnecessary for people who are alone.

The report goes on to accuse Victor Davis Hanson of describing the 2020 presidential election as "unfair or illegitimate," going as far as to imply that his words helped inspire an insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan 6.

Hanson argues, however, that he never promoted the idea that the election was stolen, and that he merely raised concerns before the election about the efficacy of mail-in voting.

The final accusation the report levies is against historian Niall Ferguson, alleging that he conspired "with College Republicans to conduct 'opposition research' on a Stanford undergraduate, this undergraduate being a progressive activist." However, no such research was ever compiled.

Despite claiming that they "are staunch advocates of academic freedom, properly understood," the authors of the report call for a faculty committee to investigate the Hoover Institute.

The report from the professors amounted to nothing, however, as the Hoover Institute received support from the university administration. The President of Stanford went on record saying "it is undisputed that without the work of many scholars at Hoover, Stanford would have less intellectual diversity and the academic life of our university would be poorer for it."

The Hoover Institute went on the offensive in response to the letter, pointing out that one of the authors of the report, Dr. David Palumbo-Liu, directed his students to websites which described Jews as "an object of hatred to all the peoples among whom it has established itself." The owner of the website has also promoted the notoriously antisemitic blood libel, whereby Jews during the Middle Ages were accused of ritually murdering Christians, and has worked on multiple occasions with white supremacists and holocaust deniers.

Palumbo-Liu is an ardent supporter of the boycott movement against Israel. They also noted that the same professor publicly praised a protest which blocked a bridge and caused car crashes, with the Hoover Institute arguing "his charges of abusing campus free speech better apply to his own inflammatory activities."

This is not the first time that pressure has mounted on Stanford to cut ties with the Hoover Institute, with the Hoover Institute noting that such pressure was mounted as recently as 2019.