The Shannyn Moore Show – Dr. Rick Steiner Will Resign from U of A.
24 10 2009UPDATE: Dr. Rick Steiner announces that he intends to resign from his 30 year professorship with the University of Alaska. He lost his federal grant funding after years of speaking out against environmental malpractice, including questioning the possibility of responsible oil exploration in Alaska’s Bristol Bay. The oil industry funds a large portion of the university, and just this week the Conoco-Phillips Science Building was christened.
Professors must feel free to speak the truth and feel as though their institution stands behind them. Oil companies have permeated everything. Free speech must trump that. He may stay if the University has an epiphany, and realizes the dangerous precedent of allowing the erosion of free speech, but he’s not anticipating that will happen.
It’s one thing to talk about supporting free speech, and another to actually do it.
For some background you can read HERE and HERE.
A podcast of a talk he gave earlier in the year entitled Crisis in the Oceans and Free Speech is available HERE.
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It’s Smarter Saturday again on KBYR 700am! Tune in today to hear Shannyn talk with University of Alaska professer Rick Steiner. You will really enjoy this one. I’ve written about professor Steiner on several occasions. (see links above)
Live Stream it HERE.
Time: 5-7pm Alaska time, 6-8pm Pacific, and 9-11pm Eastern.
Give a call, and live blog it in the comments!
The number is 907.274.5297. The toll free number (in state only) is 866.610 5297
Just to avoid any confusion for first time listeners who may use Google Images to get a mental image of what our host and guest look like, you will be plased to note that they are NOT the Shannon Moore and Rick Steiner of the wrestling world.
Clarification never hurts.
Not that Rick Steiner, and Not that Shannyn Moore.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:49 PM
Shannyn,
What about the President of the University who removed the art exhibit recently? Is he the same one you’re talking about with Rick or do you have two University Presidents who are out to stifle anyone they don’t agree with? GO Shannyn! GO Rick! Great show!
October 24th, 2009 at 5:50 PM
(* bows to Shannyn and Rick *) Yeah, I’m a perv!
October 24th, 2009 at 5:55 PM
YES SAME DOUCHE
October 24th, 2009 at 5:57 PM
fastest 2 hours in the wooooooorrrrrrrllllld! The Shannyn Moore Show.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:58 PM
When I was a kid, I gave my mom barely-open lilacs (from her garden
) every year for Mother’s Day. Now, those same lilac bushes are over and done with weeks before that date.
I think any long-time gardener can tell you similar things.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
“UPDATE: Dr. Rick Steiner announces that he intends to resign from his 30 year professorship with the University. Professors must feel free to speak the truth and feel as though their institution stands behind them. Oil companies have permeated everything. Free speech must trump that. He may stay if the University has an epiphany, and realizes the dangerous precedent of allowing the erosion of free speech, but he’s not anticipating that will happen.”
Haven’t been listening but this is a WTF? moment. I’ve been with my (slightly) higher education institution for 13 years and have never had any pressure from administration to teach a certain agenda. On the rare times I have had disputes with students, the administration has always been supportive of me and, I think, quite fair to the student as well.
What on earth is going on up there? Are the students complaining about Dr. Steiner? If not, why should the University tell him what to teach? They hired him to teach the subject he is knowledgeable in. If he’s doing that, and the students (the customers) aren’t complaining, what need is there of any ‘pressure’ from administration? You mentioned oil. How are AK universities funded? If it’s really a case of “he who pays the piper calls the tune”, then isn’t everyone in AK who takes the PFD in effect a dancing puppet for the oil industry?
Yikes! Wrong on so many levels. I have trouble wrapping my brain around the idea that an institution of higher education would … censor … a teacher, a teacher they hired presumably for his/her expertise.
This issue deserves a more in-depth look at some point.
October 24th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
PFD=Opiate of the masses?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:01 PM
I wonder what Dr. Stiner will do after he leaves the UofA?
What will replace the oil money in Alaska? We are very spoiled in this state with our oil wealth.
We need to create a steady state of balance on the planet asap! No one wants to compost our own sh*t and grow organic food, that is what its going to take to save the planet. Out big public systems like sewer and water, is draining the tank of sustainability.
We like to party too much in America too worry about the environment. American media is having too much fun with the NFL, processed foods, having fun, reality shows, and shopping.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:03 PM
I think I did good with the acid rain thing and the brown crap (it ain’t smog it’s brown air crap)
wish I could have brought up the whole coal mining prob here…coal mines ruined our ground water and the coal-fired electric plants on the Ohio River is ruining our air
October 24th, 2009 at 6:05 PM
city peeps have NO idea the damage being caused to the environment so they can have electricity
October 24th, 2009 at 6:06 PM
NAS award to Hamilton… from people who don’t believe in sustainability….. right wing crackpots. Absurd notion.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:06 PM
and our mountains here in Appalachia are being cut down and tailings are filling the hollers and valleys
coal companies believe Appalachia can be a huge golf course eventually
October 24th, 2009 at 6:07 PM
Cluster Douche Awards, Shannyn? Dang, woman, you have a way with words.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:07 PM
Transparency? Who could they be talking about?
