"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Sunday, January 15, 2006

Update on Horowitz, the "Foaming Campus Cleanser"

Bill Berkowitz at Media Transparency brings us this nice update on the crackpot crusader, David Horowitz. Seems like his cred has taken a hit. Say it ain't so.

Here is a clip:

According to Inside Higher Education, after the hearings at Temple, which "critics of the Academic Bill of Rights were saying that they had scored key points ... Horowitz ... admitted that he had no evidence to back up two of the stories he has told multiple times to back up his charges that political bias is rampant in higher education."

In a post-hearing interview "Horowitz said that his acknowledgements were inconsequential, and he complained about 'nit picking' by his critics. But while Horowitz was declaring the hearings 'a great victory' for his cause, he lost some powerful stories. For example, Horowitz has said several times that a biology professor at Pennsylvania State University used a class session just before the 2004 election to show the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, but he acknowledged Tuesday that he didn't have any proof that this took place."

Jamie Horwitz, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, pointed out that "So much of what he [Horowitz] has said previously has been exposed to be lies or distortions that it makes any of his examples questionable. It should give this committee and any committee anywhere in the country pause about considering an Academic Bill of Rights. The bottom line is that there's not a lot of there there."

1 comment:

  1. There's always soup to made by stirring the pot.

    ReplyDelete