Feb 3, 2005
A bad taste of Malkin in my mouth
I finally had a debate with Michelle Malkin face-to-face, and now she has quickly taken to her blog www.michellemalkin.com to complain of being victimized and slam me and everything connected with it. The facts, briefly, are that she was invited to speak at Emory some time ago by the College Republicans, as can be deduced by the publicity for her appearance that can still be seen on websites like that of Young Americans for Freedom. The College Democrats learned late last week of her appearance, and hastily threw together a response. On Saturday, three days before the event was to take place, I agreed to come down for the evening and speak in rebuttal, debunking her fantasies about Japanese Americans and her contemptible use of bad history to justify ethnic profiling.
Malkin delivered her lecture before a large group. Perhaps in response to the news of my appearance, Malkin changed the topic of her lecture--certainly a new set of fliers was put up around campus. I was late getting to her lecture and sat down quietly in the back of the hall. I heard her give distorted answers to various questions about the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans. After the event, while I was speaking to some other people who had attended, Malkin came up to me and asked why I had not debated her. I explained that I had not known that I would be appearing and I had not been invited by the College Republicans. She then suggested that she be permitted to debate me during my scheduled appearance. I hastily conferred with representatives of the College Democrats, and they and the College Republicans agreed to have her come debate me.
We regrouped in the room in which my event was to take place. As had been agreed by the two groups, I gave a basic 20 minute presentation, then Malkin spoke for 10 minutes, then we each rebutted for 5. I was supposed, as the host of the event, then to have the last 5 minutes, but Malkin insisted on responding to my final comments and we permitted her to make a final statement. I felt that, despite her evident polish as a media figure and speaker, that she did not answer my arguments, as indeed she has not since Eric Muller and I presented them. After the event, the representative of the College Republicans, even “in opposition”, as he said, thanked us for putting on the event, and remarked how rare it was at Emory for two people with differing views to be able to share a platform and debate.
The payback for our generosity in giving Malkin a forum to spread her views—one I certainly did not get from the College Republicans—was a nasty accusations that I am “gutless,” “underhanded” etc. The most amusing of all is to be called an"intellectual snob" for restricting myself to commenting on the Japanese Americans, a subject on which I have expertise. I suppose that Malkin feels that everyone should spout forth ill-informed judgments the way she does. Well, all I can say is that you can't make good policy using bad history. I understand from Malkin’s column that the College Republicans will be making available the full video of the debate. I hope so, because it will show our respective performances and what we said.
Malkin delivered her lecture before a large group. Perhaps in response to the news of my appearance, Malkin changed the topic of her lecture--certainly a new set of fliers was put up around campus. I was late getting to her lecture and sat down quietly in the back of the hall. I heard her give distorted answers to various questions about the government’s treatment of Japanese Americans. After the event, while I was speaking to some other people who had attended, Malkin came up to me and asked why I had not debated her. I explained that I had not known that I would be appearing and I had not been invited by the College Republicans. She then suggested that she be permitted to debate me during my scheduled appearance. I hastily conferred with representatives of the College Democrats, and they and the College Republicans agreed to have her come debate me.
We regrouped in the room in which my event was to take place. As had been agreed by the two groups, I gave a basic 20 minute presentation, then Malkin spoke for 10 minutes, then we each rebutted for 5. I was supposed, as the host of the event, then to have the last 5 minutes, but Malkin insisted on responding to my final comments and we permitted her to make a final statement. I felt that, despite her evident polish as a media figure and speaker, that she did not answer my arguments, as indeed she has not since Eric Muller and I presented them. After the event, the representative of the College Republicans, even “in opposition”, as he said, thanked us for putting on the event, and remarked how rare it was at Emory for two people with differing views to be able to share a platform and debate.
The payback for our generosity in giving Malkin a forum to spread her views—one I certainly did not get from the College Republicans—was a nasty accusations that I am “gutless,” “underhanded” etc. The most amusing of all is to be called an"intellectual snob" for restricting myself to commenting on the Japanese Americans, a subject on which I have expertise. I suppose that Malkin feels that everyone should spout forth ill-informed judgments the way she does. Well, all I can say is that you can't make good policy using bad history. I understand from Malkin’s column that the College Republicans will be making available the full video of the debate. I hope so, because it will show our respective performances and what we said.