James Tracy Announces FAU Departure Without Anyone Noticing? — Now University’s Taking Steps
It was right under all of our noses. Two days later, the university is taking action.
James Tracy claimed that FAU fired him because of controversial conspiracy theories he shared on his blog. Photo by Michelle Friswell
December 16, 2015
Update: A previous version of this story listed James Tracy to teach one course over the Spring 2016 semester. A Departmental Course Schedule reveals he’s slated to teach three.
The same professor who was covered over 800 times by mainstream media when he publicized his conspiracy theories on mass shootings just received more attention — his possible departure from Florida Atlantic.
Wednesday, FAU announced that they’re taking steps to terminate James Tracy from his professor role at the school.
Two days earlier, James Tracy wrote an article for the Sun Sentinel about whether the Sandy Hook massacre was staged. Tracy, a professor at FAU since 2002, wrote “The Sandy Hook Massacre: Unanswered Questions and Missing Information” on three years earlier for his personal blog, memoryholeblog.com.
Tracy’s article was in response to another Sun Sentinel story — a published open letter to the professor written by Lenny and Veronique Pozner, parents of one of the Sandy Hook victims, 6-year-old Noah.
Their story, titled “Sandy Hook Massacre 3rd Anniversary: Two parents target FAU conspiracy theorist,” criticized Tracy’s conspiracies, along with the fame he garnered from it all, saying he “personally sought to cause our family pain and anguish.” The Pozners described how Tracy sent them a letter demanding proof that their son Noah existed and was the boy in the picture the media aired. They eventually filed a police report against him for harassment.
The Pozners finished their letter, calling to FAU to “reasses if their priorities properly reflect the best interests of their staff, donors and — most importantly — their students.”
They continued, “’The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, but the Constitution does not guarantee that you can’t be fired for expressing your beliefs as part of your job,’ says the National Education Association. ‘The courts could decide either way and the burden of proof shifts sharply to the professor.’”
Four days later, Tracy published this response, through the Sun Sentinel. “Leonid ‘Lenny’ and Veronique Pozner mounted a vicious attack that sought to intimidate my employer into removing my tenure and depriving me of my livelihood because of the questions I’ve raised concerning the Sandy Hook event,” Tracy said. He finished his column with a statement saying if teaching that mass media should be interrogated “is an outmoded ideal and a skill that can no longer be practiced or taught to young adults, I stand guilty as charged.”
In Tracy’s tagline at the bottom of the article, he identified himself as a “former FAU professor” despite his name on the FAU Spring 2016 schedule under three classes, U.S. Journalism, Intro to Multimedia Studies and Public Opinion and Modernity.
The UP reached out to FAU spokesperson Lisa Metcalf about this inconsistency. When asked if the tagline suggested that Tracy was no longer teaching at FAU, Metcalf responded, “the submission was made independently of FAU. I do not know why it said ‘former.’”
The Sun Sentinel has since updated their story to remove the word “former,” but you can still see a remnant of the original in its URL: “… sfl-former-fau-professor-questions-whether-sandy-hook-massacre-was-staged.”
The UP attempted to contact James Tracy about the discrepancy but have not heard back as of publication time.
Tracy commented on his personal blog, memoryhole.com about the tagline confusion. “Apparently there is a rather limited threshold for fact checking there,” he said. “Or this is wishful thinking.”
Now, two days later, the school has issued a statement announcing the action it’s taking toward Tracy. It reads:
December 16, 2015
In light of numerous requests from media outlets and the public, the University makes the following statement:
Today, James Tracy, an associate professor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, was served a Notice of Proposed Discipline — Termination by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Florida Atlantic University.
In accordance with the University’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Faculty of Florida union, by which the University and James Tracy are bound, faculty who receive such notice are afforded a grievance process. James Tracy has 10 days to respond to the notice after which final action may be taken.
In accordance with university practice regarding personnel issues, the university will make no further comment for the time being.
It’s unclear if Tracy already knew the statement was coming, causing him to sign off his column as a “former” professor.
This story will be updated as more information is released.
Emily Bloch is the Editor in Chief for the University Press. If you would like to contact her regarding this or other articles, email her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter.
Deanna Spingola • Mar 10, 2016 at 6:15 pm
Tracy claims in an article dated October 8, 2014, that FEMA created a twenty-page plan on October 8, 2012, with an exercise date of December 14, 2012. See here: http://memoryholeblog.com/2014/10/08/femadhs-12142012-plan-for-mass-death-of-children-at-a-school-by-firearms/
While FEMA and the DHS provide guidance on carrying out a drill, only local agencies actually create and execute their own drill. Tracy has a link purportedly showing this FEMA-generated plan, which, to be legitimate, should be external and not on his own site. See it here:
https://memorygapdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/drill-site-activation-call-down-exercise-plan_a.pdf Yet, somehow Tracy and the creator of this secretive document, purportedly Tony Mead, had privileged information unavailable to anyone else.
The “plan” is actually an MS document “borrowed” from the Massachusetts Health and Human Services that someone edited to convey that FEMA planned a special operation at Sandy Hook. Massachusetts HHS developed the template so that school districts in their state could devise their own drill. See:
http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/gov/departments/dph/programs/emergency-prep/training/emer-dispensing-toolkit/emergency-dispensing-site-drills.html
Select Exercise Plan (ExPlan) Tracy deserves an “F” for his pathetic research standards. Was he using his career credibility in an attempt to deceive people?
