What does it say about the reckless rhetoric emanating from the Horowitz organization that even NewsMax feels compelled to correct it?
A July 22 NewsMax article looks at the battle between Pat Buchanan -- who has spoken out against Israel's bombing of Lebanon -- and the neoconservatives who Buchanan claims want the U.S. to take advantage of the current Middle East situation by bombing Iran. NewsMax noted that in a July 21 unsigned Frontpagemag.com editorial, "Fellow conservative David Horowitz's online magazine, Frontpagemag.com, has opened up a front against Buchanan, with an article that levels charges of anti-Semitism against Buchanan and other so-called 'paleoconservatives' for their condemnation of Israel's actions in the war." Then, NewsMax gets in a dig at Horowitz:
Noting that in two of his columns Buchanan accused President Bush "of being a puppet of nefarious Jewish warmongers," the editorial charged that "Nothing sets Buchanan’s imagination racing like a Bush-backed Israeli war. On Tuesday, Pat asked, 'Who is whispering in his ear?' His answer: 'bloodthirsty Hebrews.'" (Note: Buchanan never used this term.)
NewsMax's dig at Horowitz is even more surprising given that the David Horowitz Freedom Center is using NewsMax -- through a page on the NewsMax website and use of NewsMax's mailing list -- by to solicit donations to facilitate distribution of a booklet designed to "counteract the lies spread by the left" about Israel. So NewsMax is biting the hand that feeds it to an extent.
Still, the fact that a news outlet Horowitz is paying to promote his views is criticizing his rhetoric says much about how irresponsible the Horowitz organization is.
It's All About David Topic: Horowitz
David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture is now the David Horowitz Freedom Center. As board chairman Jess Morgan states: "David Horowitz, the Center’s founder, has become increasingly identified with issues of freedom at home and abroad."
Sure, much of that involves restricting the freedom of non-conservatives, but still...
BadgeGate Update Topic: Horowitz
-- A lengthy May 24 FrontPageMag article by Andrew G. Bostom is predicated on the Iran badges story being true. The only hint Bostom provides that it likely is not is a parenthetical insertion that the story is "now disputed."
-- The sound of crickets still emanates from NewsBusters on the subject of the story's apparent lack of veracity.
BadgeGate: It's Not Just NewsBusters Topic: Horowitz
The Horowitz empire has also reported the increasingly dubious claim about Iran requiring non-Muslims to wear badges (copying NewsMax's article) without following up on the questions about its veracity that we've been able to find on either FrontPageMag or Discover the Network(s).
Lack of Disclosure Watch Topic: Horowitz
In an April 24 FrontPageMag column by the Alliance Defense Fund's David French on the Scott Savage book-recommendation case, French fails to disclose that the ADF is representing Savage in this case and that he himself is, in fact, the lead attorney for Savage.
In other words, French has a highly vested interest in publicizing this case and attacking the Ohio college that Savage works for. Isn't this lack of disclosure at least mildly unethical behavior for an attorney?
FrontPage Bottom-Feeds for Clinton Dirt Topic: Horowitz
How desperate are the Horowitz folks to feel that Clinton-bashing rush they're so addicted to? They're promoting Melrose Larry Green.
Green, you see, has written the "Snakes On A Plane" of anti-Clinton tomes, "Why The Clintons Belong in Prison." And FrontPageMag managing editor Jamie Glazov treats him quite seriously, even as he makes Norman Liebmann (who, like Green, used to write for NewsMax) sound reasonable.
UPDATE: World O'Crap offers its take on Melrose Larry, reminding us that he is a "Los Angeles nut known for spending his time standing on Melrose Avenue holding signs, was formerly one of freaks who made up Howard Stern's 'Wack Pack.'" Which, of course, makes him the perfect spokesman for the Clinton-haters. David Horowitz must be proud to be associated with him.
Fred Phelps, Leftist? Topic: Horowitz
A Feb. 9 article by Mark D. Tooley at David Horowitz's FrontPageMag is a laughable, poorly written attempt to pull off a bizarre bit of guilt by association: claiming that virulently anti-gay Kansas preacher Fred Phelps is a leftist.
