>I think the two phenomena are related. Were the left more "nitpicky
>about factchecking individual claims", it would be less vulnerable to
>such attacks.
I doubt that. It's much more about power, not about factual accuracy or argumentative skill. I spend much of my life getting the details about capitalism straight and concocting analyses far more thorough and accurate than mainstream pundits, and the effect of all this has been approximately zero. Sure, no one can attack me on grounds of accuracy and rigor, but on the other hand, O'Reilly never notices, much to my constant regret.
Hegemony consists in part in being able to designate official critics. Churchill's the lucky critic-designate this month. I don't like his ideology - I think you have a point when you say:
> Reading Churchill reveals that he is not of
>the mainstream left. He is an irredentist ethnic nationalist, closer
>to Milosevic than anyone else I can name off the top of
>my head.
but for the moment I don't care. Churchill - and Lynne Stewart - are easy targets for a right that wants to purge the left from campus and criminalize the legal defense of terrorists. It's all rather dire, and focusing on the shortcomings of the targets isn't very helpful now.
Doug