...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, April 01, 2003
      ( 10:29 AM )
 
A Hero Who Needs No Defense

I would like to take a minute to comment on the Wall Street Journal editorial by Dorothy Rabinowitz which misquoted Roger Wilkins. First of all, I can't link to the Wall Street Journal editorial since, in great corporate fashion, they charge for free speech. Second, I got the heads up on this story from Eric Alterman, so wanted to give props there. In sum, Rabinowitz attributed a quote to Roger Wilkins that he never made during a panel discussion on The News Hour.

My first issue is with Salon.com calling Roger Wilkins a pundit. I had the extreme pleasure and honor of studying with him and taking several of his courses at George Mason University. He is not a mere pundit. Roger Wilkins wrote for the New York Times and the Washington Post. While he was on the editorial staff of the Post, he shared the Pulitzer Prize with Woodward and Bernstein for Watergate coverage. As a young man, he clerked for Thurgood Marshall. He served as Assistant Attorney General in the Johnson Administration. He has written two incredible books, one an autobiography, A Man's Life. He is the Chairman and Publisher of Crisis, he is on the board of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and he is currently the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of History and American Culture at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. So there, Salon.

Professor Wilkins is not only one of the most intelligent men I have ever met, but one of the most versed persons on the condition of humanity that I have ever heard speak. He doesn't mince words, he says what he means and he is not intollerant, except of stupidity. That he would have uttered the words Rabinowitz accused him of is not only ridiculous but shows how the reactionary Editorial Board of the Journal has simply gone too far. Making up lies, putting false words in the mouths of respected scholars - I hope to see an apology from the Journal and Ms. Rabinowitz ASAP. And a good one, Dorothy, like your own Mama would insist on.

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