Glenn Beck has set the rules - now let's make him play by them.
Glenn Beck, whether he wants to or not, will now participate in the "let's highlight past statements as selected by people on a mission" game. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Following Beck's lead, I will now unilaterally choose the quotes I want, present them in a way I choose, interpret them in a way I choose, and not check with Beck first for comment or give him any opportunity for equal time to express his side in a forum that does not involve shouting-down. Those are the rules as established by Glenn Beck.
First, gad has done a remarkable job of finding audio and/or video of a number of particularly damning statements and he has organized them masterfully:
FREE SPEECH AND CENSORSHIP
From pages 55-56 of Glenn Beck's book, An Inconvenient Book:
Phase II: Reinstate the First Amendment
Free speech must reign, political correctness must die. It might seem like a trivial point when talking about extremism, but our country is headed down a very dangerous path if we keep letting special interest groups - whether they are based on religion or not - become more important than the laws of the land.
...Giving in to one group that's offended by teaching the Holocaust or another group that wants to start a private community ma not seem like a big deal, but all of those concessions begin to multiply...
...
There's a lot of stuff in our history we'd like to forget...But we are better off having lived through it and learned from it than pretended these things didn't exist just because some aspect of them offends us. Remember, we are still a free society, living under the Constitution. You may not like what I have to say, but...I have the right to say it without being killed.
With this, I could not agree more. So it makes me wonder why Glenn Beck was so quick to demand that the President of the United States be censored from speaking to school children? Page 55 looks to become another inconvenient quote for Beck. The free speech approach would have been to allow the President to speak - and then respond if you do not agree by exercising your own free speech rights. Not to censor the President.
Beck feels so strongly that ALL opinions should be allowed at school, that he was outraged when the University of Florida objected (how dare they!) to a flier circulated by school Republicans stating that "RADICAL ISLAM WANTS YOU DEAD".
December 4, 2007 - 3:00 ET
GLENN BECK PROGRAM
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
GLENN: Let me go first to Christian Waugh. He is the President of the Law School of Republicans of the University of Florida. And Christian, you had some sort of a program against radical Islam. Can you tell me what it was and what your intent was?
WAUGH: Yes, that's right. We showed a movie called obsession, radical Islam, war against the West...
...
WAUGH: The flier said in big bold letters, radical Islam wants you dead, and it was that provocative statement which has set off this firestorm. The administration came out, once some people approached the administration and said that they were offended, the administration put out a campuswide e-mail to all 50,000 students and... that we owe the entire campus an apology.
...
GLENN: All right. We called yesterday. I wanted somebody from the University of Florida to explain their statement. What a surprise they wouldn't come on the program with us. None of these liberal pinheads ever actually want to defend themselves. They never want to actually come on and say, okay, here it is, and I'm a reasonable guy, I'll listen to the other side. I'm not going to listen to propaganda.
WAUGH: Right.
GLENN: Which is exactly what most of these universities are involved in. But I'm a reasonable guy. You know, you say that -- if I find out, Christian, you guys were doing stuff that was blatantly racist or anti-Muslim then, you know, I've got a problem with you and I'll rip you to shreds as well but until I hear anything more than radical Islam wants you dead, you're right on the money.
Educators are "liberal pinheads", apparently.
Setting aside the absurd contention that the movie Obsession is not blatantly racist and anti-Muslim, I see a slight flaw in Beck's logic here. Beck is outraged that certain parents called to complain and objected to this program being shown - as it made their children feel threatened and endangered. But Beck endorses a twitter campaign to censor President Obama's benign remarks to school chidlren. Indoctrination!, he shrieks.
So bottom line - it's ok to have presentations on campus about "RADICAL ISLAM WANTS YOU DEAD" but it is not ok for the President of the United States of America to deliver a banal address to students on the first day of school? That is Glenn Beck's interpretation of how the First Amendment should work: STFU unless you are Glenn Beck.
Just part of the reason Beck is a very dangerous person. He does not truly believe in free speech.
GLENN BECK AND THE RIGHT TO VOTE
Glenn Beck, November 14, 2006:
BECK: You know, I think -- you know, and I -- honestly, I thought of this during the election. With Vermont -- is it Vermont? Which is the one that just elected the first socialist?
MICHAEL GRAHAM (radio talk-show host): Vermont. Vermont.
BECK: Yeah, Vermont.
GRAHAM: Right up the road here, yeah.
BECK: I believe we should take the ice cream factory without the two fat guys, and we should vote them out of the union. I think you should have a renewal period on every state. I think the rest of the country should vote whether you're a state or not anymore.
GRAHAM: There are plenty -- there are plenty of Americans who, I think, don't qualify as citizens from a standpoint of knowledge, et cetera.
BECK: Exactly.
Does Beck have a lot of supporters in Vermont? Does they appreciate being told by Beck that their state should be booted out of the country?
Shorter Beck: If you don't vote the way I vote, you should be kicked out of the country. Now that's democracy!
HOLLYWOOD HATES AMERICA
Glenn Beck, October 22, 2007:
I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.
GLENN BECK - CREEPY
Glenn Beck, June 4, 2007:
BECK: How did that happen?
STU: It might be part of the reason she looks good, too, because she's standing next to him.
BECK: You think it's dope?
STU: Do I think? I don't know. I don't understand the question.
BECK: I'm wondering if it's some sort of, some sort of, you know. What's that date rape drug? What is -- what's the one? What's --
STU: GHB?
