The Lies of Alan Dershowitz

Cockburn, Alexander, The Nation

While U.S. news organizations were falling joyfully upon the A.P. story without asking themselves if it was likely that Nicaragua would support a country that had sent arms to the contras, or Vietnam one that had invaded it, a domestic equivalent of A.P.'s fabrication was being prepared.

On June 11 the Los Angeles Times ran a syndicated column by Alan Dershowitz titled "Leftist Cacophony for Human Rights Grows Silent on the Beijing Massacre:" Dershowitz claimed that on June 7 and 8 an "associate" whom he did not identify had reached "a fairly representative sample of the usually irrepressible and cacophonous left. Not a single one was prepared to condemn the Chinese government:" Then he cited his supposed findings:

Williarn Kunstler ... had nothing to say.... His office

told my associate he would have no comment... Similarly,

Noam Chomsky ... has been silent about China, according

to his secretary.... The extreme-left press - the Guardian,

the Workers Vanguard, the Revolutionary Worker and

other Marxist weeklies - were busy trying to fit the events in

China into their political orthodoxies. The Workers World

Party condemned the students as …

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Publication information: Article title: The Lies of Alan Dershowitz. Contributors: Cockburn, Alexander - Author. Magazine title: The Nation. Volume: 249. Issue: 2 Publication date: July 10, 1989. Page number: 42+. © 1999 The Nation Company L.P. COPYRIGHT 1989 Gale Group.

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