User:CSTAR/remarks

Of the issues in the dispute, I am only concerned about the question of how to suitaby present the charges of antisemitism arising from Coles dual loyalties allegation and the responses by Cole.

From WP:BLP "The writing style should be neutral, factual, and understated, avoiding both a sympathetic point of view and an advocacy journalism point of view."

There is not a unique way to report the facts of the matter here, the existence of a dispute involving Cole and other Scholars. The facts are roughly that some writers have accused Cole of antisemitism based on his dual loyalty charge and that Cole has denied those charges.

I have nothing against stating that "some critics, such as Karsh have claimed parallels between 'new antisemitism' and anti-semitic tracts such as the Protocols." However, to include Karsh's quote without providing an account of Cole's response, either quoted in full, paraphrased or some mixture thereof fails the neutrality test in my view and is perilously close to advocacy journalism.

What is in the article currently is not a paraphrase of Cole's response as suggested by Isarig here. I had said that in the context of an argument, Cole is making making a point, specifically that Karsh uses "propaganda techniques, attempting to insinuate that my criticisms of the Neoconservative clique in the Bush administration are somehow like believing in the forged 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'" The paraphrase makes no mention of the real problem with the Karsh quote and its inclusion here, that is to say the association of Cole's writing with the "Protocols". According to Isarig, "That's not an argument, that's name calling . It's no better, as far as content, than saying "karsh sucks"." He further added in a subsequent reply "It does not respond to anything Karsh says, it does not defend Cole's position in any way - it is merely saying "it sucks"."

To be clear I'm happy to remove the "beneath contempt" comment which in my opinion adds nothing, but everything else is fair to include.

It is also not in dispute that "Karsh sucks" is not an argument. In saying that "Karsh uses "propaganda techniques, attempting to insinuate that my criticisms of the Neoconservative clique in the Bush administration are somehow like believing in the forged 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.", Cole clearly tries to show something specific: that to associate his criticisms of the Neoconservative clique to a belief in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' (or even more ambiguosly that it "resonates powerfully) is unwarranted; moreover its is the kind of unwarranted conclusion used by propagandists.

Let me quote a noted academic Doug Walton (Informal Logic, A Handbook for Critical Argumentation, Cambridge University Press, 1989)


 * In every reasonable dialogue, each participant should have a clearly designated thesis or conclusion the he is obliged toprove in the argument. This means that he is under a burden of proof to establish this particular conclusion.  Hence if there is justifiable reason to think he may be straying off this burden of proof, his argument is open to a charge of ignoratio elenchi (Irrelevance).

To justify Cole's use of "propaganda" here to describe (what admittedly Cole claims is) Karsh's pseudo-argument, let me first quote the WIkipedia article on Propaganda


 * Instead of impartially providing information, propaganda is often deliberately misleading, using logical fallacies, that, while sometimes convincing, are not necessarily valid. Propaganda techniques include: patriotic flag-waving, appealing, glittering generalities, intentional vagueness, oversimplification of complex issues, rationalization, introducing unrelated red herring issues, using appealing, simple slogans, stereotyping, testimonials from authority figures or celebrities, unstated assumptions, and encouraging readers or viewers to "jump on the bandwagon" of a particular point of view.

Let me further quote Karl Popper (Towards a Rational Theory of Tradition) to illustrate that propaganda is a legitimate charge in the domain of argumentation.


 * Even more precious is the tradition that works against the misuse of language which consists in pseudo-arguments and propaganda. This is the tradition of and discipline of clear speaking and clear thinking; it is the critical tradition, the tradition of reason.

To illustrate my point, suppose Karsh used a different argument, for example some fallacious statistical argument (or even an invalid use of a syllogism) to infer that Cole has some property X. Does Cole have to prove that he does not have property X; wouldn't it be sufficient for Cole to point out that Karsh uses statistical fallacies to infer X? Wouldn't that be a valid response?

The fact that Cole assigns a name to the type of argument ("propaganda technique") is not "name calling" any more than would characterizing an argument as "slippery slope" or a "statistical fallacy." Moreover Cole doesn't merely assign a descriptive name to the Karsh statement. In addition, he says how it attempts "to insinuate [that] criticisms of the Neoconservative clique in the Bush administration are somehow like believing in the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'" It directly addresses the association that Karsh makes to 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'

In conclusion, any paraphrase or quote from Cole which does not specifically refer to that association, would be incomplete.