David Horowitz Backs Off
<p><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#ffffff">Checking the </font><a href="http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#0099ff">Students for Academic Freedom</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#ffffff"> website (run by non-student David Horowitz) I notice that it has been changed, so that </font><a href="http://turing.plymouth.edu/~estiller/blog/archives/20050330.html"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#0099ff">my allegations</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#ffffff"> (using political party affiliation of faculty members to indicate classroom bias) are no longer true. I suppose the overt charges of fascism by me and others rang a little too true. I suppose David wishes to appear less nutty.  Who wouldn't? Even the title has been changed from "how to research faculty bias" to </font><a href="http://www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org/essays/research_protocol.html"><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#0099ff">"how to research faculty party affiliations</font></a><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#ffffff">", and I can no longer find the link on the main web site.  Less nutty, but why should students wish to research faculty party affiliations? I fear the goal is the same. I personally liked the nuttier David better.</font></p><p><font style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #333333" color="#ffffff">This experience emphasizes the impermanence of all electronic media, especially web sites.  When offensiveness is spotted, rather than defending such actions, individuals like David simply change things, and (as my nephew would say about Santa's delivery of Christmas presents) "poof" the culpable words are gone. I suppose our public critiques are helping edit such pages.</font></p>