BECK: Yeah, but it's not powerful enough to actually knock you out, but it's powerful enough to, like, make you think that you're not standing next to Dennis Kucinich and making out with him.
STU: I, maybe it's some other form of that.
BECK: What would be the -- what would be the drug that would be just powerful enough to not -- to make you not really realize that you're making out with Dennis Kucinich?
STU: That's called alcohol.
BECK: I was thinking cyanide. That would be the only thing that would really dull the senses enough. Even then, your dead body would be like, "Dennis Kucinich has his tongue in my mouth." I -- maybe it's just me.
STU: I'm sure they have a lovely relationship.
Glenn Beck, February 14, 2008:
OK, so anyway, I was talking about ugly people. Ugly people, if you're a guy, you can get past it. I don't think you can as an ugly woman. I don't -- no, I don't. If you're an ugly woman, I apologize. Oh, you've got a double cross, because if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well. Oh, jeez. I'm sorry. Today's just not your day. But you know what? If you believed in God, you'd know that there's going to be another chance for you. You don't have to be ugly in heaven. You're going to be your perfect self, and there will be another perfect somebody waiting for you on the other side. Until that time...
GLENN BECK - NOT A REPUBLICAN?
Glenn Beck likes to assert that he is not a Republican, as he appears to think this gives him credibility as some sort of neutral commentator.
I wonder, then, why he offers the following products on his website:
Gloat Fest 2004 Audio Samples
The absolute perfect gift for any "red stater" you love, or any "blue stater" you hate. Gloatfest 2004 is over a full hour of the best moments from our day after election show. Nothing but divisive gloating appears on this CD, guaranteed. Hear taunting, unkind, and hurtful attacks-while we actually do laugh at the other side, not with them.
Best Of Election 2004 - Volume 1 Audio Samples
After months and years of annoying attacks on the President, didn't you just want to pull your hair out? "Just like Bush 1, four years and done", "We're going to give President Bush a one way ticket back to Crawford, Texas", "This President is a miserable failure", "This President lied to the country" These were just some of the many attacks on the President in the last 4 years that we had to endure, defend, etc. Well, thanks to 60 million Americans like you, we can now look back at all of the attackers with a smile. A smile that says, "Hey, you devoted your entire life for the last four years on one thing. To get George W. Bush out of office. Guess you just wasted four years, huh?" So sit back and enjoy the Glenn Beck Program's Best of Election 2004 Volume I , you've earned it!
Best Of Election 2004 - Volume 2 Audio Samples
Did you really think we could fit all the agonizing attacks of the last 4 years on to one CD? Ah yes friends, it's time to go even deeper into the 2004 election past and revel in the Bush bashers failed efforts that you may have forgot about. Age old classics like "and then we are going to Washington D.C. to take back the White House! Yeeeeaaaah!", "docs in socks", and the ever so caring liberal attorney John Edwards channeling the dead to make millions and millions of dollars ("can you hear that?") are all included on this CD. Sit back, relax and once again enjoy us tearing apart those who tried to take the President down and those who, may I gently remind you, FAILED! And failed quite miserably, I might add. With glee.
I mean, these are highlights from his show, yes? So over the course of years - and as recently as 2004 - he was rooting for Republicans. "...we actually do laugh at the other side, not with them." So you are on a side, Glenn. Stop pretending that a few gratuitous criticisms tossed at Republicans here and there make you some sort of neutral party in the political arena. Not buying it.
Beck often criticizes the President for "the company he keeps". What company does Beck keep? Well, when he's invited to a soiree at the White House by George W. Bush (August 2007), the exclusive guest lists consists of Beck, Hugh Hewitt, Bill Bennett, Neal Boortz, Scott Hennon, Laura Ingraham, Lars Larson, Mark Levin, Michael Medved and Janet Parshall. Are any of those people Democrats? Seems more like Bush invited a group of well-known, influential Republicans.
GLENN BECK AND MCCARTHYISM
First, a primer - What is McCarthyism?
McCarthyism is the politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the anti-communist pursuits of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, "McCarthyism" soon took on a broader meaning, describing the excesses of similar efforts. The term is also now used more generally to describe reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries.
During the post–World War II era of McCarthyism, many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned,[1] laws that would be declared unconstitutional,[2] dismissals for reasons later declared illegal[3] or actionable,[4] or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.
The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the speeches, investigations, and hearings of Senator McCarthy himself; the Hollywood blacklist, associated with hearings conducted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities; and the various anti-communist activities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Director J. Edgar Hoover. McCarthyism was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.
Let's see:
Targets: government employees, educators, union activists, and those in the entertainment industry. CHECK.
MO: politically motivated practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence; reckless, unsubstantiated accusations, as well as demagogic attacks on the character or patriotism of political adversaries. CHECK
Focus on Communism: Communism, socialism, marxism, radical progressives. CHECK.
This is what Glenn Beck does every single night. He is Joe McCarthy. It could not be more clear.
Do we want 10 years of Beck-style McCarthyism? I refuse to accept that a person who spent the better part of his life indulging in drugs and alcohol, and who is being paid an obscene amount of money by uber-partisan Rupert Murdoch, should be leading anyone anywhere.
Beck sometimes tries to exonerate himself by saying he was "only joking". No. I reject that excuse. There is real malice and hatred in Beck's words.
(As writing a diary like this tends to elevate my blood pressure pretty high, I am going to go have a lengthy cool-down period before responding to any comments in the diary. Thanks.)