On Hannity & Colmes, Horowitz dodged charges that he “didn't even write or research” portions of his book

On Hannity & Colmes, David Horowitz would not answer accusations that he “admitted on the air” that he “didn't even write or research ... parts of” his book, The Professors. Horowitz also claimed that fellow guest Mark LeVine, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, is “an apologist for the terrorists.”


Appearing with University of California, Irvine professor Mark LeVine on the August 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing activist David Horowitz refused to answer LeVine's accusation that Horowitz “admitted on the air” that he “didn't even write or research the parts of” his book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America (Regnery, January 2006), that were about LeVine, and “therefore couldn't comment on how much of it was true.” Instead, Horowitz said, “I'm not going to discuss things that happened on other shows. I have read what Mark LeVine has written.”

Horowitz and LeVine appeared on Hannity & Colmes to discuss the Middle East conflict, and during the discussion, Horowitz claimed that LeVine is “an apologist for the terrorists.” LeVine responded, “This is absolutely unconscionable for you to say. ... Again, you're lying like you did in your book.” LeVine then pointed to a prior debate he had with Horowitz over the research for the chapter on LeVine from The Professors. On the April 9 edition of Mother Jones Radio Broadcast, host Angie Coiro asked Horowitz, "[T]his research [in the LeVine chapter] is credited to Tzvi Kahn. ... How much of your work went into this chapter, per se? Did you clear all the facts, here?" In response to Coiro, Horowitz admitted to never having met Kahn, the researcher credited in the LeVine chapter of The Professors. Horowitz never addressed Coiro's question, which she asked twice, about the extent to which he was involved in the production of that chapter.

Co-host Sean Hannity introduced Horowitz as the author of the forthcoming book, The Shadow Party: How George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Sixties Radicals Seized Control of the Democratic Party (Nelson Current), to be released August 8. In advance of the book's release, Media Matters for America documented many of the book's doctored quotes, falsehoods, and baseless allegations offered up by Horowitz and co-author Richard Poe in an effort to smear progressive financier, philanthropist, and political activist George Soros and others.

Horowitz has also repeatedly attacked Media Matters for noting prior instances in which Horowitz misrepresented the scholarship of The Professors, including when Media Matters noted that the book contains numerous instances in which Horowitz cited the purported extracurricular activities of the professors he criticized in the book, contrary to his denial of doing so on the April 6 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes. Horowitz conceded in an April 13 FrontPageMag.com weblog post that there was a “sliver of truth in the Media Matters statement” that documented his inconsistencies, but he downplayed the contradiction, claiming that “my book is a series of profiles of 101 professors” that includes “general perspectives, [that] may or may not be expressed outside the classroom.” A more detailed Media Matters study of The Professors showed that even Horowitz's revised suggestion -- that his book does not rely heavily on professors' activities and speech outside of the classroom, but rather merely mentions extracurricular activities as part of a broader profile of each academic's “general perspectives” -- was false.

From the August 1 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: As we continue on Hannity & Colmes, I'm Sean Hannity, reporting from Phoenix, Arizona, tonight. As the fighting in the Middle East continues, calls for Israel to use restraint are growing, and the world appears to be lining up against the country. Now, is anti-Semitism spreading as this conflict continues? Joining us now, the author of the upcoming book, The Shadow Party, the editor of FrontPageMag.com, David Horowitz. Also the author of Why They Don't Hate Us, University of California, Irvine professor Mark LeVine is with us.

[...]

ALAN COLMES (co-host): Let me, David, ask you, as Jimmy Carter points out in an op-ed piece today, the issue here is tactics. We all want the same goal, here.

HOROWITZ: The biggest appeaser of them all.

COLMES: But punishing civilian populations with the hope that they will then blame Hamas and Hezbollah has had the opposite effect. So the tactics are not working. We've tried these tactics for decades. They've only created more insurgents, more terrorism, more Hamas, more Hezbollah. So we're not doing it the right way. That's the issue.

HOROWITZ: Jimmy Carter is a moral and national disgrace.

COLMES: That's kind of you to say, David.

HOROWITZ: And saying that just proves it. Israel hasn't punished anybody. Israel was attacked across an international border. And Mark LeVine is not a moderator between them. He's an apologist for the terrorists. I have read a ton of his stuff --

LeVINE: All right, this is absolutely unconscionable for you to say. You have said this in a book, sir --

HOROWITZ: You have never condemned, you -- I mean, just what you said before.

