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ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Foaming campus cleanser sputters at TempleDavid Horowitz attacks liberal academics with so-called Academic Bill of Rights; also looking to rid college campuses of what he calls the anti-war academics who "hate America""My wife an I attended the Chanukah (Hanukkah) Party at the White House last night. Bush is the first president in American history to hold Chanukah parties along with the traditional White House Christmas parties. "The White House is magical during the Holiday Season and there were many old friends in attendance. It had a special importance to me now that we have become in effect two political countries -- one supporting a war for freedom in the Middle East and one at war against us (and yes I realize there are a lot of good people in the middle who don't have a stomach for this war but don't want us to lose it either). "I was of course thinking. of the wretched lies of Kerry and Dean from the day before.I hadn't been at an event with the President (who is looking slim and trim) in four years and didn't know if he would recognize me. But the minute he saw me in the line he called out 'Horowitz' with a big smile on his face, then embraced me in a bear hug. In the moment I had his ear I said, 'Thank you for taking all those arrows for the rest of us.' Graciously, he said 'You take more than I do,' which I don't and said so. Then as I was walking away he called out, 'Don't let them get to you.' I called back, 'Don't you either,' and he replied in a strong voice. 'I won't.' It was a one day cross-country trip for me and my wife to attend this event but those few seconds made it worth it. I left energized for this battle which is so crucial to the future of our country and the freedom of others." In early December, aiming to start out 2006 with a bang, David Horowitz's Center for the Study of Popular Culture (CSPC - grants, profile) sent out a fundraising appeal asking for contributions to enable it to place full-page advertisements in campus newspapers across the country warning students that they are surrounded by anti-American leftist academics who hate America. A month later, at a hearing on academic freedom at Temple University sponsored by the state legislature of Pennsylvania, Horowitz could only find one student willing to testify and even then, the testimony was anecdotal, as he had not filed an official grievance with the proper university authorities. At a previous hearing, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, "Rep. Dan B. Frankel, a Democrat who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh, [pointed out] that [since] the issue of potential political discrimination at state universities had received a considerable amount of publicity since the committee's previous hearing three months ago...he might have expected students to come forward with complaints, but none have done so. 'It seems to me we may be overblowing this problem,' he said. 'I don't have streams of people coming to me.'" In his fundraising December note, Horowitz said that these academics are "not anti-war ...They just hate America. And they're camped out in our classrooms spewing their hatred to our young, future leaders." At the same time, Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom is pushing state legislatures to pass a rather benign-sounding Academic Bill of Rights; legislation he claims is aimed at leveling the playing field and opening up America's public universities to more diverse voices. Horowitz, the President and founder of the Los Angeles-based CSPC, is the former sixties radical who became a Reagan Republican during the 1980s and an influential conservative political strategist over the past decade. His recent fundraising solicitation was headlined "Help Me Expose Intellectually Corrupt Universities." Dated December 1, Horowitz was asking for $131,250, a sum that would allow him to run full-page newspaper advertisements in college newspapers across the country that would "expose the Ward Churchills of America." (Churchill is the tenured University of Colorado professor who came under fire for controversial -- some say insensitive -- comments he made in the aftermath of 9/11.) While Churchill has received concentrated attention from Horowitz's FrontPage magazine website, Horowitz wants potential donors to know that "there are many, many more where he [Churchill] came from." Horowitz's campaigns are multi-faceted and made up of pre-emptive strikes against his perceived enemies, unremitting accusations that they are anti-American, and a permanent fundraising drive to fill his organization's coffers. Touting the "tremendous strides" his organizations made against the left on campuses in 2005, Horowitz wants to "get students, professors, and administrators' attention: [and let them know that] we're watching radicals on campuses and we're going to expose them to the public! We know from experience that running ads in 250 student newspapers that nearly 500,000 people will see this ad and be exposed to our Discoverthenetworks.org" -- a CSPC-sponsored website that "casts a bright light on the radical left and shows, in detail, the connections between hundreds of radical organizations ... [including] the financial support these groups receive from left-wing foundations, like Ford, MacArthur and Pew, and self-serving billionaires like George Soros and Peter Lewis." The "first" targets on Horowitz's list are Cal-Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, universities that he claims are "the hotbed schools for anti-Americanism." The "radical left" has an "anti-American agenda," Horowitz wrote. "They're not anti-war. They just hate America. And they're camped out in our classrooms spewing their hatred to our young, future leaders." Horowitz's Academic Bill of RightsThe other prong in his attack on liberal academics takes a generally -- but not always -- "kinder gentler" approach and is being carried out by Students for Academic Freedom (SAF - website), a Horowitz-sponsored operation. The group's website provides students from colleges and universities across the country with a platform to testify as to how they been embarrassed, harassed, criticized, been the victims of vicious indoctrination campaigns and otherwise treated unfairly by a liberal instructor on their campus. Whether these complaints have any basis to them does not seem to concern SAF staffers. The grievances provide the anecdotal bedrock for Horowitz's nationwide campaign to get some form of Academic Bill of Rights (ABOR) legislation passed in individual states, as well as in Congress. According to PR Watch's Molly Riordan, "A casual reading of ABOR might appear to support his [Horowitz's] claim that it is a 'non-partisan' bill. It requires that hiring, firing and faculty tenure decisions be made regardless of political beliefs; that professors present their students with a 'broad range of serious scholarly opinion' without ignoring those they oppose; and that grievance procedures be established to manage reports of student abuse." Leaders of Students for Academic Freedom -- which was founded by Horowitz in 2002 and now has some 150 campus chapters -- claim that its Academic Bill of Rights campaign is designed to open up the nation's college campuses to more diverse voices. In an interview with PR Watch's Riordan, SAF's national campus director Bradley Shipp told her that he "encourage[s] [students] to use the language that the left has deployed so effectively in behalf of its own agendas. Radical professors have