David Horowitz Freedom Center

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The David Horowitz Freedom Center was founded in 1988 by political activist David Horowitz and his long-time collaborator, co-author, and friend, Peter Collier. It was established with funding from conservative philanthropies, such as the Olin Foundation and Bradley Foundation.

1 2006 change of name
2 Purpose and scope
3 Programs
4 Heterodoxy magazine
5 Funding of Congressional travel
6 Effectiveness
7 Criticism
8 References
9 External links

[edit] 2006 change of name

In July 2006 the center changed its name from the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, giving the following explanation: [2]

"We took this action for two reasons", said Board Chairman Jess Morgan. "First, when the Center began, just as the Cold War was ending, we thought that the significant issue of our time would be the political radicalization of popular culture. The culture is still a battleground, but after 9/11, it is clear that freedom itself was under assault from the new totalitarianism of terror. Secondly, David Horowitz, the Center’s founder, has become increasingly identified with issues of freedom at home and abroad. We wanted to honor him and also support the efforts he has undertaken. The name change does this and rededicates us to the mission at hand."[3]

[edit] Purpose and scope

The original intention of the CSPC was to establish a foothold in Hollywood, which had previously been perceived by some conservatives as hostile terrain. According to Horowitz, the center would eventually attract 50,000 "contributing supporters." It led to the establishment of the Wednesday Morning Club, which serves as a platform for conservative speakers-both within the Hollywood community and the world of polemics-to address their ideas to people living in the Los Angeles area. It also hosts regular debates between conservative and liberal speakers.

In 2003 Horowitz expanded the scope of the CSPC to include monitoring what his organization-and some conservatives-view as an ingrained hostility towards conservative scholarship and ideas within the world of academe. While the organization created to accomplish this task, Students For Academic Freedom, has drawn support from some quarters, liberals and academics - among others - have criticized what they view as an unwelcome and/or unnecessary intrusion into college classrooms.

DHFC reported that in 2006 its websites were visited more than 32 million times, its radio and TV audiences were tens of millions, and it distributed 800,000 pamphlets and books ^[1]

DHFC is a 501(c)(3) charity. In 1985 it had revenues of $4.9 million, expenses of $4.0 million, 8.4% of which was $336,000 compensation for its head, David Horowitz.[4]

[edit] Programs

The Center has the following ongoing programs.[5]

FrontPage Magazine -- an online "conservative" political magazine and website, edited by Horowitz, that is the successor to Heterodoxy (see below). Its main focus is on issues pertaining to foreign policy, war, and terrorism.
Discover the Networks (previously, and still often referred to as, "Discover the Network") - A database of what it describes as organizations and "activists for leftwing agendas and causes -- egalitarians, socialists, and opponents of American 'imperialism'",[6] with a Java applet to display their interconnections in graphic form.[7]This description can include Jihadists, "anti-American" strains of anti-Iraq War activists, etc.
Students for Academic Freedom- claims chapters on 150 campuses. Opposes "indoctrination".[8]
Wednesday Morning Club - In 2006 the Center held twenty-one Wednesday Morning Club events with speakers ranging from former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Victor Davis Hanson, Wafa Sultan, General Georges Sada,Judge Charles W. Pickering, Dennis Prager, Shelby Steele and Melanie Morgan with Catherine Moy. Speakers in 2007 include Dinesh D’Souza, Dore Gold, and Bruce Herschensohn. In previous years speakers have included then-Governor George W. Bush (1999), then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, Robert Bork, Representatives Tom DeLay and Henry Hyde, Senators Trent Lott, Bill Frist and Joseph Lieberman, Christopher Hitchens, Bill Kristol,Fred Barnes and George Will.[9]
Jihad Watch (or Jihadwatch; also Dhimmi Watch) - blogs and articles on the ongoing "Jihad".[10]
The Individual Rights Foundation - Organization of lawyers to fight speech codes and "political correctness" on campuses and elsewhere. Participated as Amicus Curiae in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the successful defence of the Boy Scouts against the ACLU in the Supreme Court. [11][12]
Libertas - presents the Conservative Film Festival in Hollywood.[13]
Restoration Weekend - Annual conservative fundraising and networking event.

[edit] Heterodoxy magazine

Heterodoxy was a newsmagazine published in a tabloid format by the center, edited by David Horowitz and Peter Collier. Its focus was on exposing the perceived excesses of political correctness on college and university campuses across the United States.

[edit] Funding of Congressional travel

Between July 2000 and February 2006, the center (under its old name) was the sponsor of 25 trips by U.S. Senators and Representatives, all Republicans, to six different events. Total expenditures were about $43,000. [14]

[edit] Effectiveness

The Center claims credit for a "growing willingness of conservatives to identify radicals as 'leftists' and not 'liberals'" and for getting "mass market conservatives" such as Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Tom DeLay to use terms like “fifth column”, “hate America left” and “Shadow Party”. ^[1]

[edit] Criticism

Chip Berlet, writing for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), identified the CSPC (now DHFC) as one of 17 "right-wing foundations and think tanks support[ing] efforts to make bigoted and discredited ideas respectable." Berlet accused Horowitz of blaming slavery on "'black Africans ... abetted by dark-skinned Arabs'" and of "attack[ing] minority 'demands for special treatment' as 'only necessary because some blacks can't seem to locate the ladder of opportunity within reach of others,' rejecting the idea that they could be the victims of lingering racism."^[2] Responding with an open letter to Morris Dees, president of the SPLC, Horowitz stated that his reminder that the slaves transported to America were bought from African and Arab slavers was a response to demands that only whites pay blacks reparations, not to hold Africans and Arabs solely responsible for slavery, and that the statement that he had denied lingering racism was "a calculated and carefully constructed lie." The letter said that Berlet's work was "so tendentious, so filled with transparent misrepresentations and smears that if you continue to post the report you will create for your Southern Poverty Law Center a well-earned reputation as a hate group itself."^[3] The SPLC refused,[15] and subsequent critical pieces on Berlet and the SPLC have been featured on Horowitz's website and personal blog.^[4]^[5]

The liberal advocacy group People For the American Way(PFAW) points out that FrontPage Magazine picked up the columns of Ann Coulter after she was fired from National Review Online for her anti-Muslim comments after 9/11. For his part, Horowitz has said that he considers Coulter a satirist, and "a national treasure".[16]

PFAW also quotes Horowitz as saying "Everybody knows -- but no one wants to say -- that the Democratic Party has become the party of special interest bigots and racial dividers. It runs the one-party state that controls public services in every major inner city, including the corrupt and failing school systems in which half the students -- mainly African American and Hispanic -- are denied a shot at the American dream. It is the party of race preferences which separate American citizens on the basis of skin color providing privileges to a handful of ethnic and racial groups in a nation of nearly a thousand. The Democratic Party has shown that it will go to the wall to preserve the racist laws which enforce these preferences, and to defend the racist school systems that destroy the lives of millions of children every year." –David Horowtiz, "Challenging the Racist Democrats in California," August 5, 2003" [17]