Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck Claims Obama and Van Jones Support ‘Killing the Parents’
09 months ago
Outgoing Fox News host Glenn Beck connected environmental advocates Van Jones, Al Gore, and President Obama with radicals who want to kill their parents yesterday on his show, Think Progress reports.
Beck played a clip of Van Jones’ keynote address at the Power Shift conference in Washington D.C. over the weekend, where Jones said, “When you go home, shift the power at the Thanksgiving table. When your uncle Joe, who loves Fox News, starts talking to you and starts dominating the discussion-”
At this point, Beck stopped the clip to go on a tirade about how the conference leaders were “going after the youth”, teaching them to not listen to their parents. His audience did not get to hear the rest of what Jones had to say:
“You have the opportunity to say to your uncle Joe, ‘Excuse me, sir, don’t you believe in liberty? And if you do, how can you live in a country where every American is forced to be an energy consumer for the rest of our lives?’”
Instead, viewers got to see Beck further accuse Al Gore of telling people to ignore their parents, and also rope in Obama, saying that “these radicals” are the same as radicals like Bill Ayers who supposedly said to not listen to anyone over 30 and to ‘kill your parents’ in the 1960′s.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also wrote off the youth climate activists in a blog post, referring to them as an “anti-business crowd.”
Glenn Beck Wants Only-Sometimes-Wacky Andrew Napolitano To Fill His Slot
010 months ago
Yesterday, Glenn Beck announced his plans to leave his blockbuster Fox News show. So who’ll take his coveted 5 p.m. weekday time slot? If Beck gets a vote, he’s cast it for the host of Fox Business’ “Freedom Watch,” Judge Andrew Napolitano.
So who is Napolitano, besides the owner of a handsome head of hair? For starters, he’s a pretty hardline libertarian, which makes him a bit of an odd duck at the Fox News family (which might explain his being relegated to Fox Business). Admirably, Napolitano doesn’t shuffle back to the party line when his pro-Constitution stances line up with those of progressives. For instance, he’s defended the Fourteenth Amendment from recent attacks by anti-immigration legislators–while still engaging in a bit of fearmongering. Think Progress flagged an August 2010 exchange on his show:
NAPOLITANO: The law has been upheld uniformly since 1868 and without exception. And we start with a couple of basics. The Congress cannot change the constitution of the 14th amendment on its own. It takes 2/3 of each house of Congress and 3/4 of the states to change the amendment. [...] so this is nothing but political chatter by those who are concerned understandably by problems at the border. [...] I can’t imagine that there’d be a consensus to change the 14th amendment. [...]
HEMMER: But if the [Birthright Citizenship Act] were carried out, you had 100 co-sponsors about a year ago, it would require at least one parent to be a US citizen for a baby to become an american citizen at birth. If you were to enact the BCA as some refer to it, is that a way to get around the 14th amendment, and get done what people like John Cornyn, and John Kyl and John Mccain, and we heard John Boehner are trying to do.
NAPOLITANO: No! That would not be a a way around it. There is no way to get around the 14th amendment. These people took an oath to uphold the Constitution whether they agree with it or not! All of it not part of it! The Supreme Court has said you cannot take privileges or benefits away from a child because of a crime committed by the parent. Therefore everybody born here is an American citizen, no matter what their parents’ status was at their birth.
Napolitano has also called for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to be tried for authorizing torture and for unwarranted spying. And back in 2009, before the beer summit, he unequivocally declared that Harvard professor Skip Gates’ rights were violated by Cambridge police.
Lest you think Beck’s getting soft, however, Napolitano also loves comparing Obama to Mussolini. And he advocates for a (literal?) return to the gold standard, along with other policy proposals once relegated to Geocities pages. He also says things I won’t attempt to fit into a Venn diagram, like this morning, when he criticized Ronald Reagan… for being too soft on welfare recipients.
If Napolitano doesn’t snag the 5 p.m. slot, who will? At Salon, Alex Pareene names some candidates; from his list, I’d keep an eye on Megyn Kelly, who never met a racebaiting argument she didn’t like.
5 Reasons To Miss Glenn Beck (and for Progressives To Learn From Him)
010 months ago
Yes, Glenn Beck has announced that he will “transition off” his daily TV show on Fox News and, yes, I’ll miss him. You read that right. I will miss Glenn Beck.
