Sunday, February 6, 2011

David Holthouse, admitted libeler on behalf of SPLC, works his fact-challenged "reportage" again.


A deep genuflection and tip of the boonie hat to Irregular Sean for directing me to this NC Guns blog post which led to Say Uncle's "Reporter goes to SHOT. Poops pants," which led to David Holthouse's latest smear, "Overkill - Our correspondent is blown away at the largest gun show in the U.S."

Experienced readers of Sipsey Street will recall that I have dealt with the subject of this serial libeler before here: "Meet David Holthouse, premier paid liar at the Southern Preposterous Lie Center."

That article mentioned that Holthouse and SPLC were being sued for libel by historian Guenter Lewy.

Well, lo and behold, SPLC and Holthouse apologized to Lewy and paid him some money to go away.

In an event that I missed at the time, Armenian Cafe.com reported that:

Southern Poverty Law Center Apologizes To Professor Guenter Lewy Over Armenian Genocide Charge

Washington -- The storied Southern Poverty Law Center has agreed to formally apologize to a scholar it accused of being a Turkish agent because of his views on the long-ago slaughter of Armenians.

The public apology by the civil rights group ends a multimillion-dollar libel lawsuit filed by historian Guenter Lewy, author of the book "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide." The settlement does not, however, end a debate that still entangles lawmakers from regions with large Armenian-American populations. . .

"I think it was a long time coming," Lewy said of the lawsuit settlement in an interview Wednesday. "It not only clears me of these malicious charges, it's a victory for free inquiry."

The settlement of the 2-year-old lawsuit includes a confidential financial payment to Lewy as well as a three-paragraph apology and retraction that the Southern Poverty Law Center will be making public within a week. (Emphasis supplied, MBV)

Lewy initially asked for $8 million from the law center.

In its negotiated statement, the Alabama-based group said it "misunderstood" Lewy's scholarship and admitted it was "wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been financially compromised by the government of Turkey."

The organization further stated that it was "wrong to assert" that Lewy was part of a genocide-denying network financed by Turkey.

A spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center could not be reached to comment Wednesday.


No doubt.

The retraction and apology says:

In the summer 2008 issue of its Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that Guenter Lewy, a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, was part of a network of persons, ?nanced by the Government of Turkey, who dispute that the tragic events of World War I constituted an Armenian genocide. We now realize that we misunderstood Professor Lewy's scholarship, were wrong to assert that he was part of a network ?nanced by the Turkish Government, and were wrong to assume that any scholar who challenges the Armenian genocide narrative necessarily has been ?nancially compromised by the Government of Turkey. We hereby retract the assertion that Professor Lewy was or is on the Government of Turkey's payroll.

To our knowledge, Professor Lewy has never sought to deny or minimize the deaths of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey; nor has he sought to minimize the Ottoman regime's grievous wartime miscalculations or indifference to human misery in a con?ict earmarked by widespread civilian suffering on all sides. What he has argued in his book, The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide, and elsewhere is that the present historical record does not substantiate a premeditated plan by the Ottoman regime to destroy because of ethnicity, religion ,or nationality, as opposed to deport for political-military reasons, the Armenian population. In this view, he is joined by such distinguished scholars as Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University. As additional troves of archival information come to light, Professor Lewy advocates greater study of this contentious subject. We deeply regret our errors and offer our sincerest apologies to Professor Lewy.


So much for Holthouse's and SPLC's "scholarship."

I wonder how much Lewy soaked old Morris the Molester Dees for on this one?

Plaintiff attorney's take note: SPLC CAN be had.

10 comments:

Dedicated_Dad said...

First, this man also has a history of *ADMITTED* felony gun trafficking and planning first-degree murder.

Further, he was charged with stalking his intended victim, but was not prosecuted due to the refusal of said victim to cooperate.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/3482069/detail.html

As I said on the NC blog, Wow -- so now we have...

