Beck under fire over Soros comments

[sabra]

Source: JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Fox News provocateur Glenn Beck spent spent several days taking aim at billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros, but so far -- at least within Jewish circles -- the barrage appears to be backfiring.

On his radio and TV shows last week, Beck portrayed Soros as running a shadow government bent on controlling the global economy. Some liberal pundits and organizations responded by accusing Beck of relying on anti-Semitic tropes. But the widest range of condemnations came in response to Beck’s Nov. 10 comments on Soros’ childhood activities during the Holocaust:

...

This is not the first time that Beck has found himself being criticized by Jewish groups over comments relating to the Holocaust. Several Jewish leaders confronted Beck after he said during the recent election season that terms like "social justice" lead to death camps.

In response to those complaints, Fox News president Roger Ailes and vice president Joel Cheatwood met in August with three Jewish organizational leaders: Simon Greer, the director of Jewish Funds for Justice; Rabbi David Ellenson, president of Hebrew Union College; and Rabbi Steve Gutow, president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Subsequently Beck sent Greer a note saying that he understood "the sensitivity and sacred nature of this dark chapter in human history." Last week, in response to the broadcasts about Soros, Greer said that Beck and Fox had made a "mockery of their professed understanding."

Read more: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/11/16/2741764/glenn-beck-under-fire-over-soros-comments

[Lasher]

1. If you want to know what wingnuts are really up to,

Just see what they are accusing liberals of doing. That's what they're up to.

[Tippy]

4. You hit the nail on the head....

[DirkGently]

9. Yep. "Death panels," was a nice bit of projection. Insurance companies have them, not the gov't.

[global1]

17. Who Coined The Term 'Death Panels'......

I don't think a Repug is intelligent enough to come up with that term on their own. I can only think that they either heard or was given the term from the insurance industry.

[CBHagman]

21. Or a pollster

Quite often I hear Republican lawmakers, right-wing pundits, and their ilk repeating the same phrases, and more often than not I hear said phrases came from a focus group. It's a well-known practice to come up with a term (e.g., death tax for estate tax) that will confuse, mislead, and/or sway people.

[melm00se]

32. well technically

substituting "death tax for estate tax" is accurate.

it (like other taxes) is a tax that is activated upon an action, in this case the death of a person.

look at the following taxes:

income taxes - directly active only when someone has income
property tax - directly active only when someone owns property
capital gains tax - active only when someone has capital gains
gift taxes - active only when giving gifts
sales tax - active only if you buy something
self employment tax - active only when self employed

the list goes on and on.

So, if anything, calling it an "estate tax" is the disingenuous label

[Lasher]

38. No, that's not right.

It is the transfer of wealth, and not the death, that is taxed. 'Death tax' is a pejorative phrase used to conjure resentment in a way that 'estate tax' or 'inheritance tax' do not. If there is anything left when you die you leave an estate. You don't do anything after that. You're dead. The estate is taxed before assets are transferred to heirs. Thence the appropriate term, 'estate tax'.

[melm00se]

39. i respectfully disagree

gift taxes also impact the transfer of wealth and is triggered upon the act of gifting.

One can also argue that property taxes are also taxes upon wealth (although not on the federal level...yet)

estate taxes cannot and do not activate until/unless there is a death so death tax, while perceived as a pejorative, is still an accurate description.

[Lasher]

41. And estate taxes do not activate unless there is an estate.

Many people die without having left an estate. And very few estates are taxed at all. It is therefore a distortion to call this a death tax.

You infer that these labels should always depict some action that triggers a tax. But your argument is defeated in part by your own use of the phrase, 'property taxes'. In this case the name is derived from the asset that is taxed, just as it is with estate taxes.

It is important to remember that the 'estate tax' and 'inheritance tax' labels were almost exclusively used to describe the tax in question until a decade ago, when Republicans started using the 'death tax' phrase in their propaganda campaign to promote tax cuts for the wealthy.

Republicans, who first focused on their communication skills under former Speaker Newt Gingrich, scored a couple of big successes, namely with the clever labels given proposals for tax relief (Democrats would say tax cuts), the 'marriage penalty' and the 'death tax.'

''They have done a fairly good job,'' Stanley Greenberg, a Democratic pollster, said of Republican efforts to fine-tune their language.

<snip>

And by transforming the ''estate tax,'' which screamed wealth and privilege, to the ''death tax,'' which tied together two of life's inevitable, unpleasant rites, they helped the prospects of a tax cut that at first appeared to be an easy target for Democrats.

<snip>

Democrats consider the term blatantly misleading because they say repealing that tax would benefit only the very rich.

''In a good society, there ought to be some relationship between labels and underlying reality or you are into Orwellian double-speak,'' said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EFD61239F934A15757C0A9679C8B63

[dmr]

24. They are masters of coining clever words, ala "Compassionate Conservative"

"Leave No Child Behind", and a whole slew of others. Whatever they use, it means just the opposite.

