She falsely called an ICE agent a Nazi. NYU hired her to teach a ‘far right’ course. Two students signed up.

Course cancellation had ‘nothing to do’ with her views

Talia Lavin was publicly embarrassed when her fact-checking skills were exposed as shoddy last year. She resigned in disgrace from The New Yorker after mistaking a U.S. military tattoo on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent for a Nazi image.

New York University’s journalism institute, incredibly, hired Lavin to teach a course on “reporting on the far right.”

Now it turns out the university suffered bad PR for no reason: NYU canceled Lavin’s elective course after only two students signed up for it.

The journalism institute’s director of undergraduate studies, Adam Penenberg, told The Wrap that the decision had “nothing to do” with her views. But it’s unlikely that Lavin would be invited back to teach another class because of the low interest in her far-right specialty, the subject of her forthcoming book, he said.

The fewest students the institute has allowed in an elective is eight, according to The Wrap.

Lavin’s faculty profile was removed by NYU more than a month ago. The last saved version on the Internet Archive is from April 18; an April 20 version shows “page not found.” The profile didn’t include Lavin’s New Yorker history.

NYU has canceled the class "Reporting on the Far Right" originally going to be taught by Talia Lavin after only two students signed up

Lavin resigned from the New Yorker last year after falsely accusing a disabled ICE agent of having a Nazi tattoohttps://t.co/RLenvAHmZ4

— Jon Levine (@LevineJonathan) May 30, 2019