Once More Into The Breach
The back and forth with the Soros attack site MediaMatters has become so tedious that not even I the target am interested anymore. The only substantive issue in this matter is whether the exam question was an attempt to compel students to give a one-sided answer to a controversial question. The answer is obviously yes. What is glaringly missing from all the MediaMatters blather (including their most recent post) is any attempt to address this question.
As for all the factual disputes they boil down to 1) creating a mountain out of the molehill of this particular case (our campaign is based on hundreds of cases); 2) the misrepresentation of what we originally claimed -- e.g., we did not claim that the professor was a liberal; 3) the assumption that the university which has selectively released "facts" but never opened the records -- the actual exam, the actual grade -- to public scrutiny, is telling the truth.
I made a mistake when I conceded error, because as long as the university and professor do not provide the actual test and the grade, no one knows the facts and no one knows the grade. No one knows, for example, whether the grade was adjusted as a result of the student's appeal. Hence, what I should have said is that I am unable to check these facts and am repeating the student's claims because I have no reason to doubt the veracity of those claims.
But we do know some things. 1) We know that MediaMatters falsely implied that I made the whole incident up; 2) We know that the university and the professor have supplied an exam question which basically confirms our claim that the exam was an exercise in indoctrination. This should close the case for all reasonable people.


4 Comments:
Who says computers don't have a sense of humor? How else could an article entitled "Once More Into the Breach" be repeated three times?
Mr. Horowitz,
In a recent column you say " I am unable to check these facts and am repeating the student's claims because I have no reason to doubt the veracity of those claims."
You have in several places on your site you mention "McCarthyism" -- including the home page of FrontPageMag.
Did it ever occur to you that one of things that Americans -- both then and now -- find unconscionable about McCarthy was his willingness to repeat damning claims without evidence, relying on the accusation alone to promote them, and trying to promote 'the culture of snitching' without confirming evidence?
It's not enough that you didn't have reason to doubt it -- before forwarding the claims you need to confirm them.
Surely, we all must take a *lesson* from the days McCarthy, not merely *repeat* them, yes?
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Hundreds of cases? Could you please provide details of the hundreds?
Either that, or don't make the claim.
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