Horowitz: Professors profiled in his book are part of "intellectual corruption" exposed in Ward Churchill case
SUMMARY: On Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, right-wing activist David Horowitz falsely equated the recent allegations of plagiarism and related academic misconduct by Ward Churchill, professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, with the activities of other professors Horowitz profiled in his book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America.
On the May 16 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, right-wing activist David Horowitz falsely equated the recent allegations of plagiarism and related academic misconduct by Ward Churchill, professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, with the activities of other professors Horowitz profiled in his book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America (Regnery, January 2006). Alleging that Churchill's indiscretions amount to "the tip of a very large iceberg" of academic impropriety at universities across the United States, Horowitz stated: "[W]hen you have a case like this, it exposes a widespread intellectual corruption of the university, which is what my book The Professors is about and why it has, you know, inspired such ire among professors." In fact, a Media Matters for America examination of The Professors found that of the 100 professors profiled, Horowitz documented only four cases in which a professor was -- like Churchill -- investigated by the university.
Horowitz appeared on The Big Story to discuss, as the Rocky Mountain News reported, findings by the University of Colorado's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct that Churchill "stole the work of others, twisted facts to bolster his own theories and repeatedly violated the most basic standards of scholarly research." Host John Gibson asked Horowitz if he was surprised by the committee's findings. Horowitz replied, "[n]ot in the least," adding, "What's also interesting is that three members of that committee didn't think that was cause for actually firing him. So, you have to wonder what it takes in the way of violation of academic standards." Horowitz then said that Churchill's academic conduct was "the tip of the iceberg" and suggested that the professors he profiled in his book were comparable to Churchill. He said: "I put 100 professors in my book The Professors, but I could have put 10,000 of them."
The four university professors identified by Horowitz as having undergone investigations are as follows:
- Joseph Massad, Columbia University (pages 275-276): According to Horowitz, Massad's university investigated "two incidents in which he was alleged to have screamed at pro-Israeli students."
- Leonard Jeffries, City University of New York (236-237): According to Horowitz, in 1992, the City University of New York board of trustees removed Jeffries as head of the Black Studies Department for making derogatory comments regarding George Washington and the Constitution.
- Robert Dunkley, University of Northern Colorado (128-131): Horowitz documented a university investigation into a student allegation that Dunkley provided an exam question asking "students to write an essay declaring that their country's war in Iraq was 'criminal'." Horowitz did not note any action taken against Dunkley. After Media Matters noted that Horowitz's version of this event was unsubstantiated, he admitted that the story "appears to be wrong." Horowitz subsequently retracted his correction, falsely accused Media Matters of lying, and then claimed he had lost interest in the "tedious back-and-forth" with Media Matters on the subject.
- Sami al-Arian, University of South Florida (17-20): Horowitz documented al-Arian's complications with authorities over his alleged ties to terrorism. The university suspended al-Arian with pay. At a subsequent trial, a jury acquitted al-Arian on some charges and was hung on other charges Before a retrial, al-Arian pleaded guilty to providing support to members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and agreed to be deported. According to his lawyer, al-Arian agreed to plead guilty to spare his family the difficulties of further legal proceedings.
From the May 16 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson:
GIBSON: The results of an investigation of a professor who compared 9-11 victims to Nazis were released a short time ago. The University of Colorado at Boulder has found -- quote -- "serious cases of misconduct in Ward Churchill's academic research."
MIMI WESSON (chairwoman, University of Colorado Standing Committee on Research Misconduct) [video clip]: In particular, we found instances of falsification, fabrication, plagiarism, failure to comply with established standards regarding author names on publications, and other serious deviations from accepted practices in recording the results of research.
GIBSON: Churchill has denied any wrongdoing. A punishment has not yet been determined. We're joined now by David Horowitz, editor of the conservative website FrontPageMag.com. In the 1990s, he created the Individual Rights Foundation, which led the battle against speech codes on college campuses. And, of course, he has a book about professors out right now. So, David, this surprise you, that Ward Churchill was found to have committed these offenses?
HOROWITZ: Not in the least. What's -- what's surprising is, this was a faculty committee -- very important to emphasize that -- that found him guilty of these egregious violations of standards. What's also interesting is that three members of that committee didn't think that was cause for actually firing him. So, you have to wonder what it takes in the way of violation of academic standards. The big story around Churchill is that he's the tip of a very large iceberg. I put 100 professors in my book The Professors, but I could have put 10,000 of them. When -- Churchill's academic record, of course, is known to the academics. His entire department voted to hire him without a Ph.D., voted to promote him to tenure rank and then to full professor rank, and then he was elected chairman of the department, which means the dean had to pass on that, and experts in the field. So, when you have a case like this, it exposes a widespread intellectual corruption of the university, which is what my book The Professors is about and why it has, you know, inspired such ire among professors.
I never understood the purpose of the university tenure system, until this idiot showed up.
Where does he find the time? Is it simply a matter of comparing faculty lists to lists of registered Democrats? Does he ever find evidence of conservative bias in economics or political science departments? How about ROTC? I took that back in the 60's and it seems to me the Colonel was quite conservative. Maybe he just looks up any accusations, regardless of substance, and writes them up as hard and solid fact? Would his readers accept such shoddy work? Seriously?
Wait till this kook hears about Ann Falter and her occasionally lack of, well, originality...
Horrowitz states:
In fact, not the least amount of proof ever surfaced supporting this accusation. The committe investigating Massad found him to be highly professional and very open to dissenting views. Horrowitz turns an accusation into proof of guilt, and MMFA unwitingly almost does the same by posting the accusation without the results of the investigation.
