Activist Historian Howard Zinn's Obit Causes a Firestorm (NPR Ombudsman)

[Canuckistanian]

There's a taboo not to speak ill of the dead. Or if you are going to, then at least be nuanced and even-handed about it.

And that's what hundreds said about a Jan. 28 remembrance of Howard Zinn, the activist historian who died Jan. 27.

~snip

The four-minute piece by Allison Keyes quoted three sources: two who praised Zinn and one, David Horowitz, who was harshly critical. It was the commentary by Horowitz that led Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a left-leaning media watchdog group, to initiate a campaign that resulted in over 1,600 emails, over 100 phone calls and 108 comments on npr.org. Others complained on air.

Horowitz, 71, is a former leftist radical who morphed into a right-wing author and commentator in the early 1980s. He is also founder of Students for Academic Freedom, a national watchdog group that promotes tolerance of conservatives on college campuses.

Not surprisingly, he was no fan of Zinn's.

http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2010/02/howard_zinns_obit.html

No kidding. I wrote a message to the Ombudsman with the title "Horowitz on Howards Zinn's death? Are you serious?"
This editorial was prompted by "hundreds" of similar messages like mine.

Well, at least they're paying attention.