When it comes to reporting on 9/11 conspiracy-mongering professors, The New York Times diverts attention away from the nuttiness of their views toward a reflexive defense of their speech rights. The nuttiness goes unexamined, while the story becomes the emergence of what the Times in one article calls “a fierce debate about academic freedom.” Elsewhere, however, the paper did not show similar interest in Harvard President Larry Summers’ right to free academic inquiry.