Aksjon mot ytringsfrihet for ansatte ved USA-universiteter.
Trond Andresen
******************
>November 24, 2001
>
>An Organization on the Lookout for Patriotic Incorrectness
>
>By EMILY EAKIN
>
>he Rev. Jesse Jackson made the list for remarking to an audience at Harvard
>Law School that America should "build bridges and relationships, not simply
>bombs and walls." Joel Beinin, a professor of Middle Eastern history at
>Stanford University, earned a place on it for his opinion that "If Osama bin
>Laden is confirmed to be behind the attacks, the United States should bring
>him before an international tribunal on charges of crimes against humanity."
>And Wasima Alikhan of the Islamic Academy of Las Vegas was there simply for
>saying "Ignorance breeds hate."
>
>All three were included on a list of 117 anti-American statements heard on
>college campuses that was compiled by the American Council of Trustees and
>Alumni, a conservative nonprofit group devoted to curbing liberal tendencies
>in academia. The list, part of a report that was posted on the group's Web
>site (www.goacta.org/Reports/defciv.pdf) last week, accuses several dozen
>scholars, students and even a university president of what they call
>unpatriotic behavior after Sept. 11.
>
>Calling professors "the weak link in America's response to the attack," the
>report excoriates faculty members for invoking "tolerance and diversity as
>antidotes to evil" and pointing "accusatory fingers, not at the terrorists,
>but at America itself."
>
>Reports from advocacy groups are issued all the time. What has gotten this
>one, titled "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing
>America and What Can Be Done About It," more attention than usual is that
>one of the council's founding members is Lynne V. Cheney, the wife of Vice
>President Dick Cheney.
>
>A recent speech by Mrs. Cheney calling for colleges to offer more courses on
>American history is prominently excerpted on the report's title page, and
>she is identified on the council's Web site as "chairman emeritus." But
>Margita Thompson, a spokeswoman in her office, said Mrs. Cheney was no
>longer involved with the council, which was created in 1995. She added that
>Mrs. Cheney "has seen" the report — although has not read it.
>
>Mrs. Cheney did provide a statement, however, that Ms. Thompson read. The
>council "has been supportive of the need to teach American history, a cause
>I think is important," the statement said. "Faculty members have the right
>to express their opinions freely," it continued, and groups like the council
>"have a right to dispute those opinions when they disagree."
>
>The report's authors declare they are acting to protect free speech. "It is
>urgent that students and professors who support the war effort not be
>intimidated," they write.
>
>But the council is facing mounting criticism from scholars who say that
>singling out individuals — for remarks taken out of context — is misleading
>and offensive. Todd Gitlin, a professor of communications at New York
>University, called the report "a record-breaking event in the annals of
>shoddy scholarship," adding, "it's a hodgepodge of erratically gathered
>quotations, few of which are declarations of heartfelt opposition to
>American foreign policy."
>
>Mr. Gitlin a longtime leftist who said he has draped an American flag across
>the balcony of his Manhattan apartment and published an essay denouncing
>anti-American sentiment abroad, was surprised to learn he was on the list.
>His disloyal act? Telling a journalist who asked him to describe the mood on
>his campus that "there is a lot of skepticism about the administration's
>policy of going to war."
>
>Other scholars went further, comparing the report's list of names to
>McCarthy-era blacklisting. "It has a little of the whiff of McCarthyism,"
>said Hugh Gusterson, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
>Technology who is on the list for a comment he made at a campus peace rally.
>"Imagine the real suffering and grief of people in other countries," the
>report quotes him as saying. "The best way to begin a war on terrorism might
>be to look in the mirror."
>
>Culled from student newspapers, Web sites and the media, the list includes
>chants recited by students at peace rallies and poster slogans like "Recycle
>plastic, not violence," as well as comments made by scholars in public
>debates.
>
>To the report's authors, such statements are proof that an oppressive
>anti-American ideology has taken over on campuses. "We're criticizing the
>dominant campus orthodoxy that so often finds that America and Western
>civilization are the source of the world's ills," said Anne D. Neal, vice
>president of the council and a co-author of the report. "Looking at these
>representative comments, it appears they have stifled to a great extent
>opposing views."
>
>The cure for academe's anti-American bias, Ms. Neal and her co-author write,
>is what the council has been advocating all along: more courses on American
>history and Western civilization. Ms. Neal said that the council would send
>copies of the report to 3,000 college and university trustees.
>
>Scholars protest that the council is taking advantage of a national crisis
>to further its academic agenda. "Their aim is to enforce a particular party
>line on American colleges and universities," said Eric Foner, a professor of
>American history at Columbia University whose name appears in the report.
>"Now they're seizing upon this particular moment and the feeling that
>they're in the driver's seat to suppress the expression of alternative
>points of view."
>
>Mr. Gusterson said that neither his remark nor three others attributed to
>scholars at M.I.T. could be considered typical of opinion at the school.
>"Three of the four quotes they used come from a peace rally on campus," he
>said. "But there were at least six other panels, and a majority of people
>who spoke at those panels didn't criticize American foreign policy." He
>added, "One of my colleagues has called for a resumption of
>government-sponsored assassination."
>
>Mr. Foner cited a recent poll conducted by the Institute of Politics at
>Harvard and mentioned in the report. It found firm support for the war on
>college campuses. "If our aim is to indoctrinate students with unpatriotic
>beliefs," he said, "we're obviously doing a very poor job of it."
>
>
>Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
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