Whoever fabricated this document featured it in a YouTube video (for those who prefer video instead of actual research in primary documents) on October 7, 2014, the day before Tracy’s article. The individual, using the dates above, included inaccurate information to deceive people into thinking that FEMA announced an exercise plan for Sandy Hook. That video is no longer available. According to Tracy, this fraudulent document “explicitly references a scenario where the ‘Mass Death of Children at a School by Firearms’” is followed by a “Suicide or Apprehension of (an) Unknown Shooter.” Tracy suggests that this might have something to do with the eleven-thousand-page “script” (excess – not even in Hollywood) that Wolfgang Halbig claims was used by the “Connecticut State Troopers.” That “script” is actually the CSP official report.
Robert • Jan 2, 2016 at 1:31 am
If professors can no longer speak the truth safely, and have their tenure removed, then our society is beyond saving. False Flags will continue un-abated.
Thank you James Tracy for speaking the truth as you know it.
Se “Concussion” playing at the movie theatre: it is about a courageous Dr. with integrity that first reveals that NFL players are getting life-ending concussions. He receives the same and worst treatment as James TRacy, but in the end it proven right. The people that lied and covered up have a shameful history.
Mary • Dec 20, 2015 at 9:02 pm
I am shocked that a public university has employed James Tracy this long. I believe strongly in freedom of speech. The university needs to rid itself of any unfit professors that it has employed. If my 2 college students were attending there, I would not pay the tuition.
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 20, 2015 at 7:02 am
I watched Wayne Carver’s complete news conference, and if Mr. Carver is what you hoaxers are basing your case on, then you’re even dumber than we thought. There is absolutely nothing in this press conference that would make anyone think the shooting was a hoax. The only two things unusual about this press conference are 1) Mr. Carver’s complete honesty in trying to answer every question he was asked, which is highly unusual in a situation like this. Normally an official discussing this type of shooting uses very robotic, generic language, saying “subjects” or “individuals” rather than “kids” or “first-graders.” 2) His mannerism — nervous laughter — when he accidentally misspoke or didn’t know the answer to a question. It’s obviously a nervous tic that, if you knew him, you’d likely see every day in the course of his conversations. Perhaps it was more pronounced because he and his staff worked through much of the night and all day leading up the press conference.
By the way, Carver notes near the end that this is only his second press conference in 31 years, and he also notes that it was the worst case he’s ever seen in his life, and he’s autopsied thousands of gunshot victims. At one point he starts to describe what the bullets from the assault rifle have done to the children’s bodies, and he thinks better of it. He and 15 members of his staff had just spent the past 20 hours or so performing autopsies on first-graders whose bodies were chewed up by multiple bullets–the children he worked on had from 3 to 11 gunshots each, he said.
From the big deal you guys are making about this I expected to see something alarming or sinister from Mr. Carver. This wasn’t even unprofessional–the man was honest and answered every question that he could. He’s accustomed to testifying in court and referred to the things he would not be able to say in court, which triggered his nervous laughter. My boss has a similar tic that causes him to nervously laugh at inappropriate times. This is so obvious. You think Mr. Carver is an evil genius who has perpetrated a massive hoax on the entire United States and is now laughing in our faces? Good Lord, please go home and leave these families alone, you snakes.
It’s frankly beyond the pale that you’ve attacked the families whose children were slain by a disturbed terrorist all because the medical examiner had a nervous tic that caused him to laugh at the end of three or four sentences. And because the children were already dead when the EMTs arrived, but the nutcake “professor” James Tracy thinks their lifeless bodies should have been loaded onto a fleet of helicopters to fly them to the funeral homes. Who cares what James Tracy thinks? They’re preparing a special place in hell for you folks, alongside the Westboro Baptist “Christians.” (I had the name of the church wrong in my earlier post; go to town for the next decade on that one, hoaxers.)
Those of you who victimize the parents of the Sandy Hook children had better hope you never lose someone in a mass shooting because your fellow-hoaxers will then turn on you. And you’ll learn what it’s like to be spit upon by the dregs of humanity.
Reprehensor • Dec 19, 2015 at 6:00 am
Sonny, your emotion laden rant is exactly what James Tracy encourages us all to take notice of. Whether or not children died at Sandy hook is not what his contention is (to the best of my knowledge he has always stated, when asked, that he believes children did die) rather he merely posits that there are inconsistencies in the narrative that deserve closer inspection. Basically, question everything.
I too believe that children died (until proven otherwise) however, I also believe that there is -without a doubt – an agenda being promulgated directly from the event and I believe Tracy to be part of the agenda, either as controlled opposition or as a useful idiot.
Sonny, your numerical responses serve to bitterly polarize people as, I believe, is intended of this (likely) psyop. The false flags of gladio in Italy are a stark reminder that we, the people of America, are heavily entrenched in a nascent imperialist government complete with lapdog media. Reporters (such as yourself) work to divide us at every opportunity, and are indicative of a failing system.
