Dinesh D'Souza/Victor Davis Hanson Mea Culpa.
By Bernard Chapin (08/25/07)
I have been doing interviews with conservative figures for four-and-a-half years. It has been very enjoyable and enlightening both for me and my readers. I believe my interest in this activity stems from the fact that I used to ask everyone a million questions as a kid. I suppose that conducting interviews is a pro-social means by which I have extended this annoying habit into adulthood.
At any rate, I am a libertarian-conservative so I principally ask questions of my fellow conservatives. This is due to my obvious sympathy towards their work along with the fact that most leftists will not have a serious conversation with me (that is, those leftists who have ever heard of me, and they are, assuredly, a minority).
Recently, I was fortunate enough to interview two of the more important intellectuals of our day, Victor Davis Hanson and Dinesh D’Souza. After the D’Souza piece was published, Dr. Hanson contacted me to clarify that he did not write a blurb for D’Souza’s book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11. I immediately deleted the sentence from the blogs I control such as those at Mensnewdaily.com, Red State.com, and GOP Nation.com. I also contacted Mr. Martinovich at Enter Stage Right.com who deleted the sentence right away. Unfortunately, a few online references to this sentence remained as I apparently did not contact everyone regarding its deletion.
I emailed Mr. D’Souza and he agreed with Dr. Hanson that no blurb was penned for The Enemy at Home. Mr. D’Souza was referencing a blurb that Dr. Hanson wrote concerning an earlier book called What’s So Great About America. If one goes to the google book search page for What’s So Great About America and scrolls down to the bottom they will see the blurb on display upon the back cover.
I assumed that Mr. D’Souza was referring to his most recent book and not the one from 2002. This was entirely my mistake and not Mr. D’Souza’s. I neglected to clarify his statement. I made a misassumption and should have asked him to what publication he was referring. I take full responsibility for the mistake and apologize to my readers.
I realize that there has been tremendous controversy surrounding The Enemy at Home, but, due to my ardent belief that the left has us outgunned and outnumbered, I tend not to take internecine conservative conflicts very seriously. I guess I have always been a “no enemies on the right” type of guy [admittedly though, I did castigate Ben Shapiro for his Porn Nation]. Therefore, I am a little naïve in regards to conflicts among my own people. I am afraid my disinterest worked against me on this occasion.
The reason I make mention of this at this time is that The Powerline Blog picked up on this story yesterday and published an entry called “D’Souza Makes it Up.” I know that Powerline is an extremely well-regarded and quite popular website. I see that Hugh Hewitt dubbed it, "the most influential blog, not just in America, but because it was so in America, also on the globe, both in terms of impact on the craft of journalism and on the course of actual events."
Therefore, due to its high level of popularity, it is essential for me to accept responsibility for this mistake. Again, I was in error and should have asked for clarification. I apologize to Victor Davis Hanson, Dinesh D’Souza, and my readers.
Bernard Chapin
(Printer friendly version) Email: Bernard Chapin
