From: "Nowlan, Robert A." <RANOWLAN@uwec.edu> Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 12:49:11 -0500 Subject: FW: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist Message-ID: <7A17A445D0203848B157E8D70D1AC77E459E965226@CHERRYPEPSI.uwec.edu>
And this is a useful series of points in response to David Horowitz and his
initiative directed against so-called 'Islamo-fascism' on American college
/university campuses.
Bob Nowlan
________________________________
From: scmsclass-bounces@cmstudies.org [mailto: [mailto:scmsclass-bounces@cmstudies.o
rg] On Behalf Of Chuck Kleinhans
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 9:16 AM
To: Caucus on Class
Subject: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist
This might be useful to anyone who wants to discuss Horowitz's upcoming cam
paign against "Islamo-facism" on campus.
Horowitz check list
Useful background article
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i35/35a00801.htm
From the issue dated May 6, 2005
Good starting source for critique of Horowitz (includes links to other sour
ces)
http://www.freeexchangeoncampus.org/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=
25
Some possibly useful points:
1. Horowitz has never been a college teacher, not even on an adjunct or gue
st or visiting basis. Thus he has a very limited idea and imagination abou
t how college teaching works and what's involved. It actually seems doubtf
ul that he could get a competitive search teaching job, given the logical a
nd factual flaws in his publications. He seems to have no publications tha
t have ever gone through the standard academic blind peer-reviewed process.
2. He and his "think tank" website are funded by ultra conservative busine
ssmen. He does not have an actual viable organization with grassroots memb
ers who organize anything. E.g. his upcoming appearance at Emory Universit
y was not the result of an initiative or invitation from the campus. Rathe
r, his office contacted the College Republicans to set it up. It's always
a good idea to ask how much he gets paid and by whom.
3. Horowitz comes up with a new project every year or so, just after his pr
evious headline-grabbing project is shown to be absurdly wrong and fails to
gain support. His "academic bill of rights" has been a huge failure and r
evealed to be unnecessary, redundant, and just plain laughable when actuall
y the subject of legislative and judicial investigation. In other words, h
e doesn't have a long range strategy or set of goals which he tries to buil
d year after year, he just gives up and moves on to a new topic aimed at ge
tting money out of wealthy conservatives. Given that we are now six years
after 9/11, why is it only now that Horowitz highlights "Islamo-fascism" as
a high priority problem? Why does he now feign concern for women and gays
in Islam, when he has never shown such interest before?
4. Horowitz endlessly exudes anger and self-pity. In interviews he bemoan
s the fact that films have been made about leftists, but not about him, etc
., that his books are not required reading in college courses, etc.
5. When critics have pointed out major errors of fact in his publications,
his reaction has been to deny that these are errors, or to remove the offe
nding passage from his website (if too embarrassing), or to say (often) tha
t he is not responsible, that someone else said it, and it is not his task
to correct the error. In his current campaign against "Islamo-facism" he "
documented" a story of killing a woman for sexual activity with an image fr
om a fictional film made several years ago. When it was pointed out that t
he photo was not a document, he finally just removed it from the site. Lie
first, correct later.
5. "Facts Count" is a detailed careful and rational examination of the fac
tual errors and outright lies in Horowitz's book on the 101 "most dangerous
" professors. He does not accept responsibility for these errors. (see Fr
ee Exchange on Campus site).
6. Horowitz's "investigation" of campus leftist professors includes collec
ting information on voter registration. The fact that one is registered as
a "Democrat" (which then allows one to vote in party primaries in many st
ates) for Horowitz is "proof" that one is a rabid leftist intent on smashin
g democracy and installing communism.
7. David Horowitz promoted his "academic bill of rights' that would prohib
it faculty from speaking on any political issues in class, and which calls
for compensatory hiring of conservatives to achieve ideological balance in
universities. When the Pennsylvania House of Representatives held hearing
s on supposed professorial bias in the classroom, Horowitz was forced to ad
mit that his "examples" of egregious prejudice tainting the classroom were
actually hearsay and he had never actually investigated student comments.
(So much for scholarly standards of proof.) Although the Reagan conservati
ves actually railed against shoddy scholarship and lack of substantive rese
arch in the postmodern academy, twenty years later even dedicated ideologue
s like Horowitz seem to blow off research that would substantiate claims.
8. A visit to the Horowitz organization website is filled with horror sto
ries aimed to create outrage and open checkbooks Yet reading between the l
ines, one wonders at the claims made. One might think that a leader in the
campus Young Republicans would have enough courage of his convictions and
a sense that the Party had his back to stand up to professorial bias. Even
more startling, finding that a former Special Forces veteran of the Iraq w
ar is too intimidated to stand up to the ramblings of a humanities profess
or. In other cases, it is clear that campus progressives entered absurd an
d self-contradictory stories that Horowitz seems to actually believe.
9. His current anti "Islamo-facist" campaign includes guest speaking on ca
mpus by Ann Coulter, whose wild charges were too much for even The National
Review which dropped her column. The current website includes an attack
on Jimmy Carter as an anti-Semite for his criticism of Israeli policy and a
ctions in Gaza and the West Bank.
Chuck Kleinhans
Associate Professor
Radio/Television/Film,
Northwestern University
1800 Sherman Ave, room 117
Evanston IL 60208
office: 847-491-2255; 847-491-7315
co-editor, JUMPCUT: A Review of Contemporary Media
www.ejumpcut.org
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