Your disingenuous remarks reaffirm our destitute media when you state that Dr. Tracy impotently explains his points. Your cursory analysis doesn’t even scratch the surface of what could be called rational reporting, much less investigative. You certainly know how to obtain answers for your out- of – context rhetoric, but your intent was never to obtain an accurate portrayal of Tracy, was it?
Clearly, your intent was to divide the reader into a camp: either for “the children” or against them, correct? Non-sequitur – meaning, it does not follow – is the term for your fallacious examples. Well, that and a side of ad hominem.
Thank you for illuminating the depth of the operation at hand here. It’s not just mental health, gun rights, and free speech that are being attacked. Nay, it is also the American people that are being attacked – by flagrant propaganda that would make any General blush.
So which are you, Sonny? The opposition? Or another useful idiot?
Hoaxer Repellent • Dec 30, 2015 at 3:24 am
Extremely typical of the conspiracy theorist to see rational applications of critical thinking as “ emotion laden rants“. It`s also common for Tracy`s defenders to simply parrot his own self-image and defense of his actions as `simply questioning the official narrative“ without hearing what the man actually says. Given your readiness to attack Sonny in an effort to staunchly defend Tracy, I would expect you to actually be familiar with what you`re attempting to protect. But then again, this is conspiracy culture where real world rules don`t apply.
` Whether or not children died at Sandy hook is not what his contention is (to the best of my knowledge he has always stated, when asked, that he believes children did die).`Well let me help you better the best of your knowledge. Tracy`s 12/19/15 response to the question of whether he accepts that Noah Pozner died at Sandy Hook was `I don`t“ When asked to explain he said “We have a whole book on it. Nobody died at Sandy Hook.`
To the Sun Sentinel on 12/13/15, he submitted with a request for publication, what he termed to be a 951 word response to the Pozner`s article, It`s practically the same verbatim speech Fetzer gives when trying to sell the book and is a transparent sales ad passed off as a press statement. Here we are treated to a 2-for-1 deal of common traits among hoaxers: irony and hypocrisy. `The local conspirators in Newtown, such as the alleged parents of the murdered children, including Lenny and Veronique Pozner, have made out very well financially, soliciting contributions from generous yet misinformed Americans.` That`s not a question, it`s a statement of facts and it`s an accusation. And it is as offensive as it gets, when the very accusation of them SOLICITING money is found in a 951 word advertisement for a book from which TRACY is trying to profit. The Sandy Hook parents are somehow morally unfit for accepting donations that other people raised for them, to cover funeral expenses, missed wages, grief therapy, PTSD therapy for the entire family (and yes traumatic grief is more complicated to treat and usually entails having to put twice the time and twice the money into the excruciatingly painful process of trying to heal from something as horrific as this), a family therapist who works with them in sessions as a unit in addition to the individual therapy they do, is something I’d like all the families to have access to. And you know what? If I think that once the shock starts to wear off and they’re comfortable with the supports they have in place, that they deserve to go on a family vacation and try to have some fun and I donate money to that. who the hell is Tracy or anybody to criticize that? And let me be clear, there have been no exotic trips reported that these families were treated to, this is strictly me, taking it a step further and saying it is between the donors and the families and Tracy can rot in hell for the repeated slamming of victims accepting help from people who desperately want to help.
People with morals and ethics feel like they’ve done something useful when they are heartbroken over a news story like this and they send $20 to one of the charities. It makes them feel like they have done something to help the stranger and it gives back a small sense of the power we all feel we’ve lost when things like this happen. I’m so sick and tired of hearing people still squawking about this especially since it happens in every other high-profile tragedy. If it’s a local tragedy, there’s usually the routing numbers for the specific banks listed by the 6 o’clock news. We send military aid to countries in the aftermath of natural disasters and such. It’s what people do. It’s called humanity. People are generally decent and it is instinctive to extend a hand to someone who has just been knocked down.
I do hope there is a special punishment waiting for the likes of Tracy after his continual pontificating and scoffing that the parents have no right to money that was donated to them, yet he thinks he is somehow entitled to make money off of Noah Pozner’s death by lying about it? Blatant, full-knowing, deliberate lies are told in that book. Provable lies and it’s even easy to prove that they knew they were lying when they wrote the book. This is not a theory or a hunch, it is a provable fact that Tracy, Fetzer and Halbig lie in the book. And there are how many of you out there defending this repulsive thug? Probably the same people who saw jihadi john as a victim.
Whenever Tracy is interviewed about Anderson Cooper bullying him on CNN, he gives the same rhetoric about it that you just did Rep. They took everything he said out of context and accused him of calling it a hoax, when he has never said that and his position has always been that it `deserved scrutiny` and it `may not have happened exactly as it was reported to us` Right? Same spiel every time. But does that line up with “Don’t take my word for it. Just do a search on the title for a free copy of the book. The Pozners, alas, are as phony as the drill itself, and profiting handsomely from the fake death of their son”? You defend that? You say that his message is “to basically question everything”? You think that’s him saying that children did die?
