Joe Gow was fired from his job as chancellor of University of Wisconsin-La Crosse because he also films porn and has a sexy cooking channel on YouTube with his wife, Carmen Wilson. I earlier posted this as an example of clueless administrators Streisanding the thing it wanted people not to find out about: Gow reportedly offered to quit the post quietly, but the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse insisted on a more public spectacle. And now we learn, thanks to a FOIA request filed by FIRE, that it paid $133,376.75 to a law firm to "investigate" the professor's claimed "misconduct."
Here's what the taxpayer got for its money: lawyers paid through the nose to watch vegan smut vids on YouTube. What was the 75 cents for? All of them!
"Professor Gow's pornography remains protected by the First Amendment and should never have prompted a misconduct investigation," Zach Greenberg, FIRE's Faculty Legal Defense Counsel, wrote in a press release. "Wisconsin taxpayers should be outraged that their money is being wasted on witch-hunts. Even $1 is too much to spend on censorship."
Meanwhile, FIRE adds, the University is "cash-strapped."
Slate recently interviewed Gow and Wilson.
spoke over Zoom with Gow, while Wilson listened in off-camera. ("She just got off the elliptical, so she not real eager to be on camera," Gow said, which was a funny thing to hear about someone I'd just watched have an orgasm.) We discussed how they ended up shooting professional-quality porn, why he thinks Republicans in the state Legislature are behind his ousting, and Wilson's vegan egg-salad recipe. Our conversation has been edited and condensed.
