Mark Crispin Miller (born 6 November 1949 ) is a professor of media studies at New York University. He has promoted conspiracy theories about U.S. presidential elections, the September 11 attacks and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as well as misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines.

Background and career

In the introduction to Seeing Through Movies, Miller argues that the nature of American films has been affected by the impact of advertising. He has said that the handful of multinational corporations in control of the American media have changed youth culture's focus away from values and toward commercial interests and personal vanity. In a June 2001 profile by Chris Hedges for The New York Times, Miller described himself as a "public intellectual" and criticized television news "that is astonishingly empty and distorts reality". He has appeared on the Useful Idiots podcast and was praised by its host, Matt Taibbi.

Conspiracy-theory and disinformation promotion

In his social and political commentary, Miller frequently espouses conspiracy theories. On social media and in other statements, Miller has promoted conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks; Miller is a signatory to the 9/11 Truth Statement and a member of the 9/11 Truth movement. He dislikes the term "conspiracy theory", calling the phrase a "meme" used to "discredit people engaged in really necessary kinds of investigation and inquiry." In a 2017 New York Observer interview, he said anyone using the term "in a pejorative sense" is "a witting or unwitting CIA asset".

Election fraud conspiracy theories

In his book Fooled Again, Miller claims that the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections were stolen. He has since claimed that the 2020 U.S. Presidential election was stolen. In 2024, on a post in his Substack page, Miller gave a detailed statement about the U.S. Presidential elections he believed were stolen. In the post, Miller claims that the 2000 U.S. Presidential election was rigged in favor of George W. Bush over his rival Al Gore to allow the war on terror, that the 2004 Presidential election was again rigged for Bush to ensure victory over John Kerry, that the 2016 election was rigged to allow Donald Trump to win over Hillary Clinton but that Trump did legitimately win reelection in 2020 (or just "election" as Miller claims his first term in office was actually an "ascension" due its illegitimacy) and despite that was stolen to force him out of office and replace him with Joe Biden. In the same post, Miller also claims that the rigging of the previously mentioned elections were carried out in collaborations by the CIA, the media and both the Democratic and Republican parties (but for the last two, only against the other party). Miller claims that both the Democratic and Republican parties routinely steal elections from the other and that to say otherwise is misguided and that saying that only one party steals elections is partisan. Miller also uses his post to denounce the term "election denier" and its use by the media to describe himself and other people who claim that the 2020 election was stolen, claiming that the term "election denier" is used to compare them "morally and intellectually" to "Holocaust deniers", a group of conspiracy theorists propagating the view that the Holocaust was a hoax, a view denounced as racist and dis-proven not only by Miller but also the vast majority of legitimate historians and the media.

9/11 hoax conspiracy theory

In 2016, Miller gave a speech to the Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. After a "truthers" symposium on 9/11, Miller told Vice that the official explanations for 9/11 and John F. Kennedy's assassination "are just as unscientific as the ones that everybody feels comfortable ridiculing".

Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre hoax conspiracy theory

In a blog post, Miller suggested that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax; in a subsequent interview, he denied that any children died in the shooting and voiced "suspicion" that "it was staged" or was "some kind of an exercise". Miller praised a Sandy Hook denial book by James Fetzer as "compelling" (a $450,000 defamation judgment had previously been entered against Fetzer, after the father of one of the murdered Sandy Hook students sued him for false statements made in the book).

Anti-vaccination and COVID misinformation

Miller has also screened for his students the anti-vaccination film Vaxxed, produced by disgraced former physician Andrew Wakefield (who was struck off the medical register in the UK for scientific misconduct). Miller has spread COVID-19 misinformation, including misleading claims about the efficacy of face masks and false claims that COVID-19 vaccines alter recipients' DNA, and believes the virus may have been an artificially created bioweapon.

Books

Miller's books include: