Alexander Cockburn

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This article is about the journalist. For the English jurist, see Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet.

Alexander Cockburn
Birth Name Alexander Claud Cockburn Born June 6, 1941 in Scotland
Circumstances Gender male Family Claud Cockburn Notable Relatives Andrew Cockburn, Patrick Cockburn Notable Credit(s) CounterPunch, The Nation, Los Angeles Times

Alexander Claud Cockburn (pronounced kōbɜːn, "co-burn"), born June 6, 1941, is a self-described radical Irish journalist who has lived and worked in the United States since 1973. Together with Jeffrey St. Clair he edits the political newsletter CounterPunch. He also writes the "Beat the Devil" column for The Nation and a weekly syndicated column for the Los Angeles Times. Cockburn is also a regular contributor to the Anderson Valley Advertiser.

Contents 1 Background 2 Allegations of anti-Semitism 2.1 Controversy over Cockburn's Billy Graham article 3 Responses to Criticism 4 Other controversial opinions 5 Relationship with Christopher Hitchens 6 Bibliography 7 Compact disc 8 External links 9 References

[edit] Background

Born in Scotland, Cockburn grew up in Youghal, County Cork, Ireland, son of the well-known Communist author and journalist Claud Cockburn. After studying at University of Oxford (Keble), Alexander worked in London as a reporter and commentator, and after moving to the United States wrote extensively for numerous publications, including The New York Review of Books, Esquire, and Harper's. Until 1983 Cockburn was a writer with The Village Voice, originating its longstanding "Press Clips" column, but he was suspended "for accepting a $10,000 grant from an Arab studies organization in 1982, a conflict of interest." ^[1][2] He left the publication upon being offered the "Beat the Devil" column with The Nation. Since leaving the Voice he has also written columns for the Wall Street Journal, New York Press and the New Statesman.

Over the years, Cockburn's writings have consistently displayed certain themes, including:

• Outspoken criticism of US foreign policy, from its policies in Central America in the 1980s, including the Iran-contra scandal, to the First Gulf War in 1991, the Kosovo War in 1999, and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2003 invasion of Iraq.
• Criticism of the government of Israel based on its treatment of the Palestinians.
• Calls for political reform in the United States, mostly focused on criticising the Democratic Party for failing to provide a progressive alternative to the Republican Party, as well as strong support for Ralph Nader's presidential candidacies in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
• Contempt for the mainstream establishment, in particular for public figures who, in his view, garner mainstream respectability by criticising those to their left; targets have included the New York Times, Sen. Barack Obama, representative Bernie Sanders, the late academic Irving Howe and some of his The Nation colleagues, including Marc Cooper, David Corn ^[3] and Eric Alterman. Cockburn has also been highly critical (see below) of his former friend and colleague, Christopher Hitchens. ^[4]

At times acerbic, Cockburn can also be gently ironic, once declaring Gerald Ford America's greatest president for doing the least damage and praising the Lewinsky scandal's entertainment value.^[5] In the same vein, he has also expressed his admiration for the beauty of both Tipper Gore and Laura Bush.

Cockburn has a flair for over-the-top flamboyance. His nudge-nudge, wink-wink brand of British humor is demonstrated in his response to a question asking for a comparison between George Bush and Napoleon Bonaparte. He replied that wasn't sure about Bush as Napoleon, "though surely Josephine's heart beats beneath Laura's delicious bosom." ^[6]

Alan Dershowitz recently stated that Cockburn was one of three leaders (along with Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky) who are engaged in an attempt to discredit and malign him.^[7][8]

Cockburn has two brothers, Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn, who are also journalists. Journalists Stephanie Flanders and Laura Flanders and actress Olivia Wilde are his nieces.

[edit] Allegations of anti-Semitism

Cockburn has been accused by some of anti-Semitism, although he strongly denies these allegations, calling them a means to cover up Israel's bad behavior.

One of these charges has come from Alan Dershowitz, a long-time nemesis of Cockburn. In November of 2005, Dershowitz wrote a letter to the National Catholic Reporter calling Cockburn's Counterpunch.org web site "anti-Semitic,"^[9] in response to a review of Norman Finkelstein's book Beyond Chutzpah by Counterpunch contributor Neve Gordon. Cockburn had previously accused Dershowitz of various charges including plagiarism in 2003,^[10] and of supporting torture in an exchange one month prior to Dershowitz' accusation.^[11] Both Cockburn and Dershowitz have denied their respective charges.

