University of Georgia Professor Tells Students Not to Use Sources Like 'National Enquirer' or Fox News

If you’re at the University of Georgia, you may want to get your information from somewhere other than Fox News.

At least, that is, if you’re studying under a particular Ecology professor.

As reported by Young America’s Foundation, the group’s Campus Bias Tip Line recently got turned onto an assignment by teacher Scott Connelly.

According to a screenshot, on March 11th, Mr. Connelly posted the following:

There will be no Sapling assignment due for ECOL1000 next week. However, there is (a) shorter written assignment to complete. For this assignment, please do an internet search, or rely on information from reliable news sources that you already read. …

Find either a case study or environmental news story that describes or highlights some sort of technology, innovation, or project related to sustainable energy. For example, I posted the “Secretive Energy Start-up…” and “NJ Oks Biggest US Windfarm…’ newspaper articles on elC, which highlighted these very sorts of topics. After you find a relevant news story that we have not addressed in class, please do the following…

Perhaps most notable was Scott’s clarification concerning sources.

Here’s how the posting put it:

[R]ely on information from reliable news sources that you already read (factually reliable news sources include media such as BBC, CNN, NYTimes, ABCNews, etc. Please do not draw from questionable sources such as National [Enquirer], Fox News, OAN, blogs, etc.).

YAF says it emailed Scott about the assignment. In response, he lamented his loss:

“This has absolutely nothing to do with ‘conservative media outlets,’ and I am at a complete loss as to why you are jumping to that conclusion. Politics do not play a role in this assignment as this is an introductory science course. This has to do with scientifically accurate news pieces that focus on the topic we are studying. If a student were able to find an appropriate article from any news source they may use that, although it will be much easier to complete the assignment in a reasonable amount of time if students start with the reliable news organizations that I suggested, which have run countless articles that are scientifically factually correct and also address the topic we are studying.”

He also issued a challenge:

“Please forward me the list of suitable articles from OAN that you find are best suited for this environment science topic and we can continue the discussion.”

The professor followed that with a request for credentials:

“I am leaving work in a few minutes, and have not see your response yet. Based on your obvious interest in this science discipline, please share with me where your scientific training and expertise was obtained, so I can better appreciate why you find those news sources to be excellent choices to complete this assignment.”

He clearly prefers the scientists at the desks of other outlets.

To each his own — unless you’re a student at the University of Georgia. Your own preferred source — though potentially a major media entity — may not pass muster.

Speaking of Georgia —