Mark Crispin Miller (born 1949) is a professor of media studies at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

. He has promoted conspiracy theories about U.S. presidential elections, the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

and the

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, United States, when 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 26 people. Twenty of the victims were children between six and seven years old, and t ...

as well as misinformation about

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

and vaccines.

Background and career

In the introduction to ''Seeing Through Movies'', Miller argues that the nature of American films has been affected by the impact of advertising. He has said that the handful of

multinational corporation A multinational company (MNC), also referred to as a multinational enterprise (MNE), a transnational enterprise (TNE), a transnational corporation (TNC), an international corporation or a stateless corporation with subtle but contrasting senses, i ...

s in control of the American media have changed youth culture's focus away from values and toward commercial interests and personal vanity. In a June 2001 profile by

Chris Hedges Christopher Lynn Hedges (born September 18, 1956) is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, author, and commentator. In his early career, Hedges worked as a freelance war correspondent in Central America for '' The Christian Science M ...

for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Miller described himself a "public intellectual" and criticized television news "that is astonishingly empty and distorts reality". He has appeared on the ''Useful Idiots'' podcast and was praised by its host,

Matt Taibbi Matthew Colin Taibbi (; born March 2, 1970) is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for ''Rolling Stone'', he is an author of several books, co-host o ...

Conspiracy-theory and disinformation promotion

In his social and political commentary, Miller frequently espouses conspiracy theories. On social media and in other statements, Miller has promoted conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks; anti-vaccine misinformation; the claim that Joe Biden stole the

2020 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 January: ** ...

; the claim that the beheading of the journalist James Foley by

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

was fake; and the claim that the

Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police bruta ...

movement is funded by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

. Miller is a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement and a member of the 9/11 Truth movement. He dislikes the term "conspiracy theory", calling the phrase a "meme" used to "discredit people engaged in really necessary kinds of investigation and inquiry." In a 2017 New York ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...

'' interview, he said anyone using the term "in a pejorative sense" is "a witting or unwitting CIA asset".

Election fraud conspiracy theories

In his book ''Fooled Again'', Miller claims that the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2004 U.S. presidential elections were stolen. He has since claimed that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was stolen.

9/11 hoax conspiracy theory

In 2016, Miller gave a speech to the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. After a "truthers" symposium on 9/11, Miller told ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

'' that the official explanations for

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

and John F. Kennedy's assassination "are just as unscientific as the ones that everybody feels comfortable ridiculing".

Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre hoax conspiracy theory

In a blog post, Miller suggested that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax; in a subsequent interview, he denied that any children died in the shooting and voiced "suspicion" that "it was staged" or was "some kind of an exercise." Miller praised a Sandy Hook denial book by James Fetzer as "compelling" (a $450,000

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

judgment had previously been entered against Fetzer, after the father of one of the murdered Sandy Hook students sued him for false statements made in the book).

Anti-vaccination and COVID misinformation

Miller has also screened for his students the

anti-vaccination Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

film ''

Vaxxed ''Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe'' is a 2016 American pseudoscience propaganda film alleging a cover-up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a purported link between the MMR vaccine and autism. According to ''Vari ...

'', produced by disgraced former physician

Andrew Wakefield Andrew Jeremy Wakefield (born September 3, 1956) is a British anti-vaccine activist, former physician, and discredited academic who was struck off the medical register for his involvement in ''The Lancet'' MMR autism fraud, a 1998 study that ...

(who was struck off the medical register in the UK for scientific misconduct). Miller has spread

COVID-19 misinformation False information, including intentional disinformation and conspiracy theories, about the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease has been spread through social media, text messagin ...

, including misleading claims about the efficacy of face masks and false claims that

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

s alter recipients' DNA.

Books

Miller's books include: * *''Seeing Through Movies'' (edited, 1990) *''The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder'' (2001) *''Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order'' (2004) *''Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)'' (2005)''Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them)'', New York: Basic Books, 2005, . Reviews
Publishers WeeklyKirkus Reviews
Farhad Manjoo, ''Salon''

/ref> *''Loser Take All : Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008'' (December 2008, )

References

External links

Official faculty biography
from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
Official blog
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Mark Crispin 1949 births 20th-century American male writers 9/11 conspiracy theorists American conspiracy theorists American male non-fiction writers American media critics American political writers Johns Hopkins University alumni Living people New York University faculty Northwestern University alumni American anti-vaccination activists COVID-19 conspiracy theorists