Another accusation has come from Steven Plaut, a subject of his own controversy, and who was recently found liable in an Israeli court for charges of defamation arising from similar accusations against Cockburn's colleague Neve Brown.^[12] In a 2005 article titled, "Counterpunch’s Self-Hating Jews" Plaut compared Cockburn with David Irving, a convicted holocaust-denier, for both having praised Israeli musician and Counterpunch contributor Gilad Atzmon^[13] whom Plaut also calls anti-Semitic. Plaut went on to suggest that Atzmon and Cockburn would like to "destroy" Israel, ^[14] in addition to various other accusations.

In 2004, The Jewish Political Studies Review published an article by Jerome Chanes on "the New Antisemitism."^[15] Regarding Cockburn, Chanes states, "Finally, there is Alexander Cockburn. What has not already been said about Cockburn, a fine wordsmith, a sharp polemicist - and, frankly, an intractable foe of Jewish interests?" Chanes goes on to argue that Cockburn illuminates "the nuanced and highly-permeable borders between criticism of the policies of the government of Israel and 'Israelophobia' or anti-Israelism. In a word, 'the new antisemitism.'"

[edit] Controversy over Cockburn's Billy Graham article

In 2002, Cockburn published an article in Counterpunch,^[16] reprinted elsewhere,^[17] discussing the furor over recently released tape recorded conversations between the Reverend Billy Graham and President Richard Nixon. Cockburn contrasted the response to revelations in 1989 that Graham had "put his imprimatur" on the idea of destroying Vietnam's irrigation infrastructure, potentially killing a million civilians, as an acceptable resolution to the Vietnam War, which had gained, in Cockburn's view, little press coverage, with the taped anti-Semitic remarks, which caused a media firestorm.^[18][19][20] Taking issue with what he argued was the media's selective shock, Cockburn wrote: "Don’t they know that this sort of stuff is consonant with the standard conversational bill of fare at 75 percent of the country clubs in America... ? But they didn't say they wanted to kill a million Jews. That's what Graham said about the Vietnamese and no one raised a bleat."

Following publication, Cockburn was accused of spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, based on the summation of the article:^[21]:^[22]

"It's supposedly the third rail in journalism even to have a discussion of how much the Jews do control the media.… Certainly, there are a number of stories sloshing around the news now that have raised discussions of Israel and of the posture of American Jews to an acrid level. The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist, Jewish, with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, and with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists. Rocketing around the web and spilling into the press are many stories about Israeli spies in America at the time of 9/11. On various accounts, they were trailing (Mohammed) Atta and his associates, knew what was going to happen but did nothing about it, or were simply spying on US facilities."

One of these criticisms came from Franklin Foer of the New Republic, which first noted Cockburn's response:

To be fair, Cockburn doesn't exactly endorse these theories. Rather, by noting that all of these Jewish conspiracy stories are "sloshing around the news," Cockburn seems merely to be pointing out that, hey, anti-Semitic ideas are still out there today--so why the shock that Graham endorsed them 30 years ago? Indeed, when I reached Cockburn to ask him about these conspiracies, he insisted he was just reporting what was already in circulation. "I don't think I said they are true. I don't know there's enough exterior evidence to determine whether they are true or not."

Foer stated that this last statement was a "giveaway," however, alleging that each of the stories mentioned by Cockburn had been discredited, and had not been reported in any prominent media outlet.

[edit] Responses to Criticism

In his ironically entitled essay My Life as an "Anti-Semite", from his co-authored book The Politics of Anti-Semitism, Cockburn wrote that "these days it's clear evidence of anti-Semitism to have written an item that pisses off someone at The New Republic."^[23]

Cockburn also wrote in the essay that:

Over the past 20 years I've learned there's a quick way of figuring out just how badly Israel is behaving. You see a brisk uptick in the number of articles here accusing the left of anti-Semitism. ... Back in the 1970s when muteness on the topic of how Israel was treating Palestinians was near-total in the United States, I'd get the anti-Semite slur hurled at me once in a while for writing about such no-no stuff as Begin's fascist roots in Betar, or the torture of Palestinians by Israel's security forces. I minded then, as I mind now, but overuse has drained the term of much clout. The other day I even got accused of anti-Semitism for mentioning that the Jews founded Hollywood, which they most certainly did, as Neil Gabler recently recounted in a very funny, pro-Semitic book.^[24]

[edit] Other controversial opinions

In addition to arousing controversy in some quarters for his views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Cockburn has also generated controversy on a variety of other subjects.

