Friday, September 28, 2007
Chomsky Bites Back At Rauch
Notes From a Gadfly, by Jonathan Rauch
Thursday, September 27, 2007
The letter to the Washington Post that follows was written as an
experiment, to see just how low the editors would sink in their efforts
to block a book containing evidence and analysis that they do not want
to reach the public. The letter is a response to a crude and vulgar
diatribe, in the form of a review of my collection Interventions. In
response, I wrote a point-by-point refutation of each charge, a
straightforward matter, as the editors doubtless understand. The letter
was sent to the Post immediately, altogether four times, with a request
for acknowledgment of receipt. Unpublished, no acknowledgment of
receipt. Two weeks after the review appeared, Sept. 16, the Post did
publish two letters responding to it. The letters were critical of the
review, but acceptable by the standards of the editors, because they
left the lies and slanders standing -- the authors could have had no way
to refute them without a research project.
I think it is fair to take the editors' silence to demonstrate that they
know precisely what they are doing, and are too cowardly even to
acknowledge receipt.
-- Noam Chomsky
*
Editor
Washington Post
Jonathan Rauch's review of my Interventions (WP, Sept. 2) brings to mind
Orwell's famous observations on the "indifference to reality" of the
nationalist, who "not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed
by his own side, but has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing
about them."
...
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