The Arizona Republic's Doug MacEachern continues to prove himself a shrill, conspiratorial wuss, one so unoriginal, he has to ape Glenn Beck, of all people.
In his latest misleading ditty about ethnic studies, MacEachern practically pops a vein informing all and sundry that Ward Churchill, the controversial former Colorado professor, who's been pilloried for his post-9/11 comments about the victims in the Twin Towers, was present when student activists took over a Tucson Unified School District board meeting. (The students did this in protest of plans to make ethnic studies a non-core elective.)
That info has been out there for a while in different forms. Hell, even Mother Mags over at the tres liberal Daily Kos noted Churchill's presence the day after the students chained themselves to the chairs of TUSD board members, ending the meeting before it began.
Wingnut wackjob Glenn Beck also did a segment on Churchill being there a couple of weeks ago. MacEachern's basically regurgitating Beck's leftovers, serving up Churchill's presence as "evidence" of a commie plot.
Churchill was present, therefore he organized the thing? Nice logic, there, Doug. Now we know why you're on the Rep's editorial board and get paid a hefty salary to sit in your cubicle and do a job one of these Tucson kids could do with their iPhones.
I e-mailed Churchill about the non-flap. He replied, thus:
"I happened to be in Tucson for other reasons when the protest occurred and, being fully in agreement with what the students/local community were/are trying to accomplish, showed up simply as a gesture of support and solidarity. There's no more to it than that.
"Efforts to portray my participation as that of an `organizer' are on the same level as Jan Brewer's oft-repeated claim that the southern Arizona countryside was littered with decapitated corpses (remember that one?), and other such right-wing spew, i.e.: They bear no affirmative relationship to reality. More bluntly stated, they add up to a bold-faced lie."
Why was Churchill in Tucson? He informed me that he has deep ties to the community:
"Both my daughter and my son-in-law attend the U of A. One of my aunts resides in a Tucson nursing home, and a cousin has lived just outside of town for the past 25 years or so. Finally, one of my nieces is currently stationed at Ft. Huachuca.
"This is aside from the fact that I've been coming in and out of Tucson on a pretty regular basis since the early-80s, and have a fair number of friends thereabouts."
Why didn't MacEachern bother to contact Churchill? The same reason he doesn't bother to visit TUSD's ethnic studies classes or talk with the program's students: It wouldn't back up his hysterical accusations.
(Ironically, the video Beck, MacEachern and others draw from, was shot by none other than lefty Three Sonorans blogger David Abie Morales, who could run rings around MacEachern intellectually. Would love to see them debate over the issue. Morales'd wipe the floor with him.)
Has the Rep's official moss-eared alter kocker ever had to report fact one in his entire freaking life? MacEachern also claims that "witnesses" have seen a U of A Mexican American Studies professor "shepherding" student activists and feeding them talking points.
Gee, think if he ever peeled himself away from his seat, drove down to Tucson and attended a TUSD meeting himself, MacEachern could be his own "witness"? A witless witness, for sure, but then he wouldn't have to rely on others for accounts of something he could go see for himself.
The Churchill sighting is about as important as MacEachern discovering another liver spot on his withered claw, though in MacEachern's ancient skull, he thinks he's discovered the Pumpkin Papers.
As Bugs Bunny liked to say, "What a maroon!"
