Attack: And a liberal prof's own view

By LARRY ATKINS

AS A COLLEGE professor, I wish that Edward R. Murrow were around today to say "Good night and good luck" to David Horowitz.

Like Sen. Joseph McCarthy a half century ago, Horowitz, a noted conservative commentator, is spearheading a witchhunt by promoting the so-called Academic Bill of Rights, which he is urging state legislatures to enact.

Horowitz's goal is to rein in liberal professors who supposedly promote their radical views in class, poison the minds of students, bully conservatives and support America's terrorist enemies.

Horowitz's most recent book is "The Professors: The 101 most dangerous academics in America." The author alleges that among these professors are former terrorists, racists, murderers, sexual deviants, anti-Semites and al-Qaeda supporters who want to kill white people, support Osama bin Laden and promote the views of Iran's mullahs.

Horowitz has promoted a network of Republican youth on some 200 campuses called Students for Academic Freedom, who spy on and demand the firing of liberal and leftist professors.

Inspired by Horowitz, UCLA's Bruin Alumni Association created UCLAProfs.com, dedicated to exposing UCLA's most radical professors. The site encourages students to take notes and to record lectures of professors to provide proof of abusive behavior by radical teachers.

As the Web site states, "Preliminary UCLAProfs.com research has uncovered nearly 500 faculty signatures on petitions, open letters and public statements which take a wide variety of radical positions: anti-Israel, anti-Bush, anti-war. The list also demonstrates that a large number of UCLA professors are ardently in favor of affirmative action, and just as ardently opposed to conservative legal nominees."

In July, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed a resolution, sponsored by 37 Republicans and 6 Democrats, to investigate slanted teaching methods by professors at public universities. The House established a Committee that has been holding hearings throughout the state on this issue.

I happen to be a liberal, and proud of it. When I watch "Planet of the Apes" starring Charlton Heston, I root for the apes. I recently published a book of my op-eds and essays titled "Larry the Liberal Lawyer Lashes Out."

As a patriotic American, I'm allowed to have views opposing President Bush, the Iraq war and conservative legal nominees. Likewise, conservatives were allowed to be anti-Clinton during his presidency.

I teach journalism as an adjunct professor at Temple and Arcadia universities. In my syllabus for every semester, I state that no student's work will be judged on whether I agree with their views. I've taught conservative students, given them A's, encouraged them to submit their articles to conservative publications like the Washington Times and National Review, and given them advice about internships. And I've given liberal students low grades if that's what they deserved.

My classroom goal isn't to convert my students into radical liberals. My goal is to teach journalism - how to write and research articles and apply for internships and journalism-related jobs, and to expose them to various guest speakers (including conservatives like Dom Giordano from WPHT/1210).

The last thing that dedicated professors need is to have this academic freedom witchhunt hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles.

Hopefully, enough rational people will speak out against David Horowitz and his irrational crusade, just like broadcasting icon Edward R. Murrow did to expose Joe McCarthy 50 years ago.

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Larry Atkins, author of "Larry the Liberal Lawyer Lashes Out," teaches Journalism at Temple and Arcadia universities. E-mail him at larryLTatkins@aol.com.