No, I will not miss his blatant attempts to gin up fear in the hearts of Americans by slandering and scapegoating poor people, people of color, unions and women. No, I will not miss him convening “representative” audiences of “ordinary people” who are almost always white and mostly male and implicitly signaling they are the “real Americans.” And certainly, no, I will not miss the bagpipes.
But here, in all honesty, are five things I will miss about Glenn Beck–and lessons that we all should learn.
1. MAKING POPULAR EDUCATION POPULAR
Glenn Beck understands both the importance of ideas and the importance of translating ideas for popular audiences. Here’s a guy who dedicated hours of live television to talking about our nation’s philosophical principles and the theories driving the Founding Fathers. He features historians (albeit completely discredited ones). And he constructs popularized gimmicks to try and bring ideas to life–from acting out skits with Barbie dolls to writing an entire book premised on the accessible metaphor of a broken car. Let me be clear: Glenn Beck is wrong about most everything he has ever said. But particularly coming from a movement that has been insistently anti-intellectual for the past several decades, Beck’s feigned intellectualism and seemingly genuine attempts at popular education have always been oddly refreshing.
2. TAKING AFFIRMATIVE STEPS TO ACKNOWLEDGE RACE
Unlike the liberal establishment, which regularly contorts itself to pretend that race doesn’t matter in America and thus alienates people of color on a daily basis, Glenn Beck actually seemed to care when he was accused of being racist–and then did something to try and prove his critics wrong. Even The Root honored Beck by deeming him “One of the Blackest White People We Know” for his attempts to teach viewers about the role of African Americans in founding the United States (again, albeit through discredited historians). To my mind, seeing people of color as a community to co-opt rather than a community to be ignored is at least a modest improvement for the right—as it would be for the Democratic Party. Of course, not as good as the white establishment in general, left and right, acknowledging that it takes more to end racism than saying some of your best political friends are people of color, but it’s something.
3. PRESENTING FEELINGS FIRST, FACTS SECOND
Glenn Beck understands that the way to people’s heads is through their hearts. He works to trigger your emotions before he even bothers with your brain. Almost every episode of Beck’s show begins not with facts and numbers but with stories–either some story about an individual or a group or, just as often, a fable about the fate of our nation and where we are headed. You can read a dozen-plus books about messaging and framing to try and imbibe this skill or simply watch Glenn Beck, puppet master of pulling the heart strings.
Moreover, his particular mode of emotional fire-stoking is also instructive–making viewers at once feel part of an in-group (real Americans, hard working, moral, care about your family) while at the same time feeling like a shafted outsider (the government is robbing you, the poor people are cheating you, the system is stacked against you). Feeling denied but entitled is the traditional cocktail for being receptive to brainwashing (see, fascism) and baldly seeking power (see, colonialism and imperialism). None other than Adolf Hitler said, “Great liars are also great magicians.” Glenn Beck’s manipulation of emotion is nothing short of vicious, inhumane treason but there’s no question his capacity to understand and work through the medium of emotion is also magical.
4. PERSONALIZING POLITICS
Beck didn’t just attack the vast left-wing conspiracy. He assigned it names–Van Jones, Drummond Pike, Frances Fox Piven. In outlining the principles of community organizing, Saul Alinsky wrote, “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don’t try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual.” Beck is a genius at this. He invents prominent public enemies out of previously unknown social change advocates for whom the most tenuous associations with Obama become grounds for attacking the entire left. For instance, a rumor now swirls that the Weather Underground’s Bill Ayers actually wrote Obama’s “Dreams Of My Father”–the sort of rumor Beck doesn’t birth, but certainly helps deliver.
The irony, of course, is that there are a ton more “bad guys” on the right than the left–start in Wall Street boardrooms and just keep going from there. But in recent years, progressives have failed to effectively demonize even one target as well as Beck has managed to demonize almost a dozen. Forget the “no permanent friends, no permanent enemies” crap. Beck understands that there are “permanent enemies” of his anti-American agenda and he is not afraid to name them and attack them directly. For us social justice-types, being kind and nice is often one of our best qualities, but also one of our worst, hobbling us when it comes to playing dirty in politics.
