But shortly after President Donald Trump’s first election, the group launched an ambitious new project — the Professor Watchlist — aimed at highlighting what it saw as left-leaning bias in higher education. “The Professor Watchlist planted that seed.”Create a free account with NBC 5 DFW to save articles and videos. The lecturer, who was not on the Professor Watchlist, was fired and two administrators were removed from their posts. Some conservatives argue the watchlist was a necessary antidote to left-wing bias on campus and helped counter-balance the criticism of right-wing professors. “It’s not ‘Professor Blacklist’ and it’s not ‘Professor Hitlist,’” Kirk said at the time.