Headlined "The 'God Hates Fags' Left," Tooley's article falls way short of proving that Phelps is a leftist. Tooley writes that Phelps "supported Saddam Hussein and has been appreciative to Fidel Castro," but he offers no supporting evidence to back it up; If Phelps has a "God Loves Saddam" website, Tooley didn't mention it. Details of Phelps' Democratic links -- he ran for office as a Democrat and "actively supported Al Gore in 1988 and 1992" -- may be true, but they are meaningless because Tooley offers no evidence that Democrats currently support Phelps, particularly after launching his "God Hates Fags" campaign.
Tooley also ignores evidence to the contrary. Phelps promoted a 2005 vote in Topeka, Kan., his hometown, to repeal a city ordinance prohibiting discrimination against homosexuals in city government hiring -- a position that puts him in the mainstream of social conservatism. And when Phelps' granddaughter, Jael Phelps, ran against the state's first openly homosexual officeholder for a Topeka City Council seat (and got clobbered), the Souther Baptist Convention-owned Baptist Press newswire deemed it worthy of coverage.
In short, it's the kind of reporting we've gotten to know and love from the Horowitz organization.
Making Stuff Up Topic: Horowitz
Remember the snit fit David Horowitz threw after we pointed out a factual error he committed, to which he responded by committing another factual error?
That's just how Horowitz operates -- facts are secondary. He has now admitted that he has 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. Horowitz, of course, has a longpattern of embellishing or just making up educational bias claims.
And on his blog, he has corrected yet another claim.
Between this and employee Richard Poe's history of dubious claims and non-disclosure of the Scaife money that funds him, why believe anything that comes out of the Horowitz organization?
Horowitz Gets It Wrong -- Twice Topic: Horowitz
For your entertainment: Read my item at Media Matters on a big factual error by David Horowitz. Then read his response, which contains, yes, another factual error.
Goodbye, Moonbat Central Topic: Horowitz
David Horowitz opines thusly:
Unlike our adversaries on the left, we do not have access to limitless financial resources such as those which George Soros’s Phoenix Group dispenses. We must allocate our resources carefully.
Horowitz also announced that Richard Poe is being promoted to "senior fellow, director of research and investigative projects" for Horowitz's CSPC. He adds that Poe will be "taking charge of a new investigative unit at CSPC, which will dig deep into the secrets of the left. It will follow the money trail and expose the left’s hidden agendas and relationships through hard-hitting articles which will appear in FrontPage and DiscovertheNetworks."
Conspiracy! Topic: Horowitz
In a Nov. 2 entry on the Moonbat Central blog, Richard Poe suggests that commies are conspiring with Democrats to impeach Bush. He has no actual evidence of this, of course, just a couple circumstancial coincidences that cause him to "suspect coordination."
Poe is big on conspiracies, though not real big on actual evidence to support them, as ConWebWatch has detailed.
David Horowitz's Favorite Moonbat Topic: Horowitz
A Sept. 1 post by Andrew Walden on Moonbat Central, the blog of David Horowitz's DiscoverTheNetwork.org, tries to disassociate conservatives from Repent America, the group who's blaming gays for Hurricane Katrina:
So what is the real difference between them and the left-wing MoonBats? There is none. ... But their agenda is clear: they are another example of national socialist Moonbats who are trying to sew confusion amongst conservatives and Republicans in order to prepare the ground for a new version of Ross Perot or Pat Buchannan’s third-party campaign. Such a third-party “paleocon” candidate is the necessary prerequisite for Democratic victory in 2008.
Walden might have made a more persuasive case if another branch of his boss' empire hadn't embraced the leader of Repent America a few years back. A March 14, 2001 article on Horowitz's FrontMageMag.com by Dan Flynn cited Michael Marcavage, now head of Repent America, as a prime example of "censorship of conservative ideas" on college campuses:
Criminalizing Dissent Temple University Senior Michael Marcavage sued his school in the fall of 2000 for violating his First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment Rights. After hearing that there would be a school-sponsored performance of Corpus Christi (a play that depicts Jesus as a promiscuous homosexual), Marcavage organized a counter-event during his junior year that was to feature gospel singers, speakers, and a play that depicted Jesus in a more positive light. Although Marcavage didn't seek to censor the play that he found offensive, the school did censor his event. After informing him that he would not be allowed to hold his event, Marcavage alleges that he was assaulted by university administrators who had him involuntarily committed to Temple University Hospital's psychiatric ward. Hospital records show that an administrator signed the paperwork to commit Marcavage but doctors found nothing wrong with the junior and released him.
Wanna rethink that opposition to Marcavage's commitment, guys?
