>Some questions, if anyone cares to respond...
>
>1. What was the extent of David Horowitz's leftish background? Is there
> any particular story on his move to the right?
Horowitz was a Marxist in the 1960s, a follower of the Polish quasi-Trot historian Isaac Deutscher. He edited Ramparts magazine, a popular New Left mag,a nd edited and wrote several lety books. Some of the collections are still useful. He gor mixed up with the Panthers, and was turned off by their intercenbe viciousness, finally breakingw ith them over an internal Panther murder. He wrote several books on the Rockefellers and suchlike, and emerged in the 1980 as a Reagan supporter. He is now a particularly stupid sort of ex-leftist. Unlike some of the old-time ex-Commies like Louis Fischer or Betram Wolfe, he left his brains back on the left.
>
>2. Does John Ashcroft have ties to the KKK, or is this a liberal canard?
I think it is a canard. Ashcroft is a right winger and a a states-righter. He gave an ill-advised interview to a neo-Confederate mag in which he praised Lee and Stonewall Jackson, but I grew up in the South, not far from Lee Highway; the Confederate leaders are widely admired there. Indeed, Lee was in many ways an admirable man, buut he used his great talents for an evil cause. I don't think Ashcroft can be got rid of that easily.
>
>3. Has anyone read "How to Watch TV News?" (Neil Postman) If so, how is
>the topic of "watching the news" approached in the book?
Dunno.
>
>4. Does anyone have a succinct answer to the question below (from an email
>correspondent) (I have long-winded answers that I know will be
>unconvincing
>to my conservative correspondent...)
>
><<This whole business connection with the media that people are talking
>about
>has me a little bit confused...I tend to think of business as rather
>neutral,
>but more conservative because
>I think they benefit from conservative fiscal policy. But certainly neutral
>on social issues in general. Business operates with it's own best interest
>in mind even more than the rest of us. That's why I can't see why there
>should be any real connection between these huge corporations that own the
>major networks and the fact (I certainly see it as a fact) that the TV news
>personalities are clearly liberal and taint the news in that way. How do
>these corporations benefit from that in either the short run or the long
>run?>>
What TV personalities are liberal? John McLuaghlin? John Stoessel? William F. Buckley? I mean it. The liberal media is a myth.
>
>5. Is the idea of public challenges to the existing media framework (say,
>the provisions of the 1996 telecommunications bill) totally quixotic?
>
Be more specific.
--jks
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