Posted on 08/26/2002 2:47:48 AM PDT by 2Trievers
TWO YEARS AGO, "historian" Michael Bellesiles gained national fame for his book, "Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture," in which he posited that gun ownership in early America was rare and that there was no historical basis on which to claim that the Second Amendment protected individual rights to bear arms. His book won the Bancroft Award, the highest American award for a history book. Then objective reporters and historians began picking apart his book. What they found was a mountain of lies. Bellesiles left out most historical evidence that contradicted his theory — evidence which greatly outweighed the evidence that backed up his theory. Furthermore, he misrepresented historical records and even claimed to have examined California records that do not exist — they were lost in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. After a lot of these flaws and apparent fabrications were revealed, Bellesiles still managed to win a $30,000 grant of National Endowment for the Humanities money, funneled through the Newberry Library in Chicago. In February, the William and Mary Quarterly devoted an issue to having "Arming America" reviewed by other professional historians. The verdict was not favorable. Bellisiles' professional reputation was so tarnished that in April his employer, Emory University, announced it would conduct an investigation. Bellesiles is now on paid leave while the probe into his "research" continues. All the while, columnist Ann Coulter was working on her book "Slander: Liberal Lies About The American Right." Since its publication in July, the book has held the No. 1 spot on The New York Times' best-seller list. Coulter's premise is that the left-leaning media in America are dishonest in their coverage of conservatives. The number of documented errors in Coulter's book: two, and they were both minor, according to a recent story in The New York Observer. While the disgraced, yet award-winning, Bellesiles is working on his taxpayer-funded next book, also about the history of guns in America, we wait to see how many grants and awards the factually accurate Ann Coulter wins.
Every time I see an article like this one:
Guns and 'Slander': Who is lying to whom?
http://www.unionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=13668
from the New Hampshire Union Leader, I am reminded of the glacial pace at which Emory is (not) dealing with a blatant case of academic deceit. I have been following this case for around two years, and am flabbergasted that you and your department still have not taken appropriate action to remove this scoundrel. Oh, well, at least you've suspended him.
Frankly, your credibility is right there with Enron executives, Arthur Anderson auditors, and Department of Education accountants.
Good day.
< FreedomPoster's real name>
< email addy>
< town, state, near Emory>
Wow. Must be nice to be rewarded with a paid vacation just for tarnishing the reputation of your employer. Doesn't seem to work out here in the private sector, alas.
Thomas Jefferson, by no means an imprecise thinker, was well aware of this consideration. In commenting upon how the Constitution should properly be read, he said: "On every question of construction let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning can be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one which was passed.”
Gee I wonder why this is?
< /sarcasm>
You would think that after all these years of the right shouting about the bias in the media and the loss of readers and viewers by the mainstream media they would get a clue.
You could think that...but you'd be wrong.
1) He'd never have gotten any beyond-academia mass-circulation book published.
2) No book he got published would ever have been reviewed in "mainstream" dailies.
3) He'd have had a damn hard time getting grant money - competing with the horde of others.
4) He'd have been fired or forced to quit instantly when he was caught falsifying research.
Scandals of antigun politicians and activists - including Bellesiles fraud!
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