Horowitz Claims Enemies Misrepresent His 'Academic Bill of Rights'
by Chad Groening
August 31, 2005
(AgapePress) - Conservative author, activist, and publisher David Horowitz is accusing liberal educators of engaging in a misinformation campaign against his efforts to get an academic bill of rights enacted on college and university campuses across the United States. Horowitz heads up the California-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture. Two years ago, the former radical drafted an academic bill of rights as a means to defend "intellectual diversity" and remove political bias from the classroom.
However, Horowitz contends that certain groups, such as the Association of University Professors, have intentionally characterized his campaign inaccurately. He charges that members of such groups have described his campaign as one that is an attempt "to restrict professors' speech, to replace liberal professors with conservative professors, and is a witch hunt."
"All of this is totally false. It's just a political slander," the conservative activist says. "The campaign, in fact, is very liberal in its conception," he contends. "I mean, it's just about intellectual diversity, intellectual pluralism, respecting people who disagree with you, whether they're on the right or the left."
Really, truly liberal-minded academics should like the ideas behind the campaign, Horowitz asserts. But unfortunately, he observes, "There are ideologues on university faculties, and the political Left does have a monopoly. They control 90 percent of the professorate, and they furthermore have defined academic freedom as their right to do anything they want in the classroom, including political propaganda."
Because of their severe bias, Horowitz contends that these Left-leaning ideologues "feel very threatened by principles of fairness and inclusion, which is what the academic freedom campaign is about." But thankfully, the author-activist adds, several state legislatures across the country have recognized this problem of politics on campuses and in college classrooms, and some lawmakers are working on academic bills of rights in their states.
Chad Groening, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
