Friday, March 25, 2005

David Horowitz and the Students for Academic Fairness: By the numbers.


If you were just a little overwhelmed by the recent three-part series regarding David Horowitz and the SAF and whether they really give a shit about academic bias against liberals, well, let's do a little summing up here, keeping one important point in mind. If you want to compare polar opposite examples Ahmad Al-Qloushi and Michael Wiesner, remember that liberal Wiesner's complaint involved alleged anti-liberal harassment that extended over a period of months, while conservative Al-Qloushi's whining was based primarily on getting an F on an essay that was a piece of crap that richly deserved it, then (allegedly) being told by his prof that he needed counselling.

In any case, regardless of how you spin it, it's overwhelmingly obvious that Wiesner's case is the more egregious claim of academic harassment and bullying. And in that light, what does Google tell us about who got the favoured treatment from Horowitz and the SAF? First, Web-wide Google searches (and, obviously, your results may vary):

"David Horowitz" "Michael Wiesner": 16 hits.
"David Horowitz" "Ahmad Al-Qloushi": 1,450 hits.

"Students for Academic Freedom" "Michael Wiesner": 4 hits.
"Students for Academic Freedom" "Ahmad Al-Qloushi": 116 hits.

And if one restricts the Google search strictly to the bounds of the respective web sites:

Horowitz's "Front Page Mag", "Michael Wiesner": 4 hits.
Horowitz's "Front Page Mag", "Ahmad Al-Qloushi": 14 hits.

SAF, "Michael Wiesner": 4 hits.
SAF, "Ahmad Al-Qloushi": 14 hits.

The numbers don't lie. Fair and balanced? I don't think so.

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