Discover the Network

I try not to link to Salon that much, although I love the site and read it constantly, because if you are not a member you have to watch an ad to see the content. That said they are having quite a good week, and today's story (by John Gorenfeld) involves David Horowitz and the "Discover the Network" Website. In it, Gorenfeld explores the absurdity of a database linking Film Critic Roger Ebert and terrorist Mohammed Atta.

One man who won't be removed from the database is Ebert, No. 298. "I was surprised to find myself linked to a terrorist I have never heard of," Ebert said, facetiously. "I was not curious enough about him to Google him, but perhaps he will Google me and, having discovered my wonderful reviews, will renounce terrorism and spend more time at the movies." (What earned Ebert his spot, the site says, was his criticizing "runaway corporations," accusing the U.S. death penalty system of inequity, and making an unflattering reference to former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.)

"The one link Discover the Network seems to be missing is 'David Horowitz and Sen. Joseph McCarthy,'" Ebert says. "David was a respected journalist. He could be a respected conservative commentator. Why does he lower himself to rabble-rousing?"

Good question, but it sort of misses the point. Horowitz believes in ideology over the truth and has for years. He believed in ideology when he was on the far right and he believes in it now that he is on the far left. And his ideology trumps any sense of perspective a real reporter needs to have.