(1) Fantasizing about murder for years.
(2) Actually buying an illegal gun and suppressor
(3) Promising forgiveness
(4) Unknown disposal of illegal implements -- were they sold back to the original gang, or...?
(5) Stalking his intended victim after the conclusion of the aforementioned narrative

What more evidence could anyone need that this man is mentally unfit to own firearms?

I wonder how he'd feel if his proposed limits were imposed on him?

Unreal...

DD

To that I'd have to add this:

I can't really say I blame the man for wanting to kill someone who raped him as a child - in fact I'm not even sure it should be a crime to do so - but that's not the point here.

For someone with his obvious "issues" to be making moral judgements about others is the height of projection.

It's sickening.

Richard Keefe said...

ic, isn't it, that the SPLC turns 40 this year and yet NOT ONE of its top ten, highest paid executives is a minority, and certainly not an immigrant?

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-7m

In fact, despite being located LITERALLY in the back yard of Dr. Martin Luther King's home church, the SPLC has NEVER hired a person of color to a highly paid position of power.

According to his 1991 autobiography, "A Season for Justice," Morris Dees writes that before working for George McGovern he served as "Youth Coordinator" for Gov. George "Segregation Forever!" Wallace, (One can just imagine what that job entailed), and was a highly paid Klan lawyer during the Civil Rights Movement.

http://wp.me/pCLYZ-F

Apparently, some things never change in Montgomery.

Dick's Dad said...

Mike,
An odd thought for you and the regular irregulars:

The smearing and libels we're getting from the leftists have almost certainly been under preparation for some time in various quarters, for release after a suitable outrage.

have they gone off at half cock?

Was this expected to be like 1968? with the onslaught launched in the aftermath of a BIG assassination?

Trouble is, some started running too soon, and now others are following in disarray and the figures from Mexico have been blown before they were ready...

It was just one of those thoughts that occurs on a long drive, long after I've got sick of listening to the radio.

Dedicated_Dad said...

More: http://www.westword.com/2004-07-08/news/arrested-development/

Anonymous said...

There be Marxists heer! And well funded ones too!

Carl Bussjaeger said...

Huh. Interstate trafficking in firearms, possession of an unlicensed suppressor, possession of a firearm with defaced serial number, conspiracy to commit murder... And that's just what he admitted to in print. Forget the stalking victims who declined to press charges; why, I ask (obviously) rhetorically, isn't this clown in federal prison on these other charges?

Defender said...

How can the SPLC criticize someone minimizing the Armenian Genocide while they try their damnedest to create the exact conditions necessary for one here? Are they afraid people will see a similarity?

Armenian Americans remember the truth. http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/12/kobe_bryant_turkish_airlines.php#

iceworm said...

Ah, poor fellow, this Holthouse chap.

Alaska has an history (sadly) of hippy types living in the bush as well as coming to Anchorage (only an hour's drive from Alaska =:-D

Within the past two years, or so, TEA partyers, Second Amendment Sisters and Taskforce-ers, hunters and fishermen (both male and female), constitutionalists, and other more organized groups have risen to take back Alaska from those who would lock it down.

Keep praying and pass the ammunition.

Anonymous said...

FWIW, y comment directed to Holthouse.

"GFY Holthouse.

I have fired many thousands of rounds and never once in anger or defense. Hope I never have to. But sniveling little turds like you who wish they could be more like real men keep pushing towards some jacked up version of society in which the mere threat of retribution won't be enough of a deterrent to keep the peace and concepts will have to be proven, yet again. The Right is Inalienable and I choose never to surrender it. Period. Neither you nor anyone else can make me without violating many more of my rights and that little endeavor will require you to pack the proverbial lunchbox. Perhaps you should write about things you may understand better like quiche, knitting, or grooming poodles."

Kristophr said...

I think you should give the SPLC a half of a pass on this one.

Anyone that tries to paint the Armenian genocide for less than it was needs to be thoroughly bitchslapped.

It is unfortunate that they chose such a stupid wanker to do the job and then screw it up to the point they needed to settle a libel suit filed by the revisionist a-hole who needed bitchslapping.