5. BUILDING MOVEMENT THROUGH MASS MEDIA
And that’s Beck’s final gift to the left—the revelation that television, like everything, is a potential space for movement building. Most talking heads and newscasters today provide analysis, but the end goal, generally, is for the viewer to be informed. Not Beck. For him, the goal is building a conservative movement. Beck is the modern-day Richard Viguerie, the right wing brainchild who invented direct mail in the 1970s and 80s, the funds from which fueled a conservative assent. Viguerie’s insight was in seeing a previously one-way form of communication–letters–as an invitation to two-way engagement, through people making donations and, ultimately, engaging in campaigns and more. Similarly, Beck broke through the construct of the one-way I’m talking at you television host (even the incredible Oprah is only talking with her live audience) to create a two-way, I’m talking with you framework.
As proof, and to carry his vision forward, Beck then held a significant rally on the National Mall (on the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, but never mind that…), organized an on-line “university” of ideological teaching and encouraged his viewers to take action beyond passively absorbing his information. Beck doesn’t just want people to think a certain way, he wants them to act a certain way–and he doesn’t hide it. Imagine if all the supposedly-progressive TV hosts, actors and producers in Hollywood took on this mission, to not just educate audiences about inequality and racism and sexual violence but push and provoke them to do something? Imagine if, instead of being so busy insisting on non-partisan neutrality, justice-loving voices in the media would use their pedestals with even half the audacity of Beck?
Don’t get me wrong. My blood pressure is already improving thanks to Beck’s impending phase out. My doctor says watching too much Glenn Beck is bad for the veins on my forehead. Yet admittedly, only half of my shouting and blood-boiling is due to raw anger at the injustice of Beck’s assertions; the other half is due to frustration that Beck has mastered a political art form that seems so perpetually illusive to the left. Yes, we should be thrilled that Beck is stepping down in large part due to falling show revenues, because advertisers under pressure from racial justice groups and media watchdogs have been dropping their support. But perhaps we should also be a bit sad that progressives are losing Beck as a teacher before we’ve learned our lesson for good.
Sally Kohn is the founder and chief education officer of the Movement Vision Lab and a regular commentator and writer for Fox News.
Glenn Beck Ends Show, But Fox’s Race Baiting Still Lives
010 months ago
It’s been a long time coming, but Glenn Beck has finally announced an end to his daily Fox News program. The New York Times’ Media Decoder reports that his departure was jointly announced in a statement on Wednesday by Fox and Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts. The talk show host, who’s been widely criticized for inciting racist and anti-immigrant hate speech, will reportedly continue working with Fox to develop other programs.
According to the Times:
Mr. Beck has been contemplating an exit from Fox for some time. Two of the post-Fox options he has considered, according to people who have spoken about it with him, are a partial or wholesale takeover of a cable channel, or an expansion of his subscription video service on the Web. His company has been staffing up — making Web shows, some of which have little or nothing to do with Mr. Beck, and charging a monthly subscription for access to the shows.
Mr. Beck also hosts a syndicated radio show in the morning. He was estimated to earn about $32 million in total revenues in 2009, the first year that he worked at Fox.
Interestingly, a statement that had been posted on Beck’s website The Blaze was abruptly taken down without any explanation.
Progressive activists and media makers have long targeted Beck. Colorofchange.org led a lengthy and aggressive campaign targeting the talk show host’s advertisers. James Rucker, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement that the group applauds Beck’s departure.
Over 285,000 ColorOfChange members have participated in our campaign against him since it began in July 2009. Because of them, Beck’s show lost over 300 advertisers – companies that were unwilling to attach their products and brands to his vitriolic and divisive commentary. Fox News Channel clearly understands that Beck’s increasingly erratic behavior is a liability to their ratings and their bottom line, and we are glad to see them take this action.
When reached by phone, Rucker explained that Beck’s departure is just one victory in a longer fight to hold the network accountable for what he called its race-baiting coverage.
“What I do know is that the value of ads on [Beck's] show have declined and financial analysts and others have started pressuring Fox to explain why they’ve withstood the reduction of value” for the network, Rucker told Colorlines. “The problems with Fox and race baiting aren’t limited to Glenn Beck.”
For proof, Rucker cited the network’s recent coverage of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case. Though the Justice Department recently cleared the group of any wrongdoing, Fox had long used the case to paint a bizarre picture of so-called “reverse racism” in which white voters were being threatened at the polls. Media Matter later pointed out that Fox host Megyn Kelly spent only 20 seconds on a segment to report the DOJ’s latest findings.
