For the last several days, there has been a story floating around the right-wing media sites about some instructor at some college in Colorado who reportedly instructed his students to write a critical essay about Sarah Palin … or something like that. I hadn’t really been paying attention because it seemed like just another one of those bogus pseudo-scandals that the Right likes to concoct every chance it gets.
But then I came across this article in the Examiner that shed some light on it:
Blogs are abuzz about what they claim is the latest example of a liberal college instructor imposing his views in class.
Instructor (not “Professor,” as many accounts have it) Andrew Hallam allegedly assigned students in one his Metro State freshman writing classes to write an essay critical of GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. He reportedly later broadened the assignment so that students could write about any candidate.
Basically nobody outside the class seems to know what the assignment was and the only person willing to discuss it is one student named Jena Barber:
One student said the instructor singled out Republican students in the class and allowed others to ridicule them.
“I was shocked. I was ‘Holy cow, this is just an open door for him to discuss politics with us,’ ” said Jana Barber, a student in the class.
Barber shared the assignment with CBS4 on Wednesday. Instructor Andrew Hallam asked students in an English course to write an essay to contradict what he called the “fairy tale image of Palin” presented at the Republican National Convention. Hallam declined an interview with CBS4 News on Thursday.
And wouldn’t you know it, she just so happens to be the sister of Matt Barber:
Jana Barber is the sister of Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs for the conservative Liberty Counsel legal organization. Until June, Matt Barber held a similar title with Concerned Women for America, another conservative Christian organization.
Of course, the story has already shown up in WorldNetDaily and now Matt Baber is sending out press releases announcing that his sister will appear on “The O’Reilly Factor” tonight to discuss it.
Why is it that every time the Right manages to gins up some phony outrage, Matt Barber seems to be involved?
