Academic

RON RADOSH: Glenn Beck, Frances Fox Piven, and how the New York Times Falsely Depicts the Controver?

By Glenn Reynolds

RON RADOSH: Glenn Beck, Frances Fox Piven, and how the New York Times Falsely Depicts the Controversy.

The Nation defends Fox Piven, maintaining that she only supports ?voter registration drives, grassroots organization, and when necessary, street protest? and ?recognizing the leverage that oppressed groups have- and working with them to use it,? which is ?her special genius.? But the good professor has gone way beyond this. I had discussed Fox Piven?s article in my PJM blog pointing out her call for unemployed Americans, and those otherwise hurt by the recession, to ?become more disruptive?? and emulate ?the strikes and riots that have spread across Greece in response to the austerity measures forced on the Greek government by the European Union, or like the student protests that recently spread with lightning speed across England in response to the prospect of greatly increased school fees. (my emphasis.)?

Although Stelter?s NYT?s article purports to be even handed, Stelter puts the onus not on Fox Piven for calling for violence which she denies, but on Beck for pointing out her statements on his Fox program. And Beck has as far as I have seen not only consistently argued for non-violence in all protest, but has been a strong advocate of First Amendment freedoms, and has quoted Piven?s own words accurately, and without distortion.

To add evidence of Beck?s culpability, Stelter cites a demand made by a group called ?The Center for Constitutional Rights? to stop Beck?s ?false accusations? against her. While they respect the right of free speech, a letter they wrote to Fox head Roger Ailes says, ?Mr. Beck is putting Professor Piven in actual physical danger of a violent reponse.?

The implication of such a statement is that the only way to prevent such vicious attacks by crazed rightists is to censor Beck, whom Fox News correctly noted that ?Beck had quoted her accurately and had never threatened her.?

One must also note the identification of The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) as a ?liberal nonprofit group,? which comes after Stelter identifies Fox Piven as ?a liberal academic.? Fox Piven is an academic, but she is part of the radical far Left, and she is not a liberal. And anyone who knows anything about the CCR is laughing heartily.

Read the whole thing. When leftists call for violence, it’s “hatemongering” to quote them accurately. But actually lying about what people on the right say . . . that’s just journalism, apparently.

And just to keep the record straight, here’s a flashback on Piven’s call for violent riots.

And also, just so people are clear, here’s what those Greek riots she was calling for Americans to emulate looked like:

At the same time, tens of thousands of protesters marched through Athens in the largest and most violent protests since the country’s budget crisis began last fall. Angry youths rampaged through the center of Athens, torching several businesses and vehicles and smashing shop windows. Protesters and police clashed in front of parliament and fought running street battles around the city.

Witnesses said hooded protesters smashed the front window of Marfin Bank in central Athens and hurled a Molotov cocktail inside. The three victims died from asphyxiation from smoke inhalation, the Athens coroner’s office said. Four others were seriously injured there, fire department officials said.

Rampaging mobs and people burned to death. This is what Piven wanted to see in America. So who’s inciting violence here?

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on January 24, 2011 (boomark / email).