Glenn Beck's Hate Speech: Likens Criticism of Fox News To Murder Of 6,000,000 Jews
The Obama administration offered some mild criticism of Fox News the other day. It called its reporting opinion, and not news, and labelled it a de factor arm of the GOP. Now Glenn Beck has responded by likening this onslaught to the murder of Six Million Jews.
Beck said: "When they're done with Fox, and you decide to speak out on something. The old, 'first they came for the Jews, and I wasn't Jewish' {comes to mind}."
By now we should all be used to the right's use of the millions of Holocaust victims (Jews, gays, Gypsies, Poles, etc), as political footballs against Democrats, against health care reform, against taxes, against anything the right doesn't like. But, for some of us, getting used to it is hard.
My wife was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany after her Polish Jewish parents survived the Holocaust and made it to the American sector in Germany. My kids -- Americans in their early thirties -- are missing dozens if not hundreds of cousins because of the mass murder Beck trivializes And our family had it easy compared to most European Jews.
It is, frankly, disgusting that Beck likens this slaughter -- including 1.5 million children -- to criticism of his rolling-in-dough network. I don't care if he apologizes; who needs an apology from the likes of Glenn Beck. I just hope that Jewish and other anti-discrimination organizations condemn Fox and Beck for their use of hate speech against Jews and others. Because, in my book, trivializing the Holocaust, like denying it, is hate speech.
MJ Rosenberg is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters Action Network.
One eventually gets sick of the whole "Fox News is really bad" line. Not because it's not true, which it certainly is, but rather because it misses the most important point - that Fox News can operate with the effectiveness that it does because there is no alternative to getting news from huge media conglomerates. Instead of criticizing Fox News, we would be far better served by criticizing the whole system of extremely concentrated mass media ownership. That includes not just Fox but also networks like CNN and MSNBC.
How about we hear about the media blackout of single payer healthcare? Now there's a far better story.
October 13, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
"One" may.....but that's just you.
October 13, 2009 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
MJ, doesn't he get the quote wrong? They didn't come for the Jews first.
But I suppose it would have been self-defeating if Beck had said, "First they came for the communists." Oops.
October 13, 2009 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Home run.
October 13, 2009 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
The quote is from a poem by Martin Niemoller. In the original, the communists and trade unionists come before Jews.
Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr, der protestierte.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Some variants of the poem start with "First they came for the Jews." Clearly a reference to this poem is raising the "Nazi" card. Not every reference to the Nazis is about the Holocaust. Of course, since Beck used the variant that started with "First they came for the Jews" it could be argued that this is one of those cases (rather than that he didn't want to cite the poem correctly and look like a Communist sympathizer).
October 13, 2009 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I wonder if President Obama listened to this story on NPR? See: http://mondoweiss.net/2009/10/nprs-morning-edition-joins-vigilantes.html
You would hae thought that at least one editor at NPR would have been embarassed by this story. Apparently, not.
October 13, 2009 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hate speech indeed. And Beck has no shame as long as his message of stupidity is swallowed up by the nutty people who actually admire him.
October 13, 2009 1:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh et al. get paid huge sums of money to be assholes on the teevee and radio. Why would they stop now?
October 13, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
With the widespread availability of the internet why should any intelligent person own a TV or watch it?
October 13, 2009 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sports.
October 13, 2009 2:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
Have you ever watched a movie in blu-ray?
October 13, 2009 3:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
What sad little people these right-wing bloviators are. Are they really so puffed up with self-important self-righteousness that they can seriously equate being criticized in public with Nazi-style totalitarianism?
Rhetorical question, actually: of course they can - put-upon victimization, simultaneously whiny and arrogant, is what they do best... regardless of circumstances.
October 13, 2009 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
And they also have warehouses full of canned outrage.
October 13, 2009 4:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
beck is known for crying on air. he is a phony bleeding heart right-winger.
youTube: Glenn Beck EXPOSED - Crying On Cue
October 13, 2009 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to be cruel, but why would anyone listen to a reformed alcoholic and drug addict? I'm very supportive of being kicking these habits, but I don't think an alcoholic has standing to lecture anyone about anything.
October 13, 2009 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know I'm referring to a Right Wing media person and not you, right? (My post wasn't clear.)
October 13, 2009 5:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, some of my best friends are reformed alchoholics and drug addicts. And one day I might just be one too!
October 14, 2009 4:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
Do ya' ever wonder why Chicanos or anyone from the Latino Community, ever comments or distance themselves from the subject on the Israelis and the Palestinians?
Perhaps, it comes with the conventional wisdom that a Chicano has to overcome white America' perspective that the "Palestianians are fighting to subjugate themselves".
And that is where Glen Beck and the assorted like-likemindedness, commences their one-sided 'conversation'. And according to the noted writer Steve Benen says, "They[Neo-cons] got exactly what they wanted to do--torture, preemptive war, abandoning the Rule of Law, abandoning democratic norms, alienating allies, ignorning the concepts of international cooperation--and they failed."
Need more be said?
Jaango
October 14, 2009 9:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
"Of course that would mean that TPM is equally guilty of hate speech:"
-
Talking Points Memo compares [people who disagreed with Republicans criticizing McCain and/or Palin] to murdering 6,000,000 Jews
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/tmccarthy0/2008/10/and-then-they-came-for-me.php
***
J$P: HuffPo Compares Blago to Jews During the Holocaust!
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/itr277189650.html
October 14, 2009 11:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's always a hoot watching the bullies become victims.
October 14, 2009 1:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tell me Rosy why must you cover the Beck fellow?
You are just making people want to watch him.
Have you seen his rateing? He does not need more help.
By the way the rats are leaveing the ship on the Limbaugh statement on racism.
Retraction: Huffington Post, CNN, KC Post
He will with this lawsuit, with his deep pockets, and the Dan Rather syndrome will go into effect.
October 16, 2009 1:30 AM | Reply | Permalink