CSpan Rewrites History: Again

Hilary, who has been helping post things on this site, had noticed that the content of BookTV's page on the program is now blank - except for the dates and times.

Up until last night she could still access the RealAudio via the link we had posted but now it's dead too!

Not only that, but if you search for either "Lipstadt" or "History on Trial" on the BookTV site nothing turns up. Whereas a search for T.R. Reid yields blurbs on two programs of his books!

But wait ... there's more ... If you go to their Schedule page, the item for the 4:30 p.m. Apr. 3 timeslot reads: "General Assignment: 48 Hours of Non-Fiction Books" [which is reflected on the page above, too!] So now, according to BookTV, the Apr. 3 program didn't happen.

The only "evidence" that there *might* have been a program on Apr. 3 can be found in the C-SPAN archive, which includes one of the most unflattering pictures of me that I have ever seen. It's as if they ran through the entire clip and picked the worst shot [though this is probably how they see me] they could find.

Interview
Lipstadt/Irving Libel Trial
C-SPAN
Washington, District of Columbia (United States)
ID: 186164 - 04/01/2005 - 1:09 - NS

Book TV presented a look at the 2000 libel trial between World War II writer David Irving and Emory University professor Deborah Lipstadt. Dr. Lipstadt's latest book, History on Trial, examined the trial. T.R. Reid of the Washington Post, who had reported on the trial, as well as historian John Lukacs were included in the program. The program also featured video clips of past remarks by Deborah Lipstadt and David Irving.

So here is how CSpan handled this whole matter:

1. They started out by insisting on "balance." [They used the word repeatedly until a storm of criticism came raining down on their heads.]

2. They were willing to put Irving on alone. [Then they said that was just a ploy to get me to agree to being filmed and then broadcast back to back with him.]

3. They issued a disingenuous statement claiming that I had "closed" my talks to them but failing to mention why, i.e. that I would not be forced into a debate with Irving by being filmed back to back.

4. They produced a program about which they informed me, despite my efforts to make contact with them, 6 hours before broadcast.

5. They asked someone to be the anchor on the show who had not read my book and who told them he had not read the book.

6. They claimed that they never intended to put Irving and me on back to back. [Irving even said this was the case.]

7. They made it sound as if I wanted to silence Irving and failed to mention that Irving's intention was to silence me and have my book pulped.

8. And now they have rewritten history so that the show never even happened.