Last week, a right-wing think tank called the Leadership Institute snuck a non-student spy into the lecture of Dr. Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University. The spy had a video camera, and the Leadership Institute (and its offshoot called Campus Reform) boasts "state-of-the-art T.V. studios." The result: a Breitbart-style selectively edited ambush video that unfairly maligns a good teacher for doing his job.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I've known Brad Schaefer for many years, and during much of that time I've been at odds with him. I've had some harsh words about some of the things he's written. I won't go into details here, but you can find it on the net if you look hard enough. Suffice it to say, I doubt he would consider me to be a close friend.
Dr. Schaefer is an astronomer who is well known for, among other things, his work on the effect of the atmosphere on astronomical observations. (In other words: he knows a lot more about atmospheric physics than your average astronomer.) He is also an energetic and dynamic lecturer who likes to challenge his students and take them out of their comfort zone.
In his lecture last week, Schaefer challenged his students as they came into the classroom to seat themselves according to their political views. Those who advocated vigorous government action to reduce greenhouse gases were told to sit on the left of the room; those who advocated doing nothing were told to sit on the right. The Leadership Institute spy sat on the far right.
As the students file in, Dr. Schaefer is challenging both the far left of the room and the far right, using deliberately over-the-top rhetoric against both sides. At one point, someone asks Schaefer where he would sit himself, and he replies, "somewhere in the middle."
Here's the full video of the entire lecture. Sorry, it will not embed.
Full Video: LSU Astronomy Class from Campus Reform on Vimeo.
As the lecture proceeds, Schaefer tells his students that the science supporting anthropogenic global warming is rock-solid (which is true) but that the politics of the issue is not at all settled (which is also true). And he takes his students through some of the science.
So what does the Leadership Institute do in the editing room? Well, that place where Schaefer mocks the left by asking, "What do you want to do? Get rid of the internal combustion engine?" goes on the cutting room floor. In fact, all of his challenges to the left are edited out. What remains instead are only those places where he challenges the right, with the same deliberately provocative rhetoric. And, just to make sure that you get the point that Dr. Schaefer is the scary guy they're making him out to be, they're happy to add subtitles. Here's the selectively edited video:
LSU Indoctrination from Campus Reform on Vimeo.
The Chronicle of Higher Education has been on this story, and it was only their demand that led the Leadership Institute to post the full, unedited video.
"I was very intentionally going off and challenging all sides. That's my job. If they wanted to, the Young Democrats of Louisiana could have edited it to make me look conservative."
— Dr. Bradley Schaefer
Is this how the Leadership Institute fulfills its mission of training conservative leaders? By teaching them selective editing techniques and character assassination? What a great plan for the nation.
Bryan Bernys, national field director for the Leadership Institute ... said the person who filmed the class was not a Louisiana State student but was invited by students from the university.