O'Reilly
seems to skirt around the big issues, and
satisfies himself with one or two modest
insults and smears. I can't even be
bothered to watch the repeat. I could have
smeared me better.
|
March
21, 2005 (Monday)
Indianapolis
(Indiana) -- Champaign (Illinois) 11:40 am Sinclair Television,
Washington HQ, phones, wants to interview me by
satellite in Chicago. I prefer Indianapolis. I
drive over from Indianapolis to Monticello,
Illinois, pausing for an hour to draft more Himmler
notes, based on Hitler's Table Talk -- one
of the most reliable records of Hitler's private
views and thoughts. As the Red Suburban rolls effortlessly in cold
sunshine across the flat prairies for three hours,
I phone Jessica in London: I begin to describe the
beauty of this country, but she interrupts, "Moving
on, Daddy --" that is her new phrase; she is
writing homework, a 25-line letter to a penfriend.
"Do you want to hear it," she asks, and reads it
out -- in good French. Not bad for an 11 year
old. I phone Avis, and extend the rental to mid
April. Then on to the warehouse; I unload and
smarten the Suburban and reload it with a ton of
boxes. It really is heavy now. 8:24 pm G. has sent a picture from Lima. That's
nice. She worked earlier preparing the Cincinnati
function, from Key West, but was left in a coma for
ten days last month after a bus crashed into a car
her boyfriend was driving in Peru. I am glad to see
she's looking better. I read the emails. There is ane earlier one from
Sinclair Television, Washington HQ, looking for me:
"We're eager to talk with him about the C-Span
program, which now may never air.
[...]" 
AND there is this from a correspondent in Florida,
who may be, judging by his spelling, English.
Hey arsehole, you are noting
[sic] but a lying piece of sh*t, you are
a clueless c*** and a rat bag prick so go f*ck
yourself, c**tstruck schmock. -- Mike
Adler, Florida USA This ungentle language reminds me of the little
chat that Lipstadt says she had with her attorney
Anthony Julius about stepping in dog
excrement in their respective ghettos, Atlanta and
North London. Some people appear to be obsessed
with bodily functions. Their Talmud was written before municipal laws
were enacted about pooper-scoopers; from the
snippets I have seen, it certainly refers to Our
Lord in similarly disrespectful terms.  In
the evening Bill O'Reilly does screen on Fox
News an interview with Lipstadt, but it is visibly
edited, to judge from the subtle jump-cuts. Prof
Lipstadt seems obsessed with the Jewish Holocaust
and David Irving.
I find all three boring, the first two rather
more so than the latter perhaps. The level of her
language does rise marginally above that of the
Talmud and her compatriot Mr Adler, but she seems
unable to understand why it is undignified for one
party in a great debate to lay down rules which
seek to silence and exclude the other altogether.
How odd to see a large chunk of organised American
academia cheering her from the sidelines. I really
must be a thorn in their flesh. Even with both hands tied behind ones back, one
can still fight, however, as Lipstadt is now
finding. O'Reilly seems to skirt around the big
issues, and satisfies himself with one or two
modest insults and smears. I can't even be bothered
to watch the repeat. I could have smeared me
better.
 LIPSTADT
has now become obsessed with denying the 1945
holocaust
in Dresden, and since I have seen pictures of
her hero Frederick Taylor, who wrote the
book suggesting that Dresden's population deserved
every ounce of the British bombs that fell on them
(around ten thousand tons in two hours that
night) I wonder if there may be a previously
unsuspected commonality between them, although the
name Fred Taylor does seem reassuringly
English. Aesthetically speaking, it might be thought that
neither quite measures up to G. in Peru. Murphy's
Other Law: Misfortunes always befall the wrong
people. 8:36 pm: "Mr. Irving: I am a writer for the Emory
Wheel, the student newspaper at Emory
University. I have some questions about Deborah
Lipstadt's refusal to appear alongside you on "Book
TV." My deadline is Tuesday afternoon. -- Thanks,
Jennifer
Sutcliffe, Senior Editor, The Emory Wheel." That's Lipstadt's own university. How amusing. I
graciously reply: "I'll be glad to speak. I know
your paper and respect it. I just watched Bill
O'Reilly interview Deborah L, and thought he pulled
his punches, even referred to my considerable
cachet in the UK. When you call, remind me
who you are; I am inundated, and get an average 380
e-mails a day. Don't call 2:30 to 4 Central Time as
I am on Chicago TV." [See
her resulting article] Around 10:30 I phone G. in Peru to congratulate
her on her recovery, but her sister mumbles
something, obviously asleep. 'Phone tomorrow
morning,' probably. [Previous
Radical's Diary] 
Index
to the media scandal surrounding Prof Lipstadt's
attempt to silence C-Span and the history
debate
| 
David Irving