Discover the Networks

Discover the Networks (originally Discover the Network) is a website run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center that focuses on the individuals, groups, and history of groups alleged to be political left wing (e.g., the network of tax-exempt groups and politicians funded by George Soros it collectively labels "The Shadow Party"). DtN was launched in 2004 and has a staff of about a dozen contributors. Its current Editor-in-Chief is David Horowitz; John Perazzo is the project's managing editor, and Richard Poe is its investigative editor. Discover the Network is associated with FrontPageMag.com.

According to the project's mission statement, Discover the Network's goal is to provide a comprehensive "guide to the political left" covering "the individuals and organizations that make up the left and also the institutions that fund and sustain it."[1][2] The project also seeks to "define the left's...programmatic agendas," which it contends are often concealed. The project's contributors contend that the political left in the United States commonly applies a "deceptive public presentation" of itself that conceals a network of affiliations and shared political views with "radical agendas". It views these as communist, socialist, environmentalist, "anti-capitalist", and "anti-American" causes.[1][3] The website is meant to be the conservative analog of left-leaning websites that compile lists that include conservatives such as those created by Southern Poverty Law Center and Media Matters.[4]

The website has been criticized for including leftists on the same list as Islamists.[4] Horowitz, who wrote about the alleged connection between these groups in his book Unholy Alliance, says "that groups who despise one another might actually be working closely together, maybe without even knowing it." It's not what they are for but that they are "linked by anti-Americanism" that accounts for their being in alignment on the political front.[4] Tim Wise, who is listed in Discover the Networks, objects to being linked to Saddam Hussein in his opposition to George W. Bush's Iraq policy.[5] Dean Saitta objects to being described as a supporter of Ward Churchill.[6]

Database of profiles

The project currently maintains a database of prominent leftist personalities in academia, politics, and the media as well as leftist interest groups.[1][7] It assembles and publishes data on the financial backers of left wing personalities and organizations. Much of their research focuses upon individuals with financial connections to groups that espouse communism and socialism as well as Palestinians and their supporters, but the group is also concerned with critics of the USA PATRIOT Act, advocates of social justice (which the website refers to as a "post-Communist terminology for socialism and communism"), and members or supporters of labor unions.

When first launched the website was criticized for a jump page picturing entertainment celebrities such as Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand adjacent to radical Muslim terrorists.[8][9] Horowitz said this was "an entirely innocent feature of the site",[10] but now divides the pictures on the jump page into distinct categories.[11][12]

Contributors

The website houses the articles of historian Ron Radosh.[13]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "What This Site Is About". Discover the Networks.
  2. ↑ Ron Johnson (June 1, 2012). "‘The New Leviathan’". Washington Times.
  3. ↑ Roger Kimball (May 25, 2005). "Discover the Networks". The New Criterion.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 John Gorenfeld (April 12, 2005). "Roger Ebert and Mohammed Atta, partners in crime". Salon.
  5. ↑ Tim Wise (June 15, 2005). "David Horowitz and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion". Counterpunch.
  6. ↑ Dean Saitta (March 11, 2006). "Response to David Horowitz: What I think of My Most Dangerous Professors Profile".
  7. ↑ Stanley Kurtz (Feb 14, 2011). "Discover the Networks". National Review Online.
  8. ↑ Michael Bérubé (February 25, 2005). "New look, same topic".
  9. ↑ "Heart of Darkness". New Patriot. Feb 2005.
  10. ↑ David Horowitz (February 22, 2005). "In Denial: The Left Reacts to DiscoverTheNetwork".
  11. ↑ "Discover the Networks:Individuals".
  12. ↑ David Horowitz (March 2, 2005). "Defining the Left".
  13. ↑ "Writings of Ron Radosh available now on Discover The Network". HNN. December 16, 2013.

External links