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4/02/2003 02:15:00 AM | Timothy Running Commentary on The Filibuster and why they should criticize Matt Continetti The Filibuster, the Columbia Political Review's blog, was kind enough to link to us, but they have made some unsettling comments. Editor Adam Kushner says: Filibuster writers, including me, have repeatedly denounced De Genova's statements but endorsed his right to say them. And because of the non-stop media harassment (and ensuing death threats -- I received one myself yesterday) from the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, and Hannity, De Genova was just too terrified to show up today. Can't say I blame him. But then again, he made his own bed. What does Adam mean by "he made his own bed"? De Genova certainly brought outrage upon himself, but death threats? Come on people... two wrongs do not make a right! Sheesh.... I say this more hesistantly, but De Genova probably does not expect his comments to actually cause people to commit acts of deliberate sabatoge (or at least the law does not: I would think De Genova can't be arrested for incitement to violence for his comments), but De Genova seemed to have not shown up in part out of a actual death threats specifically directed at him. De Genova is the one saying things like that U.S. troops deserve violence because they are the aggressors: De Genova is in effect saying The U.S. made its own bed and we should cheer the death of troops. Should Kushner adopt something close to De Genova's logic by saying that De Genova brought this upon himself? Maybe Kushner is saying De Genova should have known this would happen, but that is not exactly an endorsement of free speech to say he made his own bed. (but FreeDartmouth bloggers: remember our conversation about Fraternities and responsibility for putting yourself in danger?) [Update: a paragraph formerly here was moved to comments] I really appreciate the last paragraph of this Filibuster post; Sudhir Muralidhar and other bloggers are very humerous and self-aware in how The Filibuster benefits from the coverage of De Genova. On Continetti But what I really want take issue with and concentrate on is how Adam Kushner refers to "Filibuster friend Matt Continetti" and praises Continetti's "smart takes," including this peice in The National Review, one which distorts and reports: "Thunderous applause and whistles greeted anthropology professor Nicholas De Genova's sick desire that "a million Mogadishus" be visited on U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq." The part in bold is utterly untrue. Don't you read the Filibuster's own links, like Newsday ("The crowd was largely silent at the remark. They loudly applauded De Genova later...") and the reactions on this National Review article. All other news reports I have seen accurately report that the Mogadishu comments were met with mostly silence. Even Fox News has said so! Of course, I would also disagree with Fox News when it said this: "DiGenova (ph) also declared, to thunderous applause, 'If we really believe that this war is criminal, then we have to believe in the victory of the Iraqi people and the defeat of the U.S. war machine." We can quibble over how to characterize the 'loudness' of the clapping for De Genova when he called for the U.S. war machine to be defeated. Unlike some news reports, I do not think is was 'thunderous' applause, but that word is arguably subjective in the sense that it is not a flat-out, unmistakeable lie like Continetti's; I do not think it is fair to use it because later professors made comments against De Genova's sentiments that drew louder applause (and we saw real cheering and long clapping for Prof. Fields). I did not hear any cheers for De Genova and certainly no loud cheers at any time during his speech. But who am I going to believe: my own ears or news reports that are often second-hand? You guys rightly noted that Sullivan was good enough enough to post my account, but Continetti (I hope) was at the teach-in and does not have any excuse for perpetuating distortions which others may rely on. So for Filibuster bloggers who were at the event: you know what is true or not true in the media reports. You are 'De Genova Central'. Will you correct this stuff or at least abate the praise for that hack Continetti? Update: Filibuster blogger Julia Fuma had said: "Continetti engages in a very basic example of shoddy writing, namely taking a few example from a piece out of context and using it to discredit the entire thing...I wish Continetti's description would have been taken with more of a grain of salt." I linked to that in my post criticizing Continetti's distortion of Jack Snyder's views here. In the issue there, I was more 'charitable' to Continetti and allowed that he may not dishonest, but allow himself to be dishonestly edited. P.S. For those who think I never associate with conservatives who I think distort things in print, or wrongly think am not friends with conservatives, I must point you sheepishly to my comments and a link in "The Best Merger Since AOLTimeWarner!" which is two or three posts below (link blogdozed). But that does not stop me from making public criticism in national magazines and in campus publications. P.P.S. Filibuster people: still love you, you should see my nitpicking of The Daily Spectator, a proper journalistic daily publication (see "Columbia Spectator covers its butt," about 10 posts down). And or course, this post is directed mostly at Adam Kushner's comments, not every blog poster. I certainly would not want to be held to everything said by my fellow bloggers (bless their bleeding hearts) at FreeDartmouth. perma link |
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