David Miller 13 July 2010 (as posted on Comment is Free)
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens thinks our website PowerBase (formerly Spinprofiles) should offer a right of reply. We agree. In fact it has always been our policy, which is why we offered him a right of reply before his Guardian piece demanding one. He declined to answer our email.
Meleagrou-Hitchens argues that his profile should not appear on our website Powerbase, because he did not want to feature on a site which in the past ‘published’ the work of racist academic Kevin MacDonald.
Meleagrou-Hitchens well knows that - to our regret - one of our researchers did quote MacDonald on one of our sister sites – as opposed to ‘publishing’ anything by MacDonald. The quote was removed as soon as the mistake was spotted and an apology made. The person involved is no longer a contributor to our wiki projects. Note also that our project is a wiki with literally hundreds of registered users, many of them volunteers.
It is important to note that we discovered the error before the attack blogs associated with the Centre for Social Cohesion, where Meleagrou-Hitchens works, launched anonymous attacks on us.
Now this error appears to be the perfect smokescreen for Meleagrou-Hitchens to demand that our page on him be removed. Meleagrou-Hitchens doesn't even claim that anything in the page about him is inaccurate.
To allege that SpinWatch harbours anti-semitic views is simply wrong. He knows very well that we do not support the views of Kevin MacDonald or for that matter racism of any kind. Our websites oppose anti-semitism just as we do other forms of racism such as Islamophobia. But this is the sort of unsavoury claim that groups linked to the Centre for Social Cohesion frequently resort to. This is their response to light being shone on their activities; activities described in the Guardian amongst other places as 'relentless Islamophobia'.
Unlike the anonymous attack blogs, we are open about who funds us. We do not use anonymous contributors like they do. Most importantly - again unlike the attack blogs – we offer a right of reply and will correct any inaccuracies in any of our material. This offer still stands.
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David Miller 13 July 2010 (as posted on Comment is Free)
Alexander Meleagrou-Hitchens thinks our website PowerBase (formerly Spinprofiles) should offer a right of reply. We agree. In fact it has always been our policy, which is why we offered him a right of reply before his Guardian piece demanding one. He declined to answer our email.
Meleagrou-Hitchens argues that his profile should not appear on our website Powerbase, because he did not want to feature on a site which in the past ‘published’ the work of racist academic Kevin MacDonald.
Meleagrou-Hitchens well knows that - to our regret - one of our researchers did quote MacDonald on one of our sister sites – as opposed to ‘publishing’ anything by MacDonald. The quote was removed as soon as the mistake was spotted and an apology made. The person involved is no longer a contributor to our wiki projects. Note also that our project is a wiki with literally hundreds of registered users, many of them volunteers.
It is important to note that we discovered the error before the attack blogs associated with the Centre for Social Cohesion, where Meleagrou-Hitchens works, launched anonymous attacks on us.
Now this error appears to be the perfect smokescreen for Meleagrou-Hitchens to demand that our page on him be removed. Meleagrou-Hitchens doesn't even claim that anything in the page about him is inaccurate.
To allege that SpinWatch harbours anti-semitic views is simply wrong. He knows very well that we do not support the views of Kevin MacDonald or for that matter racism of any kind. Our websites oppose anti-semitism just as we do other forms of racism such as Islamophobia. But this is the sort of unsavoury claim that groups linked to the Centre for Social Cohesion frequently resort to. This is their response to light being shone on their activities; activities described in the Guardian amongst other places as 'relentless Islamophobia'.
Unlike the anonymous attack blogs, we are open about who funds us. We do not use anonymous contributors like they do. Most importantly - again unlike the attack blogs – we offer a right of reply and will correct any inaccuracies in any of our material. This offer still stands.