David Horowitz, founder of Students for Academic Freedom, editor of conservative website FrontPageMag.com, and author of various liberal and conservative books, released his latest book, Indoctrination U, yesterday. 

Horowitz, a once influential writer and activist for the left, began speaking out for issues of the right in the late 1980’s.  His main focus today has been advocating for the ABOR, an 8 point plan to keep political bias out of the classroom.  This plan in theory is reasonable, professors shouldn’t be able to push their political views onto students, but in practice can be quite dangerous.  With the implementation of the AOBR any student who is ever offended by what their professor says in class can then call for disciplinary action against, including the dismissal of, that professor.  Furthermore, state legislatures have found that colleges and universities in over 20 states already have sufficient policies in place to protect students from infringements on their rights as students. 

But that has not stopped Horowitz from promoting his cause by calling out those he feels “indoctrinate” rather than educate.  First in his 2006 book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, which named and mischaracterized courses and liberal professors on campuses across the United States.  Horowitz used poor internet research to make unsupported claims that these professors were indoctrinating students into their leftist activities.  He is now at it again with the release of Indoctrination U yesterday, blaming indoctrination for his inability to have his voice heard.  This time Horowitz skips the lists and uses this book as a public forum to publish stale speeches given at various colleges and universities, and to recycle old attacks on professors and departments.

He also complains about how, during several of his speeches, students would not let him speak uninterrupted.  At Duke University, for example, protestors wore shirts saying “Why didn’t I make the list?” and giggled loudly during the speech to keep all from hearing what Horowitz had to say. He dedicated the majority of Chapter 5 Dangerous Professors to printing this speech, but the content of his remarks only exemplifies Horowitz’s tendency to mischaracterize and misrepresent people and facts.  In this speech he criticizes the university for inviting both a “terrorist” and “washed-up calypso singer.”  The terrorist he spoke of was Laura Whitehorn, who was invited to speak about the HIV/AIDS epidemic in prisons (rather than terrorism) because she is an HIV/AIDS activist who speaks in prisons around the country about HIV and AIDS.  The “washed-up calypso singer” is Harry Belafonte, who spoke at a MLK Day event because he was a personal friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and has continued his non-violent activism around the globe by raising awareness about a variety of human rights issues in Africa and South America (not because of his musical career).

Similar half-truths and misrepresentations of truths occur throughout the entirety of the book.  In my opinion it  is a pathetic attempt by Horowitz to be heard, because when he speaks no one wants to listen.  I do believe that free speech means everyone should have the right to talk, but it has become clear that Horowitz’s arguments are so worn out students, faculties, and legislators can see right through it. 

Even though Horowitz’s writing seems like a joke to me, it is still important to recognize him as a threat to the academic community because some politicians do take him seriously.  Just the fact that bills supporting the ABOR are introduced proves this fact and as students we need to support our professors’ right to free speech.  Check with the Free Exchange on Campus to see if an initiative has been introduced in your state, the Horowitz Fact Checker, and what you can do to help.