Earlier this year, Thoai Liu wrote about how Glenn Beck’s gloomy ideas were bed for business. Ratings had reportedly been slipping since August, when he staged his bombastic “Restoring Honor” rally on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech. Think Progress noted that thanks to Beck’s multimedia platform success, he would likely survive a split with the network. But at least for now, his hate’s been muted.
Neo-Nazi Activities Target Immigrants
01 year ago
by Sarah Viets
in American Identity, American Nazi Party, Center for Immigration Studies, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Glenn Beck, Immigrant Communities, Immigration, Immigration Issues, John Tanton, John Tanton Network, Ku Klux Klan, Ku Klux Klan Members, Nationalist Socialist Movement, Neo Nazi Group, Racial Conflicts
When I first heard about the National Policy Institute’s “Boycott the Glenn Beck Boycott,” I was a little surprised, but just a little. Due to Beck’s racially charged reporting, Color of Change launched a boycott targeting companies financially supporting Beck’s television show.
The National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist organization, believes that in order for “The European identity of the United States and its people [to] be maintained, Federal decentralization and territorial separation should be recognized as legitimate and humane means of preventing and resolving divisive social, ethnic, and racial conflicts.”
Glenn Beck has yet to respond to NPI’s boycott; however, this is an ideal opportunity for mainstream media to finally speak out against Beck’s racially divisive brand of journalism.
The National Policy Institute’s “boycott” comes amid a rash of neo-Nazi activities targeting immigrant communities.
On February 20, forty-eight Ku Klux Klan members covered in white hoods protested against undocumented students marching to Washington D.C to raise awareness of immigrant’s civil rights. The KKK’s Imperial Wizard Jeff Jones stated that “We are here to tell you wake up Georgia and stop the Latino invasion now.” “I know plenty of people who are willing to work and would do anything right now,” according to the Jacksonville newspaper.
The Nationalist Socialist Movement (NSM), a neo-Nazi group, is currently mobilizing its membership to attend its national meeting, “Reclaim the Southwest,” on April 17. In the announcement, the NSM relies on immigration issues to rally its base. The flier for the event says, “Let your voice be heard as we speak out against illegal immigration, Sanctuary Cities”. According toNSM’s webpage, the “rally will be hosted in Southern California this year with the rally on the South Lawn of L.A. City Hall”.
On May 1, the American Nazi Party (ANP) is hosting its National Conference in Detroit, Michigan. Like the Nationalist Socialist Movement, ANP also uses immigration issues to rally its troops. On the front page of ANP’s webpage, the Nazi Party sends its visitors an alarming message by claiming that “America has an estimated 20 MILLION brown, mestizo ILLEGAL ALIENS who have INVADED OUR NATION – this evil”.
The biggest concern for the American Nazi Party (ANP) is the upcoming demographic changes, particularly for white Americans. On the top part of the page, the ANP warns that”only 23% of the American population under the age of 18 is WHITE. Already, four U.S. states are MAJORITY NON-WHITE, and 10% of all counties in America are MAJORITY NON-WHITE. World-wide, White women of child-bearing age comprise only 3% of the earth’s population. Do these FACTS disturb you? They should.”
When the anti-immigrant leader, Shawna Forde, murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores, the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA said nothing. When a gang of teenagers killed Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant in Suffolk County, Rhode Island, the Center for Immigration Studies said nothing. When congressional leaders support hate-crimes legislation, the Federation for American Immigration Reform supports elected officials who oppose hate-crime legislation.
While the Tanton Network portrays itself as credible single-issue anti-immigrant organizations the organization’s founder, John Tanton, sings a different tune. As neo-Nazi groups express concern of whites no longer being the majority, I’m reminded of John Tanton labeling immigration as a demographic issue.
As immigration legislation reform looms, reporters hold America’s moral compass in their pens. Mainstream media continues to say very little about Glenn Beck’s journalistic habits, it also says very little about the John Tanton Network’s ties to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups campaigning on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Just a Chip Off the Old Block
01 year ago
Last week Fox News commentator Glenn Beck went on a rant against Barack Obama simply because his mother and father chose to name their baby after his father. He has been named Barack for 49 years, and managed to do very well in school, work, and civic affairs. But media buffoon Beck thinks that he can determine how “American” someone is just by the sound of his name.
Glenn Beck said of President Obama: “He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.”
