A few days ago, we published a public letter in Miguel’s blog in response to around 100 ‘Latin American experts’ who criticized the HRW report on Venezuela. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to revisit their arguments here. However, since these ‘experts’ claimed that the HRW report “fails to meet even the most basic standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility,” we decided to check whether the signatories meet the standards they demand from HRW. To do this, we conducted a small experiment and chose the only globally recognized academic from the list, Noam Chomsky. Since Chomsky signed the letter in his professional capacity as a linguistics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I sent him an email. The exchange is attached below. As can be read, Chomsky does not apply even minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, and precision. Furthermore, Chomsky doesn’t even seem to mind that the propagandists of Hugo Chávez are using his name and that of the institution he works for to lend ‘credibility’ to spurious and unfounded accusations, as HRW rightly states in their response to them.
—– Original Message —–
To: Noam Chomsky [email protected]>
Date: 3/1/2009 11:22
Subject: Your Critique of the HRW Report on Venezuela
Dear Professor Chomsky,
We hope this email finds you well. A few days ago I saw your
name as a signatory of an open letter
[http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/12/17-2] that a group of
people directed to HRW, criticizing the lack of training
expressed standards of truthfulness and objectivity. Since you are
identified as a Professor of Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, I took the liberty of writing to this MIT email address of
yours.
In that sense, and without intending to delve into the personal
motivations you may have had to lend your name and credentials for such
a purpose, I would like to ask one thing: the letter claims that I am a
“mentally unstable opposition blogger,” so could you send us
a copy of the academic studies or research on which such a comment
is based?
Best wishes,
alejandro boyd
Subject: Re: Your Critique of the HRW Report on Venezuela
From: Noam Chomsky [email protected]>
Reply to: Noam Chomsky [email protected]>
Date: 3/1/2009 17:06
To: Alek Boyd
You would need to contact the initiators of the statement, perhaps Greg Grandin or
the other Latin American scholars who formulated the statement.
Noam Chomsky