Guardian Apologizes for Smearing Chomsky, and Removes the Offending Interview from Its Site: Will Emma Brockes and Oliver Kamm Be Able to Show Their Faces in Public Again?

It appears that the entirely correct protests against The Guardian's smearing of Noam Chomsky in an "interview" by journalist Emma Brockes (who one may hope will now find a new profession, where she can conduct herself honorably) have been successful: The Guardian has apologized and retracted the entire interview.

What will be interesting now is to see whether the various right-wingers who seized upon The Guardian smear will now also recant.  Keep an eye, especially, on that professional Chomsky-hater Oliver Kamm, who did somersaults defending Brockes and the smear, and who even went out of his way to attack Chomsky for protesting the smears.  He, of course, now looks ridiculous, in light of The Guardian's decision.  If there were any doubts as to Mr. Kamm being an untrustworthy buffoon, this turn of events should remove them.

And here, for contrast, is a recent and responsible interview with Chomsky.  (Thanks to reader Thomas Paine for this link, and the link to the Guardian retraction.)

UPDATE:  John McFaul from New York City has sent Mr. Kamm the following inquiry (and shared a copy with me, which he has kindly given me permission to post):

In your November 3 online post blasting Noam Chomsky, you write at the end:

"Well, then: Emma Brockes and Noam Chomsky; who is the more credible? You decide."

Evidently, The Guardian, Emma Brockes' own publisher, by publicly acknowledging at least 3 major factual errors in Brockes' article and interview, and then by subsequently withdrawing it from their website, seems to have made its own judgment on this question, and the winner does not appear to be their employee.

I await with curiosity your next post regarding this matter.

Mr. Kamm is one representative of a strange and, happily, marginal phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic:  folks who purport to be on the left and are ardent supporters of the criminal aggression against Iraq.  Others in this slightly childish clique include the journalist Nick Cohen (whom we've discussed previously) and the retired political theorist Norman Geras (whom I will deal with shortly).  Others in the clique aren't quite as dishonest and unreliable as Mr. Kamm (and certainly aren't as obsessed with Noam Chomsky), but they all argue at an intellectual and moral level that is, in many ways, worse than that of the right-wing war mongers, who at least wear their moral depravity and nationalist chauvinism on their sleeves.   

ONE MORE:  Mr. Kamm has shown his face; more here.