Defending Glenn Beck Against Misinformation and Rumor-mongering

July 25, 2010 - PRLog -- In an article she wrote for The Tier Five Times, Diana Lee Kingly said, "Mr. [Glenn] Beck on more than 1 occasion has said that this long term unemployment issue is just another form of natural selection. By that he explained his meaning of that statement as: ‘those who starve to death or otherwise not survive long periods without the money-food and shelter, perish because they were defective, lazy or otherwise not worthy of survival.’ "

I've watched Glenn Beck on TV almost every day for the past 2 years, and I've never once heard him say anything hateful like that before. (For those few who don't know who Glenn Beck is, he is a conservative TV and radio commentator.)

To me, those words definitely sounded like something taken out of context. It sounded more like something the Grand Wizard of the KKK might have said in 1959 about "Negroes" in Georgia. Really hateful and demeaning words.

Diana herself admits she doesn't watch Glenn Beck, saying, "I may not like his [Beck's] politics or ever watch his show (except for clips shown on MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann or Ed Schultz shows) but..."

(And I can only imagine what video was taken out of context as well.)

Later when I asked Diana for a link to an article or video accrediting Glenn Beck to those horrible statements, she again admits, "I wish I had them, saw it on Olbermann."

She saw it on Olbermann? As in Keith Olbermann on MSNBC? That's about as far left as one can go without falling off the planet! And from someone with the exact opposite political ideology of Glenn Beck. Most "reasonable" people SHOULD have suspected just a tad of bias coming from Olbermann's show concerning Mister Beck.

So I went to Olbermann's web site to look for myslef, but I didn't find that hateful statement there. Then I Googled the exact statement, but I didn't find it there either, except for one hit...for Diana's article.

Although admittedly, Keith Olbermann is an advocate for the unemployed, I just don't see Glenn Beck saying something like that about the jobless. I've heard him mention the terms "nanny state" and hand-outs", but only in the context of running a cradle-to-the-grave welfare state. I personally don't believe Beck meant to insult 15 million hard-working Americans who found themselves unemployed in this recession. And especially saying something like: "...not worthy of survival". Beck himself once hit the bottom with alcoholism, and he knows what it means to be down on one's luck. (And now he may lose his eyesight and become blind from some rare disease.)

So I felt compelled to repond to Diana with this statement:

"Unfortunately there is animosity between Keith Olbermann and Glenn Beck. Did you actually see a video of Glenn Beck on Olbermann's show, with Beck saying those things? Or was Keith Olbermann saying Beck said those things? Just looking for the facts.

Usually Beck shows us video of people saying things...people like Van Jones, the New Black Panthers, ACORN, etc.

With the latest video of Shirley Sherrod, Beck refrained from showing that because he thought it was taken out of context and didn't see her whole speech. As a matter of fact, Beck defended her, saying the Obama administration shouldn't have jumped to conclusions when they fired her without first reviewing the whole tape (the one that the NAACP had possession of at the time).

I subscribe to both leaning political news outlets, and watch all the news shows...and draw different conclusions from how the stories are told. For example with Fox News - they way they depict the unemployed is unforgivable, but Beck was one of the FEW commentators that I heard on Fox that even mentioned the jobless. That's why my curiosity about those statements that were accredited to Beck struck me as very odd.

If you find something (like a video) please let me know. Thanks."

I'll bet Diana's "Googling" as I write this now, trying to find the smoking gun.

This is a perfect example of mis-information and rumor-mongering. I'm assuming at this point that Diana is just relaying what she heard second-hand from another commentator on a competing TV news network and believed him...so in my humble opinion, it should only be taken with a grain of salt. But I like facts better.

It pains me to see one person I admire (Diana) hate another person I admire (Beck). And I would wish them both and their families well.

* For more information on the 99ers, please visit
"Paladinette: Unemployed Zealot: at Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=109835639036411&v=wall

* Released by Bud Meyers ~ "Conservative 99ers for a Tier Five"

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The Tier Five Times reports on the latest unemployment news such as the jobless numbers and unemployment benefits for "99ers" - those who have exhausted all unemployment insurance benefits.