The presser was set for 6 p.m. ET but it’s been delayed for whatever reason. Whether it’s summer doldrums or just my outrage meter being on the fritz, I honestly couldn’t care less what happens to this turd at this point. His comic value as a caricature of the caricature that is academia is long since depleted. The only reason to cover it now is closure.

U of C’s president recommended that they fire him — for plagiarism and fabricating data, remember, not for his politics — back on May 30 so it’s a fait accompli that the axe will fall. In so doing, the university rids itself of a PR disaster and “Chutch” finally gets the role he was born to play, that of the truth-speaking “brown person” whose dissent the man just can’t handle. Win/win. If you’re looking for substantive yet zestily schadenfreudean coverage of the announcement, try Pirate Ballerina; they are to the Churchill saga what KC Johnson was to the Duke lax case. My one hope is that the chief and his tribe throw a tantrum at the hearing after he gets sent down the trail of tears so that at least we’ll wring some video out of this snoozer. Cross them fingers.

Update: The scene earlier outside the hearing. He’s pretty snappy with those comebacks, eh?

Update: 8-1, he’s gone. I’ll have a clip of his nutrootsy followers screeching soon.

Update: According to NBC Denver, those poles he’s carrying in the heckling video are a “Native American symbol.” Har.

Update: Here’s the moment of truth, for posterity.

Update: The school president and head of the board of regents went out of their way afterwards to emphasize that it was his ethical lapses that sunk him, not his political views. The AP headline: “Professor fired for 9/11-Nazi comparison.”