How can Fox News allow this sort of drivel on the air? Why do their sponsors want to pay for this sort of prejudice? Does this mean any man named for his father is not American?
Will Glenn Beck tell President George W. Bush that he should not have been named after President George H. W. Bush – because that would not be American? Too late to tell President John Quincy Adams that he should not have been named for President John Adams.
How about all the juniors? Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr., humorist Roy Blount, Jr., Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., performer Oscar Brown, Jr., and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, Jr. Are none of them American because they are named for their father?
And don’t forget the Buds, like Commissioner of Baseball Bud Selig, jazz pianist Bud Powell, or comedians Bud Abbott and Lou Costello – aren’t they American?
And then there are the Chips, like baseball announcer Chip Caray (really Harry Christopher Caray III), son of Skip Caray, and grandson of Harry “Holy Cow” Caray. One of my friends was dating a “Spike,” but she married a “Chip” because, as she said, “He is just like his father, so I know what he is going to be like.”
Even better are couples who name both children after the father. Jim Phillippe was the Chair of the Radio and TV Department at Butler University in Indiana. He and his wife were so sure that they were going to have a boy that they discussed their plans for “Jamie.” When the baby was a girl, they made up the nameJamene so that they could still call her Jamie. Then when their second child was born they called him James R. Phillippe II and called him Jimmy. Jim Phillippe is the man who broadcast all the color commentary for the Indianapolis 500 races, including interviews from the pits, and his children Jimmy and Jamie still attend the Indy 500 every year. Can you get any more American than that?
I think it is time that Fox News demands that its on-air personnel stop judging others by out-of-date ethnic stereotypes. Or else their 2010 sponsors should stop paying for 1940’s attitudes.
Joan Flanagan is the Fundraiser for the Center for New Community. She is named for her grandmother Johanna.
No Doubt About It, Glenn Beck is Racist
02 years ago
Remember the time Glenn Beck suggested that President Obama was burning down the country by trying to repair the immigration system? When he pretended to be the President in a skit in which he doused an actor with make-believe gasoline and lit a match? Or the time he called President Obama racist? That was idiotic and insulting. But what he did Thursday was worse. Because this time he didn’t just insult the President, he insulted all of America.
Many of us know already what an obnoxious bigot Beck is, but somehow he has managed to keep his FOX network TV show and nationally syndicated hate radio platform. What he said a few days ago should leave no doubt about it, Beck is racist.
BECK: He chose to use his name, Barack, for a reason. To identify, not with America — you don’t take the name Barack to identify with America. You take the name Barack to identify with what? Your heritage? The heritage, maybe, of your father in Kenya, who is a radical? Really? Searching for something to give him any kind of meaning, just as he was searching later in life for religion.
A coalition of organizations, which includes America’s Voice, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Center for New Community, Color of Change, NCLR (National Council of La Raza), Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, and Media Matters, swiftly responded by releasing the following statement:
Glenn Beck’s comments reveal the depth of his failure to grasp the true nature of America and of the American people. Ours is a nation of immigrants. Ours is a nation of proud individuals who celebrate their heritage as surely as they love the country in which they live. Ours is a nation that draws strength from its diversity, rather than rejecting it. And America is not a country that defines citizenship or patriotism based on color, or creed, or name.
In 2004, Senator Barack Obama explained that when growing up, he possessed “the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.” And he was right. It does. Mr. Beck’s inability to accept this fundamental quality of our nation — or at the very least his willingness to pander to those who reject it — should trouble us all. He owes an apology to the people of this great country.
Glenn Beck is accustomed to crossing the line; it’s his shtick – say outrageous things, cause controversy, increase ratings, collect fat paycheck from FOX and repeat. It could be described as pure greedy opportunism but for the nasty hatred present in every rant.
As Americans, we are well known for our love of low-brow entertainment à la Jerry Springer. We get a kick out of the tacky, self-inflicted humiliation of our fellow Americans. Beyond lacking taste and incurring disdain from our international friends, there’s not much wrong with it.
But there is a line to be drawn between mere crappy TV and hate-mongering. Beck is that line. He is a bully and self-appointed expert on what it is to be “American”, which, ironically, makes him decidely un-American. It’s time to tell Beck to take his inflated ego and hateful rhetoric, and shove them where the sun don’t shine.
It’s time to tell Glenn Beck to shut up.