[Marxism] A reply to Chomsky smear job

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Smearing Chomsky - The Guardian In The Gutter
by David Edwards
        
November 04, 2005

Introduction

On October 31, the Guardian published an interview with Noam Chomsky by
Emma Brockes, 'The greatest intellectual?' (The Guardian, October 31, 2005;
http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,6000,1605276,00.html)

The article was ostensibly in response to the fact that Chomsky had been
voted the world's top public intellectual by Prospect magazine the previous
week. Chomsky describes his treatment by the paper as "one of the most
dishonest and cowardly performances I recall ever having seen in the
media". (Email copied to Media Lens, November 2, 2005)

The headline introduction to the article was:

"Q: Do you regret supporting those who say the Srebrenica massacre was
exaggerated?

"A: My only regret is that I didn't do it strongly enough."

Remarkably, and very foolishly, this answer attributed to Chomsky was
actually in response to a different question posed during the interview. In
a letter to the editor published in the Guardian on November 2, Chomsky
explained:

"I did express my regret: namely, that I did not support Diana Johnstone's
right to publish strongly enough when her book was withdrawn by the
publisher after dishonest press attacks, which I reviewed in an open letter
that any reporter could have easily discovered. The remainder of Brockes's
report continues in the same vein. Even when the words attributed to me
have some resemblance to accuracy, I take no responsibility for them,
because of the invented contexts in which they appear.

"As for her personal opinions, interpretations and distortions, she is of
course free to publish them, and I would, of course, support her right to
do so, on grounds that she makes quite clear she does not understand.

Noam Chomsky" ('Falling out over Srebrenica,' The Guardian, November 2, 2005)

This is how Brockes presented the discussion in her article:

"Does he [Chomsky] regret signing it [a letter in support of Johnstone's work]?

"'No,' he says indignantly. 'It is outstanding. My only regret is that I
didn't do it strongly enough. It may be wrong; but it is very careful and
outstanding work.'"

Brockes's headline mis-matching of questions with answers in this way is a
genuine scandal - a depth of cynicism to which even mainstream journalism
rarely sinks.

In the third paragraph of the article, Brockes wrote that Chomsky's
"conclusions remain controversial", namely:

"that practically every US president since the second world war has been
guilty of war crimes; that in the overall context of Cambodian history, the
Khmer Rouge weren't as bad as everyone makes out; that during the Bosnian
war the 'massacre' at Srebrenica was probably overstated. (Chomsky uses
quotations marks to undermine things he disagrees with and, in print at
least, it can come across less as academic than as witheringly teenage;
like, Srebrenica was so not a massacre.)"

We wrote to Brockes:

"What is the source for your claim that Chomsky has disagreed with the idea
that there was a massacre at Srebrenica? Where, for example, has he used
quotation marks in referring to the massacre?" (Email, November 2, 2005)

It is an important question because Chomsky is adamant that no such source
exists. He wrote to us of Brockes:

"... her piece de resistance, the claim that I put the word 'massacre' in
quotes. Sheer fabrication. She and the editors know perfectly well that
there is nothing like that in print, or anywhere, certainly not in the
interview: people don't speak with quotation marks. That's why they allowed
her to refer vaguely to the phrase she invented, so as to insinuate that it
is in print -- which she knows, and the editors know, is a lie. Just ask
them to produce the source". (Email to Media Lens, November 2, 2005)

We have received no reply from Brockes.

full: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=21&ItemID=9045

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