Robert Jensen

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Robert William Jensen (born July 14, 1958) is a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined the faculty in 1992 after completing his Ph.D. in media law and ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Prior to his academic career, he worked as a professional journalist for a decade. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in media law, ethics, and politics. Jensen also is director of the Senior Fellows Program, the honors program of the UT College of Communication.

In his research, Jensen draws on a variety of critical theories. Much of his work has focused on pornography and the radical feminist critique of masculinity. In more recent work, he has opined on white privilege and institutionalized racism.

In addition to teaching and research, Jensen writes for popular media, both alternative and mainstream. His opinion and analytic pieces on such subjects as foreign policy, politics, and race have appeared in papers around the country. He also is involved in a number of activist groups working against U.S. military and economic policies.

[edit] Controversy

He drew widespread attention for a series of controversial opinion pieces he published in the Houston Chronicle shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

According to Jensen, the United States was "just as guilty" as the hijackers in committing acts of violence. Jensen wrote that the Al Qaeda attack on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon "was no more despicable than the massive acts of terrorism...that the U.S. government has committed during my lifetime." [1]

Letters to the editor and reportedly over 4,000 complaints to Jensen himself denounced his article as insensitive and extremist, coming just three days after the attack. Several letters also criticized the newspaper for printing the op-ed piece at all.[2] University of Texas President Larry Faulkner also disavowed the articles, calling Jensen "a fountain of undiluted foolishness on issues of public policy.[3]

[edit] Works

Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity (South End Press, 2007)
The Heart of Whiteness: Confronting Race, Racism and White Privilege (City Lights, 2005) ISBN 978-0872864498
Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (City Lights, 2004) ISBN 978-0872864320
Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (Peter Lang, 2002) ISBN 978-0820456515
Co-author with Gail Dines and Ann Russo of Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (Routledge, 1998)
Co-editor with David S. Allen of Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression (New York University Press, 1995)