Peace Studies is Not Terrorism By George Wolfe
When right-wing activist David Horowitz charged the Peace Studies Program at Ball State with being anti-American and supporting terrorism, faculty and administrators fought back using an effective nonviolent strategy. The resounding triumph for academic freedom at the university is a good lesson not to take such charges lying down.
In September 2004, a student in my peace studies class said I was indoctrinating students and teaching anti-American ideas opposed to the war in Iraq. That student and another student who was not in my class objected to “liberal bias” and went to Horowitz’s organization. Slanderous articles about me were then posted on the Horowitz cybertabloid, Frontpage.com. The students also created a “wanted poster” aimed at a history professor named Abel Alves.
Horowitz, who routinely objects to peace studies programs all over the country, apparently decided that my class in the history and philosophy of nonviolence was anti-American. He claimed that I was teaching my students to sympathize with terrorists. I explained to the reporters who contacted me that there are no nonviolent terrorists and that what I teach in my peace studies class is the antithesis of terrorism. Through local and national newspaper interviews, I discredited Horowitz’s charges, successfully calling attention to his extremist political agenda.
A joint effort involving Ball State administrators and colleagues helped to deflect Horowitz’s attack further. Beverly Pitts, the university’s vice president for academic affairs; JoAnn Gora, its president; Randy Hyman, interim vice president for student affairs and enrollment management; and Joseph Losco, chair of the political science department, all took a public stand against political extremism and publicly refuted the false accusations directed toward peace studies at Ball State.
Pitts wrote a letter to Students for Academic Freedom, the student group affiliated with Horowitz, refuting the accusations against me, and she copied all the legislators in Indiana. Gora followed with a letter published in the Muncie Star Press. Losco spoke for the Ball State chapter of the AAUP. And Randy Hyman supported the peace studies program in an interview with the Ball State campus student paper.
As a result of my counter-arguments and the administration’s efforts in support of the program, two Indiana newspapers, the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette and the Star Press of Muncie, ran editorials criticizing Horowitz’s propaganda campaign. In addition, both encouraged state legislators to ignore requests from Horowitz supporters to enact legislation based on his “Academic Bill of Rights.”
The surge in publicity resulting from Horowitz’s smear campaign resulted, ironically, in renewed interest in the peace studies program at Ball State. The number of students enrolled in the Interdisciplinary Peace Studies minor grew from only six in September 2004 to seventeen by the end of the fall semester. Similarly, enrollment in “Introductory Peace Studies” doubled between spring 2004 and spring 2005. The campus student activist group Peace Workers also grew, and several people in the Muncie community made significant contributions to the Peace Studies Foundation Account. (It is clear that Horowitz knows little about effective activism. He really would benefit from taking my peace studies class.)
The strategy I used against the accusations was threefold. First, I “spoke truth to power,” as they say in peace studies by providing documentation (test questions and handouts of discussion questions I use in my class) to the provost proving that the accusations being made against me were false. Second, two students in my class wrote a letter refuting the accusations made by the complaining student. Third, I allowed Horowitz to get as extreme and hostile as possible with his accusations against me until he provided me with an “uncompromisable injustice”: his accusation that I was supporting terrorism. I could then seize the high moral ground by showing how this accusation was politically motivated and absurd.
The strategy and arguments we used at Ball State University to stand against Horowitz and his McCarthy-style propaganda can be adopted by administrators and faculty at other universities who find themselves bullied by extremist demagogues and self-proclaimed political commentators.
George Wolfe is director of the Peace Studies Program at Ball State University.
[link to www.aaup.org]
I didn't hear about this on FOX News?
Great story. Too bad the national media cover only the original story and never follow up to expose the tactics of people like Horowitz. Seems like Horowitz is ripe for a hoax, seeing as he believes everything he hears without examination.
Right wingers can't defend Bush anymore so all they are left with is demonizing professors with whom they disagree. I'm sure Horowitz would make a fine professor. "Alright class, tonight's homework is a 500 word essay on why George W. Bush is great. Remember not to use big words or proper grammar because such things are part of the liberal elitist plot to destroy America."
Churchill and Horowitz deserve each other. I vote for a same-sex mariage here!
Horowitz admitted he committed treason as well as conspirarcy in a Front Page article he wrote. Here is the full citation:
David Horowitz, "Spy Stories: The Wen Ho Lee Cover-Up", Front Page Magazine, October 3, 2000
In the article, Horowitz admits to willfully violating U.S. Espionage code in 1972, while an editor at Ramparts. What is notable about his confession is that the motive appeared to have only been the willful harming of the USA, without any altruistic motive behind the act. Horowitz admits that his action exposed official secrets to two foreign governments, USSR and Israel, and greatly hampered the NSAs ability to acquire intelligence. The data being that the
Horowitz came upon this data via a former NSA employee who just walked in off of the street. Note that even though he states the former employee;'s motive was disaffection with the Vietnam War, the data had little if anything at all to do with Vietnam:
Horowitz admits that he had foreknowledge that the publishing of this data was treasonous. The former NSA operative told them:
Horowitz committed conspiracy when he sought the advice of a Harvard Law Professor, who was representing Daniel Ellsberg at the time, and was a noted Constitutional Law Expert, before publishing the data.
And this SOB has the gall to falsely slander Professors?
It is also of note that the crime of treason has no statute of limitations, and that Horowitz is still eligible for trial and prosecution for it.