Then please do tell, if not to harass and inflict pain, what is the point of the statement ” Noah, is a very special boy because he has the distinction of dying twice — first at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012; then thousands of miles across the world at the Peshawar Army School shooting in Pakistan 2 years later on December 16, 2014″? He is mocking the death of Noah and what purpose does that evil condescension serve? I cannot fathom the discipline of Lenny and Veronique. Every time I see this “argument” used it makes me angry and I cannot even comprehend what it must be like to have your son’s death mocked like that. Those are the kind of cruelties we are shocked to hear children engage in when they’re upset and testing their boundaries. The absurdity that a grown man and tenured professor would take such a vicious shot is almost more mind-boggling than any of you who are defending it. What are the Pozners to say to that? They don’t know the person who carried the sign but the hoaxers demand that they answer for it. All they can do is speculate which is more than they owe anyone and more than anyone should expect them to know about it.
Yet Tracy can’t help himself and continues his assault on them, ” And the only proof Lenny has produced that Noah died in Sandy Hook is a death certificate…which has been revealed as a fabrication. If Noah actually died, there would have been no reason to fake it.” The almighty professor is really losing his marbles. He was not this unhinged 3 years ago but here he is, ego full-blown and displaying such a disgusting sense of entitlement. Lenny owes him nothing. Lenny owes none of us any “proof”. The police have done that through their investigation and we are the ones who owe Lenny the respect to grieve in peace and the protection from those we see around us who are unwilling to let him do so. I guess we are to simply trust Tracy that the certificate is a fake but what sense does that even make? I’m going to piggyback one of Sonny’s earlier points and note that Tracy gets scattered and jumbles up what his accusations are and to whom they are against. If the government hired Lenny Pozner to “crisis act” his way through a hoax and pretend he had a son that died, why on earth wouldn’t they just issue him all the necessary government id to substantiate that identity? With all of the meticulous planning that went into orchestrating this complex scenario, how does Lenny end up being in charge of dummying up a government document on his own with whatever amateur computer software he had, instead of just asking the folks running the show to print one up for him, as if they wouldn’t have already done so in this fairy tale.
Rep, your attacks on Sonny’s motives and capabilities as a professional are baseless. “Sonny, your numerical responses serve to bitterly polarize people as, I believe, is intended of this (likely) psyop.” Who are you to tell a complete stranger what is driving his writing? And again, we have a conspiracy theorist who claims to be just asking questions right before launching an assault of accusations and statements of fact. “Reporters (such as yourself) work to divide us at every opportunity, and are indicative of a failing system.” Where do you get these ideas? Where is your evidence to support them? How do you know that Sonny is one of these? Maybe he’s chooses to be a freelancer so he can exercise complete control over his articles? Maybe he’s retired? He spoke of his experience, not of his current employment, but you the conspiracy theorist had a preconceived idea so you heard what fit with that.
“Your cursory analysis doesn’t even scratch the surface of what could be called rational reporting, much less investigative.” Do you even know where you are? You are in the comments section of an article. You aren’t reading a newspaper that you just bought to read an article that Sonny wrote. Your critiques of his ability would still be wrong, but at least they’d be appropriate in context. If you want to critique his “rational reporting” and “investigative” journalism skills, ask him to provide you with some of his professional work. Do you think you can gauge my professional skills based on comments I spend my free time posting online? Of course not and even so, that is subjective and you state opinions as fact. I think he put some excellent stuff together here and I would love to see what he does when he’s actually getting paid to do something and is using his skills to the best of his ability.
Were you trying to make us all laugh when you called his detailed posts his “cursory analysis”? You don’t even have a basic understanding of Tracy’s position, public statements and writings about Sandy Hook and you’re calling someone else unqualified to “comment” on an article that discusses his firing over said public stance! I would suggest you go back to the drawing board and investigate what Tracy is all about. Look into his stalking of a little girl who he has decided was “in on it”. Then look up ad hominem. so that you don’t start out your next comment engaging in that fallacy and then pointing at someone else for doing it. (My post has been a bit of an “emotion laden rant” so let’s go ahead and just agree on that one so you don’t need to ad hominem the hell outta me because that’s your only shot at trying to discredit anything I’ve said.)
I am grateful to finally see more people standing up against this nonsense. I am happy to see people starting to actually do objective research and use just a little bit of critical thought. It’s pleasing to see the true story of Sandy Hook be more accessible than it was a year ago when all you got from a google search was conspiracy bull. It’s nice to see people finally standing up to the bullying the families get on top of being fortunate enough to have a child killed at Sandy Hook. I’m glad to see real media (like Sonny) show you how to investigate something and scold you for not trying harder to do it yourself before you so easily attacked innocent families. It’s long overdue to see a university fire a professor for his reckless abuse of others and using his credentials as their employee to bolster his claims. It’s cool to see Amazon say no to doing business with that filth. And what I’m really looking forward to, what I really can’t wait for are the lawsuits that I’m sure are in the works as we speak and once they start, they’re going to roll. These “intellectuals” who have spent so much time flaunting their PhDs any chance they get, will certainly not be able to claim ignorance when it is proven in court that they published a book of pure manufactured fiction. It’s definitely going to happen and Tracy, Fetzer, Halbig and others have only themselves to blame. When they published that book, they handed everyone who was affected at Sandy Hook a defamation suit and every stupid youtube video they recorded and posted their lies online are all going to come back to bite them. Woflie’s already down $30,000 in judgments and he still hasn’t learned? They deserve everything that’s coming
So have at it! Ad hominem or ignore everything I’ve posted and pretend you “just can’t be bothered” to find fault with what I’ve said. It wasn’t even a very good try when you took a bunch of general and irrelevant lazy shots at Sonny’s detailed posts. The little bit of factual information you tried to provide was wrong. We get you believe there was a conspiracy and we get that you’re a fan of Tracy. But we certainly don’t get why as your provided nothing to the debate but attacks.
