http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/News/032103FrumLies.html Frum’s Lie: Chronicles rejects “the 50-year-old conservative commitment to defend American interests and values throughout the world.
The Truth: Our entire foreign-policy argument is based on defense of the American interest, which is the title of our column on foreign policy.
Frum’s Lie: All antiwar conservatives have made common cause with leftists. Chronicles rejects such alliances and has explained why in a recent online editorial condemning both antiwar and antiglobalist demonstrators as moral anarchists.
Frum’s Lie: The late Mel Bradford’s nomination as NEH director was doomed by his writings.
The Truth: Irving Kristol organized a smear campaign against Bradford, who had considerable support on Capitol Hill, in order to put his own flunkey, William Bennett, into a position that controlled jobs and grants for other Kristol protégés. It was a classic Kristol operation that utilized the services of people like George Will, but the plot blew up in the Godfather’s face when most decent conservatives refused to have anything to do with him in the future. Kristol has said that, had he known the reaction, he would have let Bradford get the nomination.
Frum’s Lie: Chronicles founder Leopold Tyrmand survived the Nazi death camps and decided to base Chronicles in Rockford.
The Truth: Leopold was impressed as a worker but not put into a death camp, and the decision to locate both Chronicles and the Institute in Rockford was made by Rockford Institute founder, John Howard, who was the president of Rockford College.
Frum’s lie: “Fleming was . . . a poor choice for the role of paleoconservative ideologist-in-chief. He is the very opposite of a systematic, deliberate thinker.”
The Truth: Fleming repudiates any role as ideologue (much less “ideologist”), but he has carried out systematic classical scholarship on difficult philological subjects and written two academic books (one published and one about to be) on moral and political philosophy. His theories may be entirely wrong, but they are both consistent and systematic. If Frum read books instead of web logs, he would know this.
Frum’s Lie: Richard Neuahaus was fired by Fleming because of antisemitic remarks and the “paleos exploded in dumbfounded rage when the foundations that had been supporting Neuahaus’s work refused to switch the money over to them instead.”
The Truth: Neuhaus was fired by Institute president Allan Carlson, vice president Michael Warder, and board member George O’Neil. Fleming was not consulted or even informed of the matter until it was a fait accompli (a French remark!). The ever-ambitious Neuhaus was trying to take over the Institute, using friends like Norman Podhoretz and Peter Berger to exert pressure, much as he was simultaneously “taking over” Ethics and Public Policy for his protégé George Weigel. Neuhaus, by his own admission, violated a signed agreement to refrain from badmouthing The Rockford Institute and continued to spend Institute money without proper authorization. Neither Jewish questions nor Israel had been so much as discussed in the magazine, and the “classic language of anti-Semitism” used in the magazine was employed by historians writing articles on Celts and the Volga Germans—the latter by the liberal feminist and friend of the Podhoretzes, Jean Elshtain. People like Frum continue to repeat Neuhaus’s entirely fictional version of the dispute, though the truth is not difficult to establish. The dispute over foundation money concerned contracted and promised gifts, some of which had already been spent on Neuhaus’s activities. The TRI board made the correct decision in terminating Neuhaus, and, left to his own devices, Allan Carlson would have handled the situation with diplomacy and tact. Unfortunately, the "raid" was led by an over-exuberant board member and an unnecessarily aggressive vice president. Although never very fond of Richard Neuhaus, Fleming regarded the manner of his firing as unprofessional. Even an enemy deserves to be treated with respect, especially an enemy who had reached the stature of Richard Neuhaus. Upon becoming Institute president, one of Fleming's first acts was to ask his board of directors for permission to return Neuhaus’s papers that had been seized in the raid on his office.
Frum’s Lie: That Chronicles' defense of Christian Serbs in Kosovo resulted in loss of circulation.
The Fact: The neoconservative attack on our funding forced us to abandon all promotion of the magazine for many years. Our coverage of the neoconservative-backed war against Balkan Christians and our opposition to Islamic fundamentalism in Europe has gained new readers, friends, and supporters.