Did I hear correctly that Chomsky is the most often cited living person?

Yep. He's widely respected and read outside the United States. Here he's pretty much marginalized and ignored since he dares to challenge our poltical and economic system's underlying assumption: that ever-increasing profit for the super-rich is more important than the provision of basic services for the general population.

This isn't such a forbidden subject in other countries. It's important to keep it under wraps here, though, since an outbreak of democracy in the most powerful nation could actually make a difference in the world.

i think he's cited so often because he's authoritative, i.e. he's done his research and knows the numbers. i often say the same things he says, but no one pays attention (not a complaint) because i quote chomsky and others as sources of information.

"The general public is moving way to the left, while our political system is taking a hard right turn." Do you have anything to cite that? Anything? While that sounds interesting, it doesn't make any sense.

According to recent polls, including one by CNN that just came out this week, the general public wants cuts in the Pentagon budget, not to Social Security or Medicare. That's an opinion identified with "the left," although it's shared by the vast majority.

During the protracted "debate" on healthcare reform last year, polls indicated a majority supported single payer over any of the corporate fixes in Obamacare.

Again, the public has moved to left/liberal postions, even though they don't self-identify as "leftists." And how could they? The "left" is constantly caricatured and demonized in the corporate media. I wouldn't want to be one of "those" people, either.

left-leaning presentations always draw a crowd at UT. i'm thinking of seymour hersh, scott ritter, robert reich, angela davis, ralph nader, howard zinn, jim klein and julia reichert, for example.

i'm not sure there were many conservatives in the audience last night, but there were a few, and the lecture was followed by a chorus of U-S-A repeated twice. no big deal. it should be noted that, in many countries, vocal criticism in the form of shouting is commonplace, even (or especially) in parliaments.

I hate to be picky here but do you have anything besides right-wing whacko propaganda sites to back up your claims. I always feel like making an aluminum foil hat after clicking on those things. Plus I find Anne Coulter creepy.

Best evaluation of her response so far

your use of the word 'best' needs to be qualified, as this is an evaluation by an israeli right-wing journalist who is also a senior fellow in the Center for Security Policy.

(link...)

from wiki:

CSP is a non-profit organization and describes itself as non-partisan. It has been involved in several controversies, such as publishing an article which called for the genocide of Arab Iraqis, and which called for making George W. Bush president for life.

why should the right be worried about speaking on campus?

y'all have Faux News and the rest of the pro-corporate press to amplify your message.

Conspiracy theories might appeal to our various feelings of injustice, but I doubt if right-wing control of local news outlets had much to do with the "near total media blackout" of the Noam Chomsky event. They probably just didn't find it interesting enough to cover for their audiences -- just like they don't think 99 percent of the other speakers at UT are worth covering.

We did think it was of interest to our audience, and we originally planned on having a full feature on Mr. Chomsky ahead of the event. However, his schedule only allowed us 15 minutes of his time on the Tuesday afternoon when that particular issue went to press. Given the time constraints, we had to go with a straight Q&A, which I think turned out well:

Q&A: Noam Chomsky

We also featured the event in our email newsletter and on our Facebook page. However, we did not cover the speech itself -- we devote most of our efforts in previewing events rather than reviewing them. Is that enough coverage for someone as noteworthy as Chomsky? Maybe not in your view, but I didn't see much pre-coverage from local "new" media either, other than noting the event the day before it occurred. Perhaps those mysterious right-wing media overlords have also taken control of our supposedly left-wing blogs?! Well, it's a theory, anyway.

Coury, ed, MP

He said it would be up in a few days.