John K • Dec 18, 2015 at 5:43 pm
Sonny,
You said, “Is it possible that a state coroner might bumble, while being watched my millions of television viewers, because he or she is horrified or made uncomfortable by discussing the mass murder of 20 six- and seven-year-old children?”
For the record, Wayne Carver served as the Connecticut Chief State Examiner from 1982 until his retirement in May of 2013. Prior to the Sandy Hook event, Carver was involved in some of the most highly publicized criminal cases in state history including the Richard Crafts “wood chipper murder.” serial killer Michael Ross, the Cheshire home invasion murders. Carver also appeared in an episode for the television documentary series Forensic Files.
Sonny, just as a point of fact, I’ve shown the complete video of Wayne Carver’s press conference on December 15, 2015, to over a dozen people, all of whom believe the Sandy Hook shooting happened exactly the way it has been reported in the news and in the official reports. All of them considered his behavior bizarre and several of them noted that he seemed to act “unprofessionally.” A few of them stated the was a “wacko,” and one of them questioned whether he was “for real,” or, in other words, actually the state’s coroner. “Does this guy know what he’s talking about?” was also a question from one of the observers.
Get yourself a copy of the complete press conference (it’s all over Youtube) and try it with a dozen people.
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 20, 2015 at 1:18 am
John K.,
I will go watch that press conference, because I can’t imagine how a coroner being unprofessional during a press conference is going to make me accuse the parents of a slain six-year-old of making up the existence of their child. Let’s say you’re right and the coroner was unprofessional, or possibly even “wacko.” Did his behavior at the press conference lead you to believe the “government” persuaded hundreds or thousands of people to help it perpetrate a “fake school shooting”? How does the coroner’s behavior change anything about an event that was over and done with before his phone ever rang?
Owl Grad • Dec 17, 2015 at 9:33 pm
Tracy is just a man who teaches that no matter how easy it is to accept the media’s word; Always question, always ask, and always search for the truth. I didn’t personally agree with him on many things, but I did agree with what his purpose was, I plan to write FAU to voice my displeasure.
As a former student of his, I can attest that he NEVER pushed his views on to the class, and when asked by students about the story, he preferred not to talk about it and moved on. I had him right when the Sandy Hook event occurred and if anything, reading and watching the knee-jerk reactions of people was eye opening to how little they actually pulled from the story besides the media fed headlines of “FAU PROF SAYS SHOOTING IS FAKE,” but that was not the purpose of the piece he wrote, just the question, and no, that isn’t what he told or taught us, that is what I OBJECTIVELY pulled from it, something the subjective media won’t do for you.
B. Mcbart • Dec 17, 2015 at 8:01 am
I’m quite delighted to see that Dr. Tracy will be departing FAU, if indeed that is the case. Free-thinking individuals with intelligence and moral courage don’t belong in the cesspool of conformity that modern academia has become.
Yes, for people like Sonny critical thinking is far too much to demand. It’s easier just to throw a little tantrum. Thus are the times.
Leigh Williams • Dec 18, 2015 at 10:54 am
How dare you speak of “critical thinking”. Only a mental midget could characterize Sonny Bohanan’s comprehensive critique of this horrible man’s vile conspiracy theory as “a little tantrum”.
Your notion of “free thinking” is synonymous with fact-free and logic-free.
In addition, you yourself appear to be as devoid of human decency as Tracy.
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 17, 2015 at 5:19 am
To the moderator or editor: I accidentally left a typo in my second comment above, the one still awaiting moderation. In the numbered paragraphs, the last sentence of No. 1 says, “Mr. Tracy provides doesn’t say.”
Would you please remove the word “provides”? I failed to delete it when I rewrote the sentence.
Thanks,
Sonny Bohanan
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 17, 2015 at 4:54 am
Please excuse me for commenting again on this story. But I’ve just read James Tracy’s column that was printed a couple of days ago in the Sun Sentinel. Mr. Tracy has investigated what he calls a hoax for three years, and now it is time to reveal the evidence that he, a TENURED COLLEGE PROFESSOR, has assembled and that has persuaded him that the shootng massacre was a hoax. Let’s review sentence by sentence:
1. “Commonplace emergency protocols were abandoned.” What does this mean? Mr. Tracy doesn’t say.
2. “There was no surge of EMTs into the building, no proper triage protocol employed or Med-Evac helicopters called.” According to Mr. Tracy, these three things did NOT happen. Not one word about what DID happen. Did the EMTs arrive at different times, rather than all at once? If so, what would that indicate or prove? How were the triage protocols improper? Does Newtown have multiple Med-Evac helicopters? Were ground ambulances called instead?
