Comments on: Eric Alterman- the Left’s Most Dishonest Journalist-and the Controversy over “Spies.”

By: michael

michael — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:04:08 +0000

The question we have to ask is exactly what did Stone DO, and was it all that bad?

He was demonstrably not a spy. He had no access to classified information and enjoyed no official capacity. He was a journalist. And as a journalist, knowledge was his stock in trade.

As journalists do, he shared his information with others in his community, gaining as much as he gave out. And many in that coterie were undoubtedly orthodox Stalinists, not just leftists, Marxists or communists. But we’re talking about 1936-38, well before the Cold War.

So what? I’m having trouble grasping the relevance of this.

I’m holding in my hand a copy of W.L. White’s “Report on the Russians”, published in 1945. In fact it was even published by the Readers’ Digest as a condensed book.

How does it depict the Soviets? Glowingly. They were our allies, and staunch defenders of their homeland. Essential to the war on fascism. Etcetera. And this was our official line in those days. We needed them. We liked them. We worked hand in hand with them.

Seen in that light, if Readers’ Digest saw nothing wrong with the Soviets, what is it that makes Izzy Stone’s sharing of info with fellow journos on the left such a heinous act?

By: Radegunda

Radegunda — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:24:12 +0000

I’m not exactly coming down on Alterman’s side, but I did read his quoted statement differently from Ron. What Alterman says after “he never mentioned anything of this to me” does imply a possibility that Stone was a spy. He assumes that Stone would have expected him to disapprove–of what? The following sentences do not say or imply that he could not have been a spy.

By: Chessexpert

Chessexpert — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:32:17 +0000

Anti-communists were not at war with America, communists and communist sympathizers were (and are).

By: Class Clown

Class Clown — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:37:51 +0000

I know that this is only partly on topic, but one of the only things that amused me about the latest (terrible) Indiana Jones movie, is how they could simultaneously depict KGB agents as running amuck in America, and yet still stick to the pop-culture version of history in which FBI investigations of communist spying were just irrational witch hunts.

Welcome to the Leftist/Hollywood funhouse, where you can see anything you want to see, and all of it at the same time.

By: G. Clarke

G. Clarke — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:50:26 +0000

We just caught two American spies for Castro who, amazingly, did not do it for money but apparently, as was noted, because Che was cool. I suppose there are still some people out there who think Al Jolson with burnt cork on his face is a great entertainer. Sheesh!

By: jb

jb — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:09:56 +0000

It’s such a shame when such a perfectly good theory, (communism), is negated by a single undisputed fact.

It just doesn’t work.

By: Ed Driscoll » Now There’s A Team With A Depth Chart!

Ed Driscoll » Now There’s A Team With A Depth Chart! — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:06:44 +0000

[...] Radosh calls Eric Alterman “the Left’s Most Dishonest Journalist.” Walter Duranty, Walter Cronkite, Jayson Blair, Dan Rather, Eason Jordan, Scott Thomas Beauchamp and [...]

By: Joe Bison

Joe Bison — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:37:55 +0000

The left always has a fetish for denying
facts opposed to their leanings and inventing
wish lists for what they want to believe in.
A leftist professor always gives you part
facts ignoring the ones that destroy his
argument. They know 95% of students
won’t read outside the outline.

Everyone uses “spies” of some sort to perform
various tasks. The hurdle the US has always
faced is that it is an open society that is
very easy to penetrate. Enemies of the US
tend to be closed dictatorial societies
where it is difficult for actual humans to
penetrate. Thus the value of defectors for
instance.

I don’t look at the spying itself but at
what type of society the person is working
for. USSR, PRC, Cuba etc-Uhh nuff said.
For leftists out there, these type of
regimes are where your ideology always
leads. But look on the bright side if
you are successful you’ll probably end
up purged anyway.

By: J.J.J.J. Jameson

J.J.J.J. Jameson — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:35:39 +0000

Alterman’s a tool.

He’s so puffed up with his own imagined importance and ignorance that he’s become a grotesque figure of ridicule: a bloated circus balloon waiting for the needle.

By: dan

dan — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:02:46 +0000

The most important ignorance of the discourse is the void where knowledge of Communism and its secret services should be. I suppose we will have to wait until all those born before the mid-1970s and who believed themselves to be, let’s say, intellectually curious are dead. These passions are formed in youth and make a lasting impression – and this is a generational war, launched by the Bolsheviks. Of course, if the public did know what was what the whole 20th century and their own world would change. Their minds would be truly blown. But alas, the Communists have won on this score, and it is not to be.

Does anyone know whether The Chief Culprit, by Viktor Suvorov, is gaining a wider audience?