Emory Professor Resigns Fellowship Post over Carter Book

December 6th, 2006 12:33 PM

Professor, in So Many Words, Says That Jimmy Carter Deserves Another Prize: Best Fiction Writer in an Alleged Non-Fiction Book; Prediction is that Media Will Ignore

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Great catch and follow-up comment by blogger Nasty Brutish & Short -- The Carter Center of Emory University has lost a Middle East Fellow, namely Professor Kenneth Stein, "solely as a result of Carter's new book, Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid" (link is to a post at Powerline, which has Stein's full e-mail; also discussed by J-Pod and Goldberg at NRO's The Corner).

Here's the money paragraph from Stein's resignation letter:

President Carter's book on the Middle East, a title too inflammatory to even print, is not based on unvarnished analyses; it is replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions, and simply invented segments. Aside from the one-sided nature of the book, meant to provoke, there are recollections cited from meetings where I was the third person in the room, and my notes of those meetings show little similarity to points claimed in the book. Being a former President does not give one a unique privilege to invent information or to unpack it with cuts, deftly slanted to provide a particular outlook.

NB&S notes that a professor resigning as a result of similar literary falsehoods, liberties with the truth, and apparent plagiarism perpetrated by a conservative author would not be ignored by the media, as Mr. Stein's resignation will almost surely be. In fact, I think that person's resignation would make Page A1 in the New York Times and Washington Post, and that he would be on all three networks' morning talk shows within 48 hours.

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.