created a 'hostile learning environment' for conservative students. There is a lack of 'intellectual diversity' on college faculties and in academic classrooms. The conservative viewpoint is 'under-represented' in the curriculum and on its reading lists. The university should be an 'inclusive' and intellectually 'diverse' community." In a recent New York Times article titled "Professors' Politics Draw Lawmakers Into the Fray" (December 25, 2005), Michael Janofsky reported on a complaint leveled against a physics professor at the York campus of Pennsylvania State University that caused the state legislature to get involved. According to Janofsky, Jennie Mae Brown claimed that the professor "routinely used class time to belittle President Bush and the war in Iraq," Brown, a veteran of the Air Force "said she felt the teacher's comments were inappropriate in the classroom." Brown's complaint, Janofsky reported, "has blossomed into an official legislative inquiry, putting Pennsylvania in the middle of a national debate spurred by conservatives over whether public universities are promoting largely liberal positions and discriminating against students who disagree with them." Within the past few years, Horowitz's campaign "has produced more debate than action," Janofsky wrote: "Colorado and Ohio agreed to suspend legislative efforts to impose an academic bill of rights in favor of pledges by their state schools to uphold standards in place. Georgia passed a resolution discouraging 'political or ideological indoctrination' by teachers, encouraging then to create 'an environment conducive to the civil exchange of ideas.'" The $10,000 challengeDuring a recent business meeting of the American Historical Association, the organization passed a resolution opposing Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights: Resolution Opposing Academic and Student Bills of Rights and Similar Regulations of the Academic Community Whereas, So-called Academic and Student Bills of Rights legislation, investigations, and similar measures will give power over such matters as curriculum, course content, and faculty personnel decisions to governmental authorities and other agencies outside the faculty and administrations of institutions of higher learning; and Whereas, Such measures would violate academic freedom and undermine professional standards by imposing political criteria in areas of educational policy that faculty members normally and rightly control; therefore, be it FrontPage magazine's Ben Johnson reported that Horowitz immediately responded by "offering $10,000 to any member of the AHA who can 'point out a sentence in this [ABOR's] document' that would have the Orwellian impact their resolution pretends it would." The American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the American Legislative Exchange Council board the trainThere are a number of other conservative organizations battling for "diversity" on America's college campuses. In a recent op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, David Davenport, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank, pointed out that the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) -- an organization founded in 1995 as the National Alumni Forum by Lynne Cheney, Colorado's former Democratic Governor, Richard D. Lamm, and Democratic Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut -- recently issued a report entitled "Intellectual Diversity: Time for Action," which found that "the most serious challenge for higher education today is the lack of intellectual diversity." (Horowitz's FrontPage magazine ran ACTA's press release on December 14, 2005.) Molly Riordan's excellent PR Watch piece also looked at the role that the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC - grants) -- a powerful, yet relatively unknown group which provides state legislatures with sample legislation on a broad array of conservative issues -- may be playing in publicizing Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights: On April 30, 2004, ALEC's Education Task Force met in Austin, Texas, to draft a model bill and resolution regarding ABOR. Almost without exception, their language was taken verbatim from Horowitz's original document. [SAF's Bradley] Shipp claims he did not know how SAF was involved in the ALEC drafting. 'I'm almost positive that we sent them copies of our bill,' he said, but was unsure who was consulted in the drafting. He indicated that Horowitz had spoken at ALEC conferences on several occasions. 'There were Congressmen who were independently concerned with issues of academic freedom, asked for the education lobbyists' input. They came up with language that everyone agreed upon.' Shipp insists that ALEC's involvement is not indicative of a conservative agenda behind the 'academic freedom' campaign. According to Riordan, ALEC's Education Task Force director Lori Drummer did not respond to her "request for an interview, and "no information is available on how many state legislatures have considered ALEC's model legislation." Nevertheless, depending on who is doing the counting, Academic Bill of Rights legislation is pending in from 11 to 19 other states. The New York Times' Janofsky pointed out that in 2005, House and Senate committees "passed a general resolution ... encouraging American colleges to promote 'a free and open exchange of ideas 'in their classrooms and to treat students 'equally and fairly.'" Further Congressional action is expected this year. Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, where Horowitz's gang had hoped that a two-day legislative hearing on academic freedom held in Philadelphia in the early part of January would sizzle, fizzled instead. According to Philadelphia Inquirer staff reporter Patrick Kerkstra, "The sole student to appear before the legislative committee acknowledged he had never filed a formal grievance." "We have reviewed our records and we do not find any instances in which students have complained about inappropriate intrusion of political advocacy by teachers in their courses," Temple University President David Adamany told legislators and a crowd of about 50 people who attended the public hearings, held in a second floor Student Center conference room, The Temple News, an independent student newspaper, reported. "Nor have we found instances of complaints by students that they were improperly graded because of the views they set forth in their courses." Pennsylvania is the only state to have held academic freedom hearings; the Temple University inquiry was the second of four scheduled by the state's House Select Committee on Academic Freedom in Higher Education. At the end of day one, Rep. Gib Armstrong (R. - Lancaster), the conservative lawmaker largely responsible for getting the hearings approved by the Pennsylvania House, appeared frustrated that no students had filed official grievances against Temple academics. "If there are students out there who feel their rights are being abridged, they need to speak up," Armstrong said. There is no denying that the fact that ABOR and/or ABOR-type initiatives are being considered in a number of states is due to the relentless efforts of Horowitz and his Students for Academic Freedom. According to The Temple News, on the second and final day of the hearings, Horowitz -- who closed out the proceedings -- introduced himself to the 12-member panel with four words: "I'm the scary guy." 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." sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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