LeVINE: Excuse me? Excuse me?

HOROWITZ: Israel did not go across an international --

LeVINE: I've never condemned Hamas? Is that what you're saying? Again you're lying, just like you did in your book.

HOROWITZ: OK, you know, now you're -- now you're interrupting -- now you're --

LeVINE: See, this is why we need to talk about facts, sir. We need to have the facts that are really at hand to have a real conversation. And I'm happy to do that if you don't want to yell and call people morons and --

HOROWITZ: All right, anybody who writes a book about why -- about -- anybody who --

COLMES: All right, David, wouldn't it be more productive to have an actual dialogue rather than call your co-guest a moron and actually understand where he stands?

LeVINE: Yes, I would like to, so let's stop calling each other names.

COLMES: Now, Mark, let's get this clear, here. You're not a supporter of Hamas or Hezbollah. Let's put that on the table.

HOROWITZ: I said he wasn't a --

LeVINE: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But -- and I'm not an apologist for anyone, because I've seen the destruction all sides abroad.

HOROWITZ: Everything Mark LeVine writes is a --

COLMES: Let him respond, David. Let Mark respond.

LeVINE: Everything, yeah -- no but see this is --

HOROWITZ: The two of you, the nonstop, this interrupting me and talking, you know?

COLMES: Mark, let David respond. One at a time, please.

LeVINE: I thought you were letting me respond.

HOROWITZ: Yeah, OK.

COLMES: Go ahead, Mark.

HOROWITZ: Pffft.

LeVINE: Yes, thank you. Look, let's get the record very quickly straight. David, you wrote a book, “101 Professors” [sic], where you called me one of the most dangerous professors. You admitted on the air that you didn't even write or research the parts of the book that were about me and therefore couldn't comment on how much of it was true. So let's at least understand where your level of scholarship and research is coming from. OK? This is in the record. Now, I am totally against any terrorism and any attacks on any civilians. The point is how do we get out of this disaster? And is more violence going to help solve this problem or is more violence going to make it work [sic: worse]? And if you read -- this isn't me talking. Forget about me, the so-called dangerous professor.

COLMES: All right we've got to let David respond and we've got to go -- David.

LeVINE: Read the Israeli press. Read the Israeli press and you'll see Israelis saying the same thing.

HOROWITZ: Really? OK, having had --

HANNITY: David gets the floor.

HANNITY: Hey, Mark, your time is up. David -- David gets the floor. David.

HOROWITZ: -- Ten minutes of pile on. I'm not going to discuss things that happened on other shows. I have read what Mark LeVine has written. Anybody who writes a book, Why They Don't Hate Us, referring to the Arab Muslim Middle East has no credibility whatsoever.

From the April 9 broadcast of the Mother Jones Radio Broadcast:

LeVINE: In fact if you look at the end of that -- the end of my profile, it's researched by someone -- I don't know who it is, but I fear that a lot of these chapters -- the research is done by interns who, you know, probably need to go back to college because so much of what is said is just factually misrepresenting my views and the views of many of my colleagues who have been doing stories since the publication of the book.

COIRO: David Horowitz, this research here is accredited to Tzvi Kahn, if I'm pronouncing that correctly. How much of your work went into this chapter, per se? Did you clear all the facts, here?

HOROWITZ: Well -- ahem -- I'm not -- I'm not clear which -- um -- what -- what book -- um -- Professor LeVine is referring to. Because he's written more than one book, now.

COIRO: Well, I'm talking about the person who's taking responsibility for what's in your chapter about Mark LeVine.

HOROWITZ: Yeah, I -- [ahem]. Well, look, I -- I -- um, I'm just. OK. Actually, we quote him criticizing -- um -- I'm -- I've -- I don't -- I have never met Tzvi Khan -- um --

LeVINE: This is the point that I'm --

[crosstalk]

COIRO: Mark -- Mark LeVine, Mark LeVine, I want you to hold that thought, please. Please continue, David Horowitz.

HOROWITZ: And but the book actually says that to bring the socialist millennia to fruition he claims that it is necessary to dig beyond the easy symbolism of freedom, democracy, Zionism equals racism, and other mantras and so forth so, I -- you know, it's not like he's presented as a --somebody who doesn't have a critical thought within the left.