3. “Parents were not even allowed to view and hold the bodies of their deceased children.” In the news story above, Mr. Tracy contends that the children didn’t actually exist, that the parents had made up their existence to extort money. How can he so callously accuse the family of a deceased child of making up the child’s existence, then forget that he had accused them and point the accusing finger instead at the authorities for blocking the families from seeing their slain children. This sentence offers a good deal of insight into Mr. Tracy’s mental state: the accusation he made against the parents has now been turned against the authorities instead — the authorities who were victims of the parents’ extortion in Mr. Tracy’s previous allegation.
4. “Law enforcement oddly admonished those who questioned the official narrative online were subject to criminal prosecution.” If law enforcement did “admonish” someone (he doesn’t say who) for questioning their official narrative, what does that prove? That an official’s temper flared during an awful situation?
5.”The following day, Connecticut’s state coroner amazingly bumbled and guffawed through a 15-minute press conference, where it was anticipated he would provide an expert overview of the postmortem.” Has Mr. Tracy ever seen a news conference involving other mass shootings? Has he ever seen a public official who bumbled during a news conference while under extreme duress? Is it possible that a state coroner might bumble, while being watched my millions of television viewers, because he or she is horrified or made uncomfortable by discussing the mass murder of 20 six- and seven-year-old children?
6. “His responses to reporters’ questions were so bizarre and incompetent I was awaiting an avalanche of lawsuits from victims families to be brought against the school district and State of Connecticut.” His responses were bizarre and incompetent? Mr. Tracy doesn’t provide a single detail about what he found bizarre or incompetent. Might we agree it is bizarre that 20 first-graders were shot down in cold blood for no reason? Would anyone relish speaking at a news conference watched by millions of TV viewers and discussing the most horrific crime most of us could ever imagine? Might a person unaccustomed to this situation act strangely, perhaps even incompetently?
7. “On Dec. 28 one was filed, then quickly withdrawn.” I don’t know anything about this lawsuit or what it alleged or sought, and neither does Mr. Tracy. If he did, as a communications professional, he would have provided at least one detail about the nature of the lawsuit.
8. “The following October, the Sandy Hook School — among the greatest crime scenes in U.S. history — was demolished.” Is Mr. Tracy telling us this information for a reason? No doubt a good many things related to the school occurred in the intervening 10 months after the shooting. In what way does the school’s demolition relate to Mr. Tracy’s theory that there were no children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary? He hasn’t the first idea. Is it possible that such a horrendous crime left many people with the feeling that they did not want to work in or send their children to that school any longer?
Mr. Tracy is a tenured college professor who purports in this column to take the news media to task for its shoddy work. He casts himself as the hero in this story–the only one willing to ask the hard questions about this awful event in American history. Yet, when the opportunity arrives for Mr. Tracy — a would-be communications expert who is training the next generation of journalists — to marshal the arguments and evidence he has been collecting for three years, this is the sum total of his case, a story containing one, single fact: that the school was torn down 10 months after the shooting. Mr. Tracy’s research and reporting skills appear to be less than zero, as is his ability to think critically and parse real information.
Assuming anything he has written here is true, what has he proven? He has the gall to harass the families whose children were slain by a terrorist because he THINKS a triage protocol wasn’t followed. Because a gang of EMTs did not HUDDLE TOGETHER before rushing into the school. Because parents were not allowed IMMEDIATELY into a school where 20 children had just been massacred, their tiny bodies torn to shreds by a semiautomatic military-style assault rifle. Mr. Tracy thinks the parents should have been allowed into a school where the floor was covered in blood and human tissue. I can imagine the reasons why authorities might have restricted the parents from entering such a bloodbath to find their dead children.
After working for 20 years as a newspaper editor and reporter, I can only say to Mr. Tracy that his three years of reporting and evidence-gathering have resulted in a story that — ordinarily — would never see the light of day in a newspaper. The only reason it did is because he is a nut-job conspiracy theorist and perhaps the Sun Sentinel realized the story would show once and for all what a kook Mr. Tracy really is. If he turned this in for a freshman reporting class, he would receive a grade of F. Not one person is named in the story. Which law enforcement officer threatened criminal prosecution for anyone who questioned the official narrative? When and where did this occur? Who were the EMTs on the scene? Mr. Tracy has no idea. How many ambulances were put into use that day? What triage protocols were used? Mr. Tracy doesn’t know and doesn’t attempt to answer a single question that he himself has raised.
Given an opportunity to prove his case, Mr. Tracy hasn’t the first clue how to go about it. I don’t doubt for a moment that this newspaper column is the reason that Mr. Tracy no longer works at Florida Atlantic University. If I were University President John Kelly, I would have been humiliated to see that this is the level of work produced by a tenured communications professor on the faculty at my school.
To Mr. Tracy, I say, leave the families of the slain children alone, you horror-show of a human being. Don’t ever come near Newtown or Connecticut. Go far away from people and work alone, quietly, so you’ll have ample opportunity to rest your fevered mind. Seek psychiatric help if that is what you need. And hope that you don’t wind up in jail or prison for harassing the people whose lives were already destroyed before you came along to make the situation worse, you ghoul. Now run away as fast as you can, before someone takes a notion to teach you a lesson for destroying innocent people’s lives. You’re a sick, sick man.
