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Twenty-three academic groups issued a joint statement Tuesday condemning Glenn Beck, the television commentator, for language that has inspired others to make threats against Frances Fox Piven, a noted professor of sociology and political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Beck has said that he was only engaging in legitimate criticism of a scholar with whom he disagrees. The statement from the scholarly groups says in part: "We vigorously support serious, honest, and passionate public debate.... We support serious engagement on the research of Professor Piven and of others who study controversial issues such as unemployment, the economic crisis, the rights of welfare recipients, and the place of government intervention. We also support the right of political commentators to participate in such debates. At the same time, we insist that all parties recognize the rights of academic researchers not only to gather and analyze evidence related to controversial questions, but also to arrive at their own conclusions and to expect those conclusions to be reported accurately in public debates." The groups that signed the letter are:
- American Anthropological Association
- American Association of Geographers
- American Council of Learned Societies
- American Educational Research Association
- American Sociological Association
- Association for Humanist Sociology
- Board, American Society of Criminology
- Board, Research Committee 19 (Poverty, Social Welfare, and Social Policy) of the International Sociological Association
- Board, Society for the Study of Social Problems
- Consortium of Social Science Associations
- Eastern Sociological Society
- Linguistic Society of America
- Mid-South Sociological Association
- Midwest Sociological Society
- National Women’s Studies Association
- Pacific Sociological Association
- Planners of Color Interest Group, Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning
- Rural Sociological Society
- Social Science History Association
- Social Science Research Council
- Sociologists for Women in Society
- Sociologists Without Borders
- Southern Sociological Society
