Thursday, January 31, 2008

Ward: paper told me to fake letters

In an update to an update of an update, Westword's Michael Roberts provides background on Ward Churchill and his followers' particular enmity toward the Boulder Daily Camera, including Ward's claim (now this is ironic) that some unnamed "they" at the Camera suggested he write letters to the editor under other people's names:
and that they'd run them with a wink and a nod, thereby letting me have 'my' say while still maintaining 'appearances' (of what was left a tad mysterious). My response to that proposition was to ask why, if they felt material arguing my case [could] appear under names other than mine, they weren't publishing the material submitted by people like [University of Hawaii American Studies professor David] Stannard. I got no answer."
In his reply to Roberts, Camera editor Clint Talbott notes Ward's unwontedly generous preservation of the anonymity of "they," and includes 7000 words worth of letters in support of Churchill that the paper ran from the start of the Churchill mess in early 2005 through July, 2006, including a few from CU faculty who should (but probably won't) be embarrassed to read them again. Talbott also said the paper had no record of a letter from Stannard, and that he was unfamiliar with the name.

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