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...Glenn Beck can thank another corporate media giant, Time Warner, for getting him his new ABC gig. In January 2006, Time Warner's CNN Headline News signed Beck to produce a nightly hour-long talk show. Announcing the new hire, Headline News president Ken Jautz, trying to take the edge off Beck's fringe past, described the host as "cordial" and "not confrontational." Yet the previous year, when not fantasizing about killing film maker Michael Moore ("I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it"), Beck told his listeners that Hurricane Katrina survivors trapped in New Orleans were "scumbags," and that he "hate " "9-11 victims' families." He also labeled Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) the "Antichrist," accused Al Gore of being like "Hitler," and congratulated a caller to his program who claimed to have tortured prisoners in U.S. custody by saying, "I've got to tell you, I appreciate your service. ... Good for you."
Since joining the CNN family ("the most trusted name in news"), Beck has continued with his often radical, incendiary ways. For instance, he's warned that if Americans don't wake up to the dangers of the "deadly enemy that is embedded in" our ranks -- radical Islam -- that the streets of Detroit, New York, and Chicago may soon erupt in flames as part of a "global religious civil war." Indeed, Beck has waged something of his own personal jihad, declaring that if "Muslims and Arabs" don't "act now" by "step to the plate" to condemn terrorism, they "will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West." And that "Muslims who have sat on your frickin' hands the whole time" rather than "lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head" will face dire consequences.
Beck garnered headlines with his one-hour special about radical Islam, Exposed: The Extremist Agenda. The program was built around the evident notion that Muslim extremists in the Middle East hate America. (Beck interviewed former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who confirmed Exposed's obvious premise.) To help boost interest in the special, Beck, on the eve of the Exposed showing, manufactured a controversy by inviting Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, to be on the program. Beck then sandbagged Ellison by asking him, after noting that Ellison is a Muslim, a war opponent, and a Democrat, to prove that he was not "working with our enemies."...
No matter, last week ABC, no doubt impressed by the buzz surrounding Beck's ratings success, announced it was adding the right-wing talker to its payroll. "Glenn is a leading cultural commentator with a distinct voice," announced ABC's Jim Murphy, senior executive producer of Good Morning America. "At times, he is the perfect guest for many of the talk topics we cover on morning news programs." (According to this report, GMA host Diane Sawyer personally invited Beck out to lunch and offered him the job as a GMA commentator, praising him for his "common sense.")...
http://mediamatters.org/columns/200701160012 |
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