From: "Hale, C. Kate" <HALECL@uwec.edu> Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 06:48:32 -0500 Subject: RE: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist Message-ID: <6DCE403B991434499E60901A1A1EC1625F3A89ECA2@CHERRYCOKE.uwec.edu>
Bob/SFPJ Colleagues--
A case in point, from this morning's email-linked _Spectator_, a little ite
m on our latest addition to campus periodicals--note second sentence:
"As of the Sept. 24 issue, the Riverfront Review had six staff members, all
of which are volunteer positions, LeTourneau said.
Thus far the paper has been funded by a grant from the Leadership Institute
, an organization with the goal of training future conservative leaders, ac
cording to its Web site. Friends of the College Republicans have also donat
ed, LeTourneau said."
See more about this group funding Riverfront Review at
http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/
Kate
C.L. (Kate) Hale, Ph.D.
Department of English
(715) 836-2761
________________________________________
From: sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu [sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On
Behalf Of Nowlan, Robert A. [RANOWLAN@uwec.edu]
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 11:59 PM
To: sfpj@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: RE: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist
Hi Paul. I don't know the answer to your question. But it's certainly pos
sible. And at times I have gained a strong sense, during my eleven years a
t UWEC now, that some of our students are well connected with major conserv
ative interests organized outside of this campus that are quite willing and
able to help these students represent those causes here. I'd recommend we
be vigilant.
Bob
________________________________
From: Kaldjian, Paul J.
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 11:51 PM
To: Nowlan, Robert A.; sfpj@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: RE: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention Bob. Do you think that
many or any of our students are in the know enough to be caught up in this
despicable campaign? I don't have a sense.
paul
P. Kaldjian
Geography & Anthropology
University of Wisconsin -- Eau Claire
________________________________
From: sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu [sfpj-request@listserve.uwec.edu] On
Behalf Of Nowlan, Robert A. [RANOWLAN@uwec.edu]
Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 12:49 PM
To: sfpj@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: FW: [SCMSClass] Horowitz checklist
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 doub
tful that he could get a competitive search teaching job, given the logical
and factual flaws in his publications. He seems to have no publications t
hat have ever gone through the standard academic blind peer-reviewed proces
s.
2. He and his “think tank” website are funded by ultra conservative bu
sinessmen. He does not have an actual viable organization with grassroots
members who organize anything. E.g. his upcoming appearance at Emory Unive
rsity was not the result of an initiative or invitation from the campus. R
ather, his office contacted the College Republicans to set it up. It’s a
lways 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 a
nd revealed to be unnecessary, redundant, and just plain laughable when act
ually the subject of legislative and judicial investigation. In other word
s, he doesn’t have a long range strategy or set of goals which he tries t
o build year after year, he just gives up and moves on to a new topic aimed
at getting money out of wealthy conservatives. Given that we are now six
years after 9/11, why is it only now that Horowitz highlights “Islamo-fas
cism” as a high priority problem? Why does he now feign concern for wome
n 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 from a fictional film made several years ago. When it was pointed ou
t that the photo was not a document, he finally just removed it from the si
te. Lie first, correct later.
5. “Facts Count” is a detailed careful and rational examination of the
factual errors and outright lies in Horowitz’s book on the 101 “most d
angerous” professors. He does not accept responsibility for these errors
. (see Free Exchange on Campus site).
6. Horowitz’s “investigation” of campus leftist professors includes
collecting information on voter registration. The fact that one is registe
red as a “Democrat” (which then allows one to vote in party primaries
in many states) for Horowitz is “proof” that one is a rabid leftist int
ent on smashing democracy and installing communism.
7. David Horowitz promoted his “academic bill of rights’ that would pr
ohibit faculty from speaking on any political issues in class, and which ca
lls for compensatory hiring of conservatives to achieve ideological balance
in universities. When the Pennsylvania House of Representatives held hea
rings on supposed professorial bias in the classroom, Horowitz was forced t
o admit that his “examples” of egregious prejudice tainting the classro
om were actually hearsay and he had never actually investigated student com
ments. (So much for scholarly standards of proof.) Although the Reagan co
nservatives actually railed against shoddy scholarship and lack of substant
ive research in the postmodern academy, twenty years later even dedicated i
deologues like Horowitz seem to blow off research that would substantiate c
laims.
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 o
n campus by Ann Coulter, whose wild charges were too much for even The Nati
onal Review which dropped her column. The current website includes an att
ack on Jimmy Carter as an anti-Semite for his criticism of Israeli policy a
nd actions 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