The Volokh Conspiracy - I. F. Stone's Apologists:

Michale Moynihan has got their number. (H/T Instapundit)

How ridiculous are some of the attempts to whitewash Stone's relationship with Soviet intelligence? This ridiculous: Eric Alterman, whose tag line proudly proclaims that he is a "is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism," proclaims that Stone was not a spy because his activities do not match Dictionary.com's first definition of the word "spy." Seriously. I hope Alterman's English and journalism students start citing Dictionary.com's first definition of a word as its definitive and indeed only meaning, just for fun.

UPDATE: By the way, Stone is said to have "assisted Soviet intelligence on a number of such tasks: talent-spotting, acting as a courier by relaying information to other agents, and providing private journalistic tidbits and data the KGB found interesting." But nope, no spying involved.

FURTHER UPDATE: This seems as good a place as any to plug my own contribution to the literature on domestic American Stalinism, a discussion of the First Amendment issues raised by the government's crackdown on American Stalinists in the late 40s and 50s.

	[David Bernstein, May 8, 2009 at 10:22am] Trackbacks I. F. Stone's Apologists: Michale Moynihan has got their number. (H/T Instapundit) How ridiculous are some of the attempts to whitewash Stone's relationship with Soviet intelligence? This ridiculous: Eric Alterman, whose tag line proudly proclaims that he is a "is a professor of English and journalism at Brooklyn College and a professor of journalism at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism," proclaims that Stone was not a spy because his activities do not match Dictionary.com's first definition of the word "spy." Seriously. I hope Alterman's English and journalism students start citing Dictionary.com's first definition of a word as its definitive and indeed only meaning, just for fun. UPDATE: By the way, Stone is said to have "assisted Soviet intelligence on a number of such tasks: talent-spotting, acting as a courier by relaying information to other agents, and providing private journalistic tidbits and data the KGB found interesting." But nope, no spying involved. FURTHER UPDATE: This seems as good a place as any to plug my own contribution to the literature on domestic American Stalinism, a discussion of the First Amendment issues raised by the government's crackdown on American Stalinists in the late 40s and 50s.