Lee4ensic187 • Dec 17, 2015 at 3:20 pm
Well said Mr. Bohanan! As a CT family affected by this tragedy I appreciate your evaluation of the lunacy that this man has passed along to students as fact.
M. Free • Dec 18, 2015 at 12:58 pm
Sonny, can you answer a quick question for me? How is it that Lenny Pozner’s son Noah was killed in TWO separate school shootings on TWO separate continents? If Noah died on December 14, 2012, how did he manage to die again in Peshawar, Pakistan on December 16, 2014? How would you explain that, Sonny? Is it possible that there is just a tad bit of fraud and deception going on here?
One day you will discover exactly what your country has done to you. You are going to be shocked and in utter disbelief when the facade finally comes crashing down. You are so deserving of the imprisonment you will find yourself in because of your blind allegiance and disdain for the truth. You won’t, however, be lonely; you will be in the company of the great majority of Americans who also have no stomach for the truth.
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 20, 2015 at 1:01 am
Dear M. Free, or whatever your real name is:
I’d be happy to answer the question for you, but really you should take the time to research the truth yourself. It took me less than five minutes to find the truth on the Internet. Read this story in the Trace, it has everything you need to know about yet another hoax your sick leaders are perpetrating:
http://www.thetrace.org/2015/12/sandy-hook-mass-shooting-hoaxers/
It mentions the incident about Taliban gunmen who opened fire at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, killing 141 people. And how, soon after, a poster of Noah appeared there at a vigil for the dead–yes, a poster of Noah, a little boy who was a victim of gun violence at his school in Connecticut, just as the children were in Pakistan. Someone carries a poster of Noah in solidarity, and you twist it into “the boy who died twice”? No one but you Neanderthal hoaxers have ever said Noah died in Pakistan.
It’s hard for normal people to understand what it is within the cesspool of your soul that is fed by victimizing this family a second time after they’ve lost their son in a horrific tragedy. It’s really unthinkable, and I imagine that those who live with or near you must think daily about having you committed to try to end the harm that you inflict. It’s interesting that you used the word “imprisonment” in your comment. Keep up this nonsense and you’ll very likely become even better acquainted with the concept when you find yourself locked away to protect those around you from your lunacy.
You government conspiracy types all imagine thousands of government agents who’ve carried out secret, sinister plots yet live and work among us, all of them living double lives and keeping reams of secrets forever zipped up behind their genius disguises. If any of you hoaxers would come out of your fantasy world long enough to study human nature for even a moment, you’d see that it’s impossible to get five people–forget about hundreds or thousands–try to get five people to agree on anything, and then tell five people a secret and make them swear to keep it on pain of imprisonment, and see if you can get through a day without the secret getting out. You’ve probably never kept a secret in your life, and neither has anyone else. Why do you think philandering husbands and wives get caught every time?
This idea that thousands of people carried out an elaborate “fake school shooting” and then kept it all a secret from geniuses like you is so ridiculous that it doesn’t even warrant the time it’s taken to type this. And to what purpose? Remind me again exactly what this “fake school shooting” accomplished? What was the advantage the “government” gained by “carrying out” a logistical nightmare of a trick it used to fool 300 million Americans?
M. Free, or whoever you are (If you’re so sure of your position, why not use your first name, too? What are you hiding?), this whole sad affair was the result of a very disturbed teenage boy who, thanks to the gun culture in this country, had access to weapons that he had no business having access to. Just like most of the mass shooters in this country. If you’re looking for a conspiracy, you need look no further than the NRA, which has made it its business to ensure all mentally incapacitated people, including terrorists, have access to any weapon they want.
There’s your conspiracy.
Ezra Pound • Dec 22, 2015 at 6:15 pm
it’s called Sandy HOAX for a reason – it’s one of a long list of FALSE FLAG staged events
If you are at this stage still oblivious to the term “FALSE FLAG” then I would claim that you are not serious about observing what has been happening right in front of us and downright irresponsible in your duty as a concerned citizen.
It’s time to stop supporting false narratives and lies to the public.
Do your homework. Get on youtube and start learning. The longer the US public allows the “manufactured & engineered consent” of the propagana public relations Spin Masters the harder it will be for us to stop being used and dumbed down to where it will be impossible to retain what is quaintly remembered as “freedom” and our “Bill of Rights”.
The term “conspiracy theorist” was made up by the CIA after Kennedy’s assassination in order to shoot down alternatives to the obvious nature of what happened that fateful day in November 1963.
Again, do you homework, time to grow up and face the facts. So many of us have died and been smeared and forced out of jobs by stating the facts while the liars protect the scoundrels who pull such False Flag shenanigans and hoaxes.
Students at FAU should be coming out in droves in support of Professor Tracy – championing Free Speech and Truth. Or are they cowering in false “safe” spaces?
