The Rebuttal: Defending 'American Betrayal' From the Book-Burners by Diana West

Author:Diana West [West, Diana]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781492884538
Amazon: 1492884537
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2013-10-01T22:00:00+00:00

# # #

Backfire: The Public Smackdown of Diana West

By Shari Goodman

Family Security Matters

August 20, 2013

Diana West, author of American Betrayal, has recently found herself under a barrage of attacks, not from the usual Leftists suspects, but from two former Communists turned Neo-Cons, David Horowitz and his friend of 60 years, fellow Neo-Con Ronald Radosh.

Under the guise of "setting the record straight and scholarly research," which would have been sufficient had they confined their attack to historical facts in a civil and respectful manner, they resorted to a vicious mean-spirited personal public smackdown of a woman who meticulously devoted over 900 footnotes as evidence to support her allegations of Soviet infiltration within our halls of government, beginning with the Roosevelt administration.

With columns entitled "McCarthy on Steroids" and ad hominem accusations of sloppy journalism, the backlash against Horowitz and Radosh by readers has been swift. Instead of issuing an apology for engaging in personal attacks upon a fellow Conservative, they have doubled down in their defense under the guise of "historical accuracy". Had they engaged in a professional review and confined their criticism upon her work, they may have had credibility, but instead they have chosen to attack not only her work, but Diana West herself. By describing her conclusions as the "Birch Society type conspiracy history theory of Communism" an immediate death sentence for any credible writer, they sought to do to her what William Buckley did to the Birchers. It is the gutter of yellow journalism that they have chosen to embrace, and the public wisely recognized it for what it was. Reactions from readers were overwhelmingly in support of Diana with an outpouring of stinging criticism directed at Horowitz and Radosh. Incapable of self-reflection, they resorted to attacking the readers.

Good men can agree to differ without resorting to name calling, and the assassination of one's work and good name is vicious and cruel. Unlike Radosh and Horowitz, the criticism of Diana's book by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr was respectful and civil while Horowitz and Radosh appear to have a personal vendetta against Diana West. To describe Diana, an author and columnist who has dedicated her life to public service as "very angry, very self-centered with a paranoid streak and a disposition to think in extreme terms that have only a tenuous and deceptive relation to the truth" is not only false, but it defines David Horowitz much more than Diana West.

Resorting to familiar tactics advocated by Saul Alinsky in Rules For Radicals, and employed by the Left in their take down of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, the former Communists used the familiar tool of ridicule in their effort to marginalize West. Judging from readers comments, the frequently asked question is "why?". Had they succeeded in correcting the historical record which they have not done, they would have had more credibility, but their criticism is directed at Diana's inferences and conclusions which historians frequently do when gathering evidence. Often there are gaps in gathering historical information and it becomes the norm for the researcher to be left connecting the dots.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.