Topic: The ConWeb
A post at Campus Watch states thusly about an earlier post of ours:
This blog post incorrectly describes Campus Watch as a "conservative-funded website that attacks liberal college professors."
In fact, Campus Watch's funding is not tied to any particular political ideology, nor do we critique (not "attack") academics on the basis of political proclivity.
Rather, Campus Watch critiques Middle East studies academics where, as indicated in our mission statement, one of the following five issues come into play: analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students.
Media Transparency lists only two major conservative foundations as donating to Campus Watch's parent, the Middle East Forum, so we're willing to concede the assertion on funding -- that is, pending further information on the Middle East Forum's funding sources, about which the Campus Watch post curiously fails to offer any detail.
The post's suggestion that "political proclivity" does not play a part in Campus Watch is a tad disingenuous. Campus Watch's general agenda -- aggressively pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian, and arguably anti-Muslim -- parallels that of conservatives. If Campus Watch doesn't attack liberals, why does a search for the word "liberal" on its website reveal the following, for example:
- "Liberal bias in colleges bleeds into classroom"
- "Colleges Score Perfect Grade In Liberal Bias"
- "[T]he liberal, anti-God establishment is trying to silence the conservative voice altogether."
- "Since I was a freshman in college, I have despised the overwhelmingly leftist — I won't dignify it by calling it liberal — bias among a majority of professors."
- "Juan Cole is Pond Scum"
Further, note who wrote that Campus Watch "correction" on us: Cinnamon Stillwell. That's right -- the person we outed a couple years back as a terrorist sympathizer (or, in Campus Watch jargon, an "apologetic"). If Campus Watch truly has no political agenda, shouldn't it be watching her instead of letting her write for it?