:hi:

[Chulanowa]

28. "Ministry of Information", etc n/t

[vssmith]

34. Homeland Security

[Lasher]

25. That's just the way it works.

Faux Noise, et. al, feeds them their slogans to repeat.

[jeff47]

26. Betsy McCaughey, Insurance industry lobbyist (nt)

[lumpy]

33. Hear hear

v

[glinda]

11. That is what should be news because it is totally true and the tactic they use.

So if the Dems could figure out a way to deal with that effectively....

[Jackpine Radical]

12. Damn. You beat me to it.

Projection is a wonderful thing.

[Zenlitened]

15. FACT. Your statement is 100% the truth

"If you want to know what wingnuts are really up to,

Just see what they are accusing liberals of doing.

:applause:

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. exactly...it's the Jimmy Swaggert effect

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Yup.

They have a tendency of showing their hand that way.

[fascisthunter]

36. or, wiping us off the face of this nation

they managed to convince even our own party leadership to abandon us, so now we have very few willing to fight for us in our own country. Imagine that.... and what is all this based on? Ignorance and greed... nothing good.

[harun]

42. Yep, they telegraph it.

[Kingofalldems]

2. The right lies about everything

Never make deals with them.

[MattyGroves]

3. I guess we'll see some tear-works from Beck

as he makes another false apology on his show.

[Steerpike]

5. It's a war

and the rethugs are more than willing to walk that extra mile...

[YOY]

6. Just tell me when whatever the dope says actually gets him fired.

I won't hold my breath.

Until then I'll just assume (correctly) that whatever it is he's saying has no factual basis and will be believed by idiots with little hope in their lives.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. +1

[onehandle]

8. He'll get a raise and extra promotion.

He's talking directly to their tearacist base.

GOPcorp will reward him.

[old mark]

10. The old Jewish organization that secretly runs the world....Hitler espoused that idea,

as did Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh...now Beck is selling it for money.
He is a real piece of shit.

mark

[Iliyah]

14. Beckorama

is rekindling the NAZI way of life. Fake news want the NAZIS back in power, runned by a few corporate heads like the Koch brothers. Christians you say, BS. Wha are those sayings "wolves in sheep clothing" or "patriots wrapped up in the American flag holding a Bible". This is Beck and all the afflilated with Fake news and the coporate minons. Their followers will inturn as seen so far be the troll foot soldiers doing the bidding for their corporate masters all of which is in the name of their God - MONEY.

[COLGATE4]

16. Don't forget that oldie but goodie, Father Coughliin, too.

[old mark]

23. Beck's spiritual grandfather, and a REAL hater....nt

[fascisthunter]

37. yes he is...

[benlurkin]

13. Soros, himself, has talked openly about his childhood

under Nazi occupation. He and others were forced to join the Nazis toward the end of the war under threat of death. The Pope, included. Soros posed as a Christian in order to avoid being detected.

I have never seen why this was an issue. Those who know history also know what happened to the civilian population.

Why is this an issue that needs to be discussed by Beck while going after Soros?

[Turborama]

18. It's simple. Soros gave Media Matters $1million. Media Matters expose Beck et al's disinformation

http://mediamatters.org/press/releases/201010200018">Soros has been very open about his funding of Media Matters. Beck and his employers are very upset with Soros.



Actually, it is a bit more complicated than that. The "Tea Party" and all the other astroturf movements we've been seeing since the 2008 election are funded by the billionaire Koch brothers. The attacks on Soros are an attempt to deflect attention away from what's really going on behind their curtain. As was alluded to in post #1.

[Hawkeye-X]

22. I want to see the headline "Beck fired due to Soros comment"

when he's been batshit insane for years...

[No Elephants]

30. When is Opposite Day?

[LTR]

27. Glenn Beck's a wimp

If any single one of us ever confronted him one-on-one on the street challenging the bullshit that spews out of his mouth from the comfort of his radio/TV studios, he'd start crying like a little baby. Conservatives are all a bunch of thin-skinned, vindictive wussies.

Karma will one day level his fat ass.

[No Elephants]

29. Why only Jewish organizations? Why not all people of good will, esp.Catholics?

Do rationales only apply to Pope Bennie's stint?


A while back (having nothing to do with this), Beck claimed the Vatican urged him, "Keep doing what you're doing." Assuming Beck was not lying about that, maybe someone in the Vatican should be re-visiting that, in light of his assault.

[melm00se]

31. when does this moron

every say something that doesn't draw the ire of someone/some group?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

35. Why do Jews hate this poor, lovable Nazi?

Beck is such a sweetie, crying for the audience and all.

Maybe they'll understand him better when he's elected as Palin's veep.

:hi:

[Odin2005]

40. Soros is the new anti-Semitic boogyman.

[MisterP]

43. America's favorite manbaby (after Christian Weston Chandler)

cited Elizabeth Dilling, so it was obvious the fertilizer will hit the ventilator in regards to Jews

Dilling was part of the grand network of 40s and 50s right-wingers from which emerged McCarthyism and the Birchers