One of these subjects is his nuanced position with respect to the activities of the Church of Scientology. In an Los Angeles Times column published in the late 1990s, Cockburn criticized the attempt by the German government to inhibit the growth of Scientology through restrictive laws, and invoked several comparisons to Nazi Germany in order to illustrate what he views as a threat to the rights enjoyed by Scientologists to worship in a manner they see fit. Although he conceded that the aggressive posture of the CoS deserved scrutiny, he also maintained that the demonization of any particular unpopular group—even one that might be cultish in nature—presented a far more imminent danger than the activities of Scientologists, or the organization they belong to.[1] This stance has led some critics to accuse him of being a shill for the Church of Scientology.[2]

Another frequent source of contention between Cockburn and his political adversaries is his contrarian position on Iraq, both during and after the reign of Saddam Hussein. Although many on the left denounced the economic and political sanctions imposed upon the Iraqi government by the United Nations, he was particularly strident in his criticism of American and British actions during the twelve year interim between the formal resolution of the Persian Gulf War and the 2003 invasion, and subsequent occupation, of Iraq by American, British and other national military forces comprising the self-described Coalition of the Willing.

In a blistering column published in 2000 Cockburn averred that the economic embargo imposed upon Iraq in order to sanction the Hussein regime was "demonically designed to prompt gnawing, endless suffering throughout Iraq's social economy." In the same column, Cockburn went on to conclude that every prospective nominee running in that year's presidential election was supportive of Iraq sanctions, and was therefore complicit in mass murder. [3]

Several years later, in the wake of the capture of Saddam Hussein, Cockburn penned a column entitled "How to kill Saddam," in which he argued that the ensuing trial of Hussein would be a mock tribunal, conducted by a "kangaroo court," and that Hussein's conviction and ultimate execution were foregone conclusions. [4]

[edit] Relationship with Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens is often mentioned in connection with Cockburn because of their shared origin in the British Isles, similar educational background, both being columnists at The Nation, and one-time friendship. Hitchens' move to the right on many issues has caused a bitter falling out between the two. Beyond issues such as the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, the split also involves personal issues regarding writers such as Sidney Blumenthal and friends such as Edward Said.

In a Counterpunch article in August 2005, Cockburn wrote:

What a truly disgusting sack of shit Hitchens is. ^[25]

Apparently soon after, Hitchens replied (quoted in the same Counterpunch article)

[Cockburn] is welcome to describe me as a "sack of shit", as well as to smear excrement all over the walls of his nursery.

A little over a year later in September 2006, Hitchens wrote in a Slate.com piece (in response to an article by David Corn that criticized Hitchens' position on Iraq but praised his early career):

Incidentally, I begin to tire of this sickly idea that I used to be a great guy until I became fed up with excuses for dictators and psychopathic murderers (let alone for mediocre CIA fantasists). Alexander Cockburn is surely nearer the mark when he says that I was a complete shit and traitor all along. ^[26]

[edit] Bibliography

• Incompatibles (1967) (co-edited with Robin Blackburn)
• Student Power (1970) (co-edited with Robin Blackburn)
• Idle Passion: Chess and the Dance of Death (1975)
• Smoke: Another Jimmy Carter Adventure (1978) (with James Ridgeway)
• Political Ecology (1979) (co-edited with James Ridgeway)
• Corruptions of Empire (1988) ISBN 0-86091-940-4
• The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon (1989) (with Susanna Hecht) ISBN 0-06-097322-6
• The Golden Age Is in Us: Journeys and Encounters (1995) ISBN 0-86091-664-2
• Washington Babylon (1995) (with Ken Silverstein) ISBN 1-85984-092-2
• Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press (1998) (with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-85984-258-5
• 5 Days That Shook The World: The Battle for Seattle and Beyond (2000) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-85984-779-X
• Al Gore: A User's Manual (2000) (with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-85984-803-6
• CounterPunch: The Journalism That Rediscovers America (2002) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-85984-455-3
• The Politics of Anti-Semitism (2003) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-902593-77-4
• Serpents in the Garden (2004) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-902593-94-4
• Imperial Crusades (2004) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-84467-506-8
• Dime's Worth of Difference (2004) (co-edited with Jeffrey St. Clair) ISBN 1-904859-03-8

[edit] Compact disc

• Beating the Devil: The Incendiary Rants of Alexander Cockburn

[edit] External links

• CounterPunch website
• Alexander Cockburn bio at The Nation.

[edit] References

Persondata
NAME	Cockburn, Alexander Claud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	author and historian
DATE OF BIRTH	June 6, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH	Scotland
DATE OF DEATH	living
PLACE OF DEATH