October 24th, 2009 at 6:08 PM
The entire show should be about academic freedom. There will be no opposition to industry if professors are silenced and students are made stupid.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:08 PM
This woman needs to start something up, and stop just talking about it. come ON
October 24th, 2009 at 6:09 PM
and I have at least FIVE electric plants within 50 miles of me on the Ohio River.
EPA is trying to nail one now for emissions
October 24th, 2009 at 6:10 PM
the one being nailed is a supposedly “scrubber” facility…yeah….looks like smoke when it happens
October 24th, 2009 at 6:10 PM
Great show today.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:11 PM
I THOUGHT that was you, Justa! I discounted the notion immediately, but my first thought was ‘Justa?’
When you approach NYC from the east, you see the grey-brown haze before you see a single skyscraper. My eyes are burning within an hour after I get off the train in Grand Central. I know what you’re talking about!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:11 PM
It is not just Alaska where this happens. It is a chronic problem is the US. What if a university was doing testing of a drug on lab animals and a researcher noticed a large number of tumors and spoke up about it to warn the public. The drug companies as we all know have a huge amount of power, they would put a lot of pressure on the university to shut the researcher up. It happens all the time.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:15 PM
yepers, that was me, Mona…I blush…
October 24th, 2009 at 6:18 PM
How about an on-line University!! Lots of them in the lower 48!! Kiss my aardvaark, Oil companies!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:19 PM
Gramiam, The “cluster douche” comment must have happened while I lost the stream. Thanks, I would have missed that. I love it. It is going into my vocabulary.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:20 PM
We don’ need nooo… education…..
We don’ need nooo… thought controool……
No dark sarcasm… in the classroom….
HEY! TEACHER! Leave those kids alone!!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:21 PM
Large Corporations do not generally let human or environment issues dictate their policies. Profit, sustainability, and growth are first with corporations. We have seen how they have taken over our government and now we see how they hinder our institutions of higher education. We are in deep doo doo. We need to rein in these corporations. Look what they have done to our health industry and the control they exibit there.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:21 PM
I am very plased… yessiree indeedee.
But not at arriving so late into the program.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:25 PM
I love it when ANYone mentions Tesla!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:26 PM
What a really great show! Thanks Shannyn, and Dr. Steiner, too!
October 24th, 2009 at 6:26 PM
Also the rights of the future generations.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Great show, guys! (Bring him back soon, Shannyn!)
October 24th, 2009 at 6:27 PM
Wonderful show Shannyn as always, I was in the treehouse chatting so I didn’t comment as much as I should have on this thread, =(
October 24th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Good show Shannyn and Dr Steiner. Thanks for the live blogging mudpups…
October 24th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Great job Justa! Thanks so much Shannyn & Dr. Steiner.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Good show Shannyn. Thanks for having Dr. Steiner on. There seem to be quite a few inconsistencies with what a University should be standing for, and what they are doing to that man.
October 24th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
great show Shannyn!
I loves me Dr. Steiner!
October 24th, 2009 at 7:07 PM
@107 Gramiam: Precisely. Well said.
October 24th, 2009 at 7:56 PM
This was an excellent show. I think its great that Shannyn’s show is on a conservative station…. Not preaching to the choir, is truly beneficial. Hope conservatives have been listening in, to get some balance. Great Job Shannyn and Rick… We will miss you Rick. Will you be getting hired on to something bigger that will help save the planet??
October 24th, 2009 at 8:03 PM
@justafarmer: In case you missed my comments in the live chat — you did great. Your imagery was good, you were rolling — and you got dropped. I suggest you go again, and start with the local effects of coal-fired electric plants — nobody else seems to worry about following the topic of the show.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:07 PM
thanks strangelet…the coal was gonna be my next point but Dr. Steiner was off and rolling on my first point when I lost my phone connection
October 24th, 2009 at 8:17 PM
justafarmer — I now realize it’s gotta be an “elevator speech”. I have to think there’s a timer, just because the cutoffs come at such random points.
October 24th, 2009 at 8:25 PM
strangelet, I call most every Saturday and I almost always get cut off in mid-sentence
October 24th, 2009 at 8:34 PM
Good show from what I could tell, as I am unable to hear it so I rely on you great bloggers who type it out. I followed the link to read the background info – what a terrible time Dr. Steiner has had! It is amazing that he has managed to stick it out for this long – a less dedicated person would have been gone years ago. To me, this is another nail in Palin’s coffin. She probably was much more involved than what little is stated in the article.
