Wisconsin’s Badger Institute Accused of ‘Cowardice’ for Uninviting Rich Lowry

Wisconsin’s Badger Institute provoked a firestorm of controversy by uninviting national conservative commentator Rich Lowry from a media panel, prompting Lowry to accuse the conservative organization of “cowardice.”

In a statement on the Institute’s website, President Mike Nichols confirmed that the organization switched speakers because “of concern” over Lowry’s interview with podcaster Megyn Kelly. He denied that Badger acted out of cowardice.

Lowry wrote a column for National Review headlined, “Next Time Cancel Me for Something I Actually Said.” In it, he wrote that he had been canceled by Badger Institute and Indiana State University.

Many conservatives are roasting Badger Institute on social media, arguing that a conservative organization should not help further what they see as a cancel culture hoax being perpetrated by the left against Lowry.

Indiana State also drew criticism.

Lowry, the editor-in-chief of National Review and a well-known conservative writer for many years, wrote that he was falsely smeared by liberals on the Internet when he mangled the word immigrant and migrant while discussing Haitians in an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s podcast. Liberals on social media accused Lowry of using a racial slur; he says he mispronounced the word migrant by conflating it briefly with immigrant before correcting himself and did not use a racial slur.

“Everyone in my business takes lumps for things they say. That comes with the territory. What’s different is getting smeared for something you verifiably didn’t say,” Lowry wrote.

Lowry then outed the Badger Institute of Wisconsin and Indiana State University as being the two organizations that cancelled his appearances.

“It pains me to say I’ve also been canceled by the Badger Institute, the right-of-center think tank in Wisconsin. The president called on Tuesday to ask me to withdraw from an address at an upcoming dinner, and when I refused and asked him what I’d done wrong, he only said something or other about ‘the environment.’ When I flatly asked him whether he was disinviting me, he said, ‘Yes.’ Cowardice is contagious.”

In the article, Lowry goes into great detail to explain that he did not use the racial slur. “These ridiculously false accusations on social media — that have been rebutted even by people who disagree with me politically — have now resulted in cancellations in the real world,” he wrote.

On social media, people have slowed down video of Lowry’s comments.

We contacted Badger Institute’s President Mike Nichols for his response, and he referred us to a statement posted on the Institute’s website. It says, in full:

“Our Annual Dinner is coming up on October 1, and we’ll feature a panel of veteran journalists and think tank leaders talking about left-wing media bias and how conservatives can make sure our ideas and opinions are fairly and factually reported.

This is a new line-up, a switch we made because of concern about an interview Rich Lowry, our previously scheduled speaker, took part in on the Megyn Kelly Show.

Rich has now accused us of canceling him out of cowardice or because of the ‘environment.’

For the record, we’re a fundamentally conservative state-level policy and journalism shop, and our decisions about speakers have nothing to do with big left-right political conflict at the national level or anything happening anywhere else. We don’t fear scrutiny or discussion. We welcome it.

We looked closely at the facts and believe we came to the right decision. We try hard to do what’s right and believe that we have done that.

Now, can we please get back to talking about government waste and overspending and tax levels and lousy schools? Energy needs? Housing? Federalism?”