Thursday, January 11, 2024

THE NEW McCARTHYISM
Pat Sajak blasts ‘far-left propaganda’ that has ‘infected’ colleges: letter

Mark Alesia, Investigative Reporter
January 11, 2024 

TV personality Pat Sajak attends "The Wheel of Fortune: 35 Years as America's Game" hosted by The Paley Center For Media at The Paley Center for Media on November 15, 2017, in New York City. (Photo by Jim Spellman/WireImage via Getty Images)


Pat Sajak guides the realm of letter-turning and phrase-guessing as host of the enduring game show Wheel of Fortune, maintaining an amiable, everyman persona for more than four decades.

But when the subject turns to politics, Sajak becomes something quite different — a sharp-elbowed culture warrior who serves as chairman of the Board for Hillsdale College, a small private institution in Michigan beloved by Christian conservatives.

“If you care about liberty and if you believe America’s brightest young people deserve an alternative to the PC-policed schools that dominate the American university landscape, I encourage you to support Hillsdale College,” Sajak said in a January fundraising letter obtained by Raw Story.

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He says Hillsdale offers education “free of the far-Left propaganda that has infected so many of America’s college campuses.”

Hillsdale immerses students in classic Western thought in what it sees as high-minded support of “America’s founding principles of liberty and limited government.”

Despite the school’s lofty ideals, the New York Times reported recently how Hillsdale was caught up in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.



Pat Sajak's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Shutterstock / Walter Cicchetti

And the school apparently doesn’t hesitate to rile its donors with red meat conservative bugaboos.

Sajak’s fundraising letter included a “National Opinion Survey on the threat of Critical Race Theory in American Education.”

“Do you think critical race theory has a divisive effect in our schools, increasing race consciousness and racial division in the name of ‘anti-racism’?” is the first question.

Hillsdale did not immediately respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.

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The “survey” generally reads like an advertisement for Hillsdale, including mentions of the school’s free online courses and magazine.

Sajak, 77, has been on Hillsdale’s Board of Trustees since 2002 and became chairman in 2019. He is a longtime friend of Hillsdale President Larry Arnn. Former Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are also noted friends of Arnn.

Pence delivered Hillsdale’s graduation speech as a sitting vice president. Thomas has also been a graduation speaker for the school.

This year’s speaker is Sajak, who, in a presidential election year, will have plenty to discuss — if the game show host makes his speech political.


“Pat Sajak gave a wonderful convocation speech some years ago,” Arnn said when Sajak was announced as the speaker last September. “He has done long and excellent service for our college, and he has a serious understanding of and commitment to it. I expect his remarks will be worthy of the occasion.”



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