TalkingPointsMemo has a story about some teabaggers and other disgruntled people (including military) who are promoting a third party (ala Palin) and are openly promoting civil disobedience. It gets crazier by the day. http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/tea_partier_uses_army_email_address_to_call_for_ci.php?ref=fpb
October 24th, 2009 at 10:11 PM
strangelet…the elevator speech it it!
I shall prepare better next time.
October 24th, 2009 at 11:07 PM
@justa and @strangelet:
Shannyn doesn’t have a cut off switch. I know when they have a lot of calls, it is generally more interesting to the listener to not have long, drawn out conversations. It’s Rishi’s discretion most times. Perhaps let Rishi know you have more than 1 point to make next time and tell Shannyn as well at the beginning of your call. I enjoyed your call. Best of luck…
October 25th, 2009 at 2:39 AM
I am amazed the Dr Steiner story has not gone viral. It is not very often that fascism raises it’s ugly head to the extent of censoring and the firing a tenured Professor. Why are others silent? The press, the doctors, the lawyers, the politicians who are sworn into office to serve the people, the fellow professors, the accreditation bodies, the student body, local teachers and the teachers union,?
This is a classic case… Socrates ordered to take a sip of hemlock, the persecution of Copernicus, Galileo, Solzhenitsyn, the Spanish Inquisition.
This is what Naomi Wolf warns us about in her book “The End of America”. Naomi Kline discusses in her book “The Shock Doctrine”. Noam Chomsky has also fought censorship of fellow Professors.
Shannyn suggested this is happening across America. No it isn’t! We do not live in Mussolini’s Italy. We do not have Gulags for Professors or authors who are not beholden to authority. We are not burning books, as they did in Hitler’s Germany.
Yes, awarding or not funding research happens by means of corporate sponsors. But, censorship and firing Professors because of their views is not happening.
What is it going to take for Alaskans to wake up? Why hasn’t Kieth Obermann or Rachael Maddow picked up this story and ran with it?
The last place my child would attend is the University of Alaska to be programmed into a corporate moron, a mind tooled for a special interest corporate sponsor. It is not as if the State is broke. The University has a huge endowment as a land grant State University. The State has over $ 50 billion in the bank. There is no means for the University to be a place of higher education when Professors and students are censored and punished for not being puppets to the ruling class and special corporate interest.
This is Orwellian and a major attack on Freedom that America’s Founding Father’s defined as our inalienable rights.
October 25th, 2009 at 6:09 AM
I guess resigning is the honorable way to go when Big Money takes control of ethics in an educational system. It’s happening in Rural Alaska too. Pay the bill for support. This is a giant step backwards for progress in Alaska. What’s the point of an education if we’re going to allow Big Money to bully us around?
October 25th, 2009 at 6:27 AM
I’m surprised Shannyn didn’t connect the dots. Rick’s problems started in 2008. This was under Pres. Bush, the science denier. We all know how Bush tried to silence career scientists by putting his political appointees in charge of agencies such as EPA, NASA, NIH and FDA. Many at EPA resigned in disgust. NASA scientist went public, over the censorship, the rewriting & revision of their scientific work by political appointees, to fit Bush’s drill, baby, drill and the gutting of clean air and water agenda.
October 25th, 2009 at 8:34 AM
@Wolf Pack…did you listen to the whole show??? That was kind of the point. They talked about Steiner’s opposition specifically to off shore drilling in Bristol Bay. The Bush Administration was full speed ahead despite Steiner’s objections…Obama just did a 180 and justified Steiner’s opposition.
Furthermore, they talked extensively about the real beginnings going back in March 1989…
This is a huge brain trust loss…in 2006, when Israelis deliberately bombed Lebanese fuel storage tanks on the Mediterranean Sea (Twice) creating the worst environmental castrophe in history there…They called Dr. Rick Steiner and flew him out for a comprehensive assessment.
The students as well as the community of Anchorage and Fairbanks ought to be rioting in the streets over this…
October 25th, 2009 at 9:22 AM
This is from ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’ by John Perkins, (a must read is you want to understand where the real power in this country is)…”I also realized that my college professors had not understood the true nature of macroeconomics : that in many cases helping an economy grow only makes those few people who sit atop the pyramid even richer, while it does nothing for those at the bottom-except push them even lower. Indeed promoting capitalism often results in a system that resembles medieval feudal societies. If any of my professors knew this, they had not admited it- probably because big corporations, and the men who run them, fund colleges. Exposing the truth would undoubtedly cost those professors their jobs-just as such revelations cost me mine.” Thank you Professor Steiner for standing up to those powers, for all of us 2 and 4 leggers, in pursuit of truth…keep up the good work, there are many of us who will be watching for what’s next.