This column by Alan Dershowitz originally appeared at the Gatestone Institute.

When I was growing up, organizations that expressed any views at all similar to those expressed by Communist groups were called “Communist fronts.”

Anyone who defended on the grounds of civil liberties the right of communists to express their hateful ideology was labeled a “commie-symp.”

All decent people railed against this coerced, “politically correct” guilt-by-association, because it endangered freedom of speech, freedom of association, basic fairness and especially truth.

Today a similar tactic of defamatory character assassination against people with whom one disagrees, particularly conservatives, is being employed by elements of the left, including some in the mainstream media. Consider the recent attack by Heidi Przybyla of NBC News against the recently appointed National Security Advisor, Ambassador John Bolton, and an organization whose board he chaired before that, Gatestone Institute. The headline of the hit piece is: “John Bolton chaired anti-Muslim think tank.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

Read the full story at the Gatestone Institute.