Phillip Jones • Sep 4, 2024 at 7:48 pm
No the CIA did not invent the term conspiracy theorist you lying POS! The American people don’t need to wake up, trash like you need to stop lying about and denying reality James Tracy harassing families, accusing the Pozners of faking their son’s death for money, and telling others to harass them is not free speech you rat b*st*rd! Nothing he said about Sandy Hook is the truth! You’d know this if you actually did or cared about doing research! the man you named yourself after was a rabid antisemite, and your probab
Peter Klein • Dec 17, 2015 at 2:34 am
Point of correction; where you state, “…Tracy sent them a letter demanding proof that their son Noah’s existed…” there’s no mention of what that letter was in response to. You see, Mr. Pozner had filed a DMCA takedown request through Professor Tracy’s ISP to force the removal of a photograph of Mr. Pozner’s son, widely disseminated in the media; a legal claim. One could argue that it was a cheap shot that had absolutely nothing to do with protection of innocence. But that’s beside the point.
My guess is that, what prompted Professor Tracy to respond to the DMCA claim by requesting some proof the boy in the photo was indeed his son and had indeed died is the problematic issue of Mr. Pozner filing the claim using an alias. The DMCA process requires that a claimant use his/her real identity. Filing a claim using an alias constitutes perjury. It’s possible the letter was sent to Mr. Pozner to establish certain facts relevant to potential fraud.
And now we see the ultimate conclusion of the act of filing that DMCA request. Had Mr. Pozner taken issue with use of his purported child’s image and the DMCA claim resolved that matter, what purpose does lobbying for his firing serve? Could it have been a procedural retort on the checklist of certain people perpetrating a fraud?
What people, certainly academics might need to remember is how simple a matter it is for a person to misrepresent matters and even his own identity. With the benefit of a claims process that favors the claimant and requires nothing to substantiate the claim, anyone can be targeted in a smear campaign, a more elaborate operation or just for kicks. It helps to have friends in the media and a disgruntled state watching from the sidelines.
CW Wade • Dec 17, 2015 at 2:25 am
While what James Tracy has done to so many families, including what he did to Lenny (whom I consider a friend)… what is not being publicized is a blog post Tracy did attacking a little girl who still attends school in Newtown. He accused the young girl of being the actress who played one of the deceased children.
Tracy refuses to take the blog post down and this little girl has to grow up with this out there. It is truly demonstrative of a sick mind.
Society should not tolerate people attacking children on their blogs, let alone a University Professor.
I’ve read every post Tracy has made on mass shootings; he is an evil man, a monster whose cruelty knows no bounds; however, that is not the worse part. his followers hang on his every word and actually buy into his bull crap. Those are the really dangerous people.
Sonny Bohanan • Dec 16, 2015 at 10:38 pm
To Florida Atlantic University President John Kelly, spokeswoman Lisa Metcalf, and other leaders of the university:
I’m writing to ask a simple question: Why did university leaders wait three years to begin disciplinary action against James Tracy, a tenured professor at your school who harasses and belittles families whose six- and seven-year-old children were killed by a deranged vile terrorist at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.
The fact that Mr. Tracy is a communications professor makes the cowardly acts he committed even more egregious because he teaches the next generation of journalists. It doesn’t feel right typing those words, because a man deranged enough to pour his sick hatred on grieving families has undoubtedly lost the ability to teach his students anything of use.
Perhaps you thought that Mr. Tracy is or was — as I write this it seems he is no longer working at FAU, but that’s not 100% clear in the story above — providing an example for his students of what never to do. But the lesson is so unhinged, and utterly depraved, that I wonder how he had any students who would sit in a classroom with him. Perhaps this is what finally forced your hand — that no one signed up for his classes — I don’t know. I do know that none of my three children will ever attend Florida Atlantic, and I’m frankly surprised that you have any students while employing a professor of America’s lunatic fringe.
Thank you for at last taking definitive steps to discipline him for the vomitous hate he’s spewed on these families. It’s a particular kind of sickness that affects people like Mr. Tracy, who is cut from the same cloth as the members of the Westwood Baptist Church, homophobic screamers who attend the funerals of fallen soldiers. There’s a special place in hell for the likes of Mr. Tracy, and sadly he ensures that all of us are forced to live in it with him and his kindred ghouls at Westwood Baptist.
Perhaps you’ve previously disciplined Mr. Tracy or tried to stop his behavior. If so, I hope this will end — finally — his abuse of the children’s families, though a man this deranged seems unlikely to stop simply because he no longer has a job. If his actions prove criminal and he winds up in jail or prison, I imagine he won’t be long for this world.
If this is the first time you’ve taken action against him, shame on you. By employing him, you funded his behavior, his obliteration of people who had already suffered more than any parent should have to. You and the Republican Congress have been no friends of the Sandy Hook families. They’ve been doubly victimized: By an American political system so cynical that we pretend not to notice it’s being run by a hate-mongering, fear-loving gun-rights organization, and again by a man you’ve paid for three years to hector and belittle to despair.
I hope you’ll answer the main question at the heart of my letter: Why? Why did it take three years. If there’s an explanation, we need to hear it. If there is none, I suspect your punishment is already well upon you. Sleeping at night won’t be easy, and so I leave you to your future regrets. May it be a lesson to all of us to speak up every time, loudly, in the face of hate, to drown it out, and to be sure we do not enable it through fear, complacency, or unsureness about how to proceed.
Sonny Bohanan
Fort Worth, Texas