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Daydream Believer
- Sep 2, 2008
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Beck’s Holocaust comments prompt Fox News meeting - Yahoo! News
Thoughts USMB? Personally, I think Glenn Beck does overuse mentioning of the Nazis and the Holocaust to the point where it becomes cheapened due to overuse.
I wonder what the radio and television version of Godwin's Law is.
Fox News host Glenn Beck is known for generating controversy on television and the radio. But some Jewish leaders recently felt Beck went too far, and they made their grievances known to Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes.
Simon Greer, chief executive of Jewish Funds for Justice, told The Upshot that when Greer approached them, Ailes and senior vice president Joel Cheatwood agreed that Beck crossed the line in comparing Greer's worldview to that of the Nazis and promised to speak with Beck about the matter. [See Update for Fox response]
Two days later, Greer said he received a handwritten letter from Beck.
Beck disagreed.
"This leads to death camps," Beck said on May 28. "A Jew, of all people, should know that. This is exactly the kind of talk that led to the death camps in Germany — put humankind and the common good first." (Listen to the clip below, via liberal watchdog Media Matters).
Greer fired back at Beck in a statement that day, writing that the top-rated 5 p.m. host "has a history of recklessly invoking Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in order to advance his political agenda."
It's true that Beck routinely brings up the Third Reich. The Washington Post's Dana Milbank, who's writing a book on Beck, recently added up the post-Obama inauguration references on Beck's Fox show to Nazis or Nazism (202), Adolf Hitler (147), fascism (193), and Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels (24).
Greer said that while he doesn't share the "same worldview with Glenn Beck and Fox News," he was impressed with the executives' response. He said that Ailes and Cheatwood agreed "that the use did cross a line."
UPDATE: Fox News has still not responded to The Upshot. But Cheatwood acknowledged later to TVNewser that there was an "honest, open, dignified meeting" with Greer. However, Cheatwood contradicted Greer's account, saying that he and Ailes did not agree that Beck crossed the line with his "death camps" comment. "We absolutely stood behind Glenn Beck 1000%," he said.
Thoughts USMB? Personally, I think Glenn Beck does overuse mentioning of the Nazis and the Holocaust to the point where it becomes cheapened due to overuse.
I wonder what the radio and television version of Godwin's Law is.