Glenn Beck: Joe McCarthy Lives!
By Bill Press
Tribune Media Services
You probably never heard of Van Jones, and you may never hear of him again. Until last week, he was President Obama’s adviser on “Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation” in the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
But he is no longer. Now he’s out of a job. And therein lies a tale that should make all of us angry or nervous.
One man railroaded Jones out of his job: Fox News anchor and radio talk show host Glenn Beck. You remember him. He’s the nut who called President Obama a “racist” on “Fox and Friends” last July 28.
There was a time, not so long ago, when calling the president of the United States a “racist” on national television would get an anchor fired. But that was before Fox News. At Fox, archenemy of President Obama, Beck was not only not fired he was treated like a folk hero — even though some 60 major corporate sponsors stopped advertising on his program in protest.
Rather than apologize to President Obama, the decent thing to do, Beck went berserk, accusing Obama of staging a quiet coup d’etat to turn this country into a Cuba-like communist dictatorship. “There is a revolution,” he warned his gullible audience, “and they think they can get away with it quietly. … Most of America doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on. There is a coup going on.” (Cue the Black Hawk helicopters!)
And, to help him carry out that coup, fumed Beck, Obama has surrounded himself with a gang of communist agitators known as “czars.” Beck’s first target: “Green Jobs” czar Van Jones.
Jones hardly fits the profile of a dangerous radical, unless saving the environment is your definition of subversive activity. A graduate of the University of Tennessee and Yale Law School, Jones became a community organizer and created the nation’s first “Green Job Corps” in Oakland, Calif., in 2005. That same year, he also helped form the web-based grassroots organization Color of Change, which organized the current sponsor boycott of Beck’s TV show. Jones left the organization in 2007. In January 2008, he launched “Green for All,” a national organization to help lift people out of poverty through green jobs — work for which he was recognized by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the country. In March 2009, he joined the Obama administration.
Yes, along the way, Jones made a few mistakes. He once signed a petition urging an investigation into the crazy theory that George Bush and Dick Cheney actually staged the attacks of Sept. 11. In 1992, after being falsely arrested in the Rodney King riots, he described himself as a “communist” — though he never joined the Communist Party, but instead channeled his energies into founding a highly respected anti-police brutality organization in the Bay Area. More recently, he referred to Congressional Republicans attempting to derail Obama’s legislative agenda as “a-holes.”
Foolish mistakes, perhaps, but hardly worth destroying a career over. Yet, in 14 episodes of his show, Beck seized on these statements to paint Jones as a dangerous “communist-anarchist radical” heading a vast radical/environmental/black nationalist takeover of America from within the Obama White House.
It was a page ripped right out of the book of Commie witch hunter Joseph McCarthy: personal attacks on little-known government officials based on nothing but lies, smears and innuendo (“Are you now, or have you ever been…?”) — yet ultimately, just as successful. Within two weeks, Jones was forced to resign. And, rather than defend him, the Obama White House accepted his resignation.
Welcome to the Beckification of American politics — where one cable host alone, with no help from Congress, can bring down a top government official, based on a campaign of lies and distortion. God save the Republic!
One thing for sure, which Obama should have considered before accepting Jones’ resignation: Having once tasted blood, Glenn Beck won’t be satisfied with destroying Van Jones alone. In fact, he’s already identified his next targets: so-called White House “czars” on energy and climate change, Carol Browner; on science, John Holdren, on regulatory reform, Cass Sunstein, and on communications, Mark Lloyd.
Beck’s diabolical campaign is all the more bizarre given his own avowed history with alcohol and drug addiction.
Which raises a serious question: Why believe a recovering alcoholic and drug addict over a former community organizer? I’ll trust Van Jones any day over Glenn Beck.
This entry was posted on Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 6:05 am and is filed under BILL BLOG. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
[...] This Week’s Column: Glenn Beck: Joe McCarthy Lives! [...]
Dear Bill!!
WITH YOu all the way – Glenn is SCARY!!!! Hoping his “following” won’t increase….really sad creep and glad you are pointing up the reasons…I just feel emotional against him….which doesn’t help much. Doubt if there’s any reasoning with him….
BEST WISHES to YOU and your staff!!
I was wondering when someone would finally bring up the name Joe McCarthy and the shame he brought to the government and the nation. Thanks for the reminder and the appropriate comparison between McCarthy and the likes of Beck and Limbaugh.
Hey, Bill. The Obama administration is loaded, from the top down, with left-falling, neo-Socialist extremists, with the president heading the list. Van Jones should have never been appointed. I am pleased that the there was enough information brought to light to encourage Jones to resign. Bill, regarding his resignation due to as you wrote, “bring down a top government official, based on a campaign of lies and distortion.”: what exactly were the alleged lies? Beck only had to use Jones own words and actions, in context, to create enough of a stir. The left seems pretty dense, assuming the rest of us will just submit to the bullsh** this adminstration is handing us. Don’t bet on it, Billy.
The history you give us, drugs and booze sounds alot like Limbaugh. They also look alittle alike – round face, chops. They’re both angry and bore me. But there seems to be a segment of our population who want to believe their junk. And I have still not been able to get a reasonable answer about the fear of socialism – it’s working in Europe and many other countries. Sometimes I think it is just a word used to scare people. As for Glenn Beck he is trying to save his job.
All that’s needed for credibility is honest refutation of Beck’s points, almost eveone of which is a VIDEO CLIP OF JONES IN HIS OWN VOICE.
But Bill and all left media has no counter. They MUST attack Beck. They must attack Joe the Plumber. A one note political movement. So sad.
Love the show Bill. You’re the only lefty I can stand for more than 5 minutes.
To Harold:
Beck is a private citizen, not a public/government employee, as McCarthy was. The big shame is realizing there were enough ignorant, uninformed, racially motivated and overly emotional people voting last November to elect a completely unqualified man to the office of president.
To Robin: You recognize the problem with emotion. That’s a good thing.
To all: What I see is the left consistently not being open about who they are and what they really want to accomplish. Once out in the open, they find out the people really don’t want what they (the left) has to offer, and it pisses them off. Then come personal attacks on private citizens and demonization. Right, Bill? Page what, of your play book? Regarding Becks addictions, it’s pretty big of you to make that your standard for rejecting his ideas. The same standard held true for you with Teddy Kennedy the drunk and lady killer, right?
regarding glen beck, lf he is so bad as you say why are is tv and radio so high? seems to have much higher rateings then your lib friend ed schultz. when are you and your lib friends going to get the message the majority of american people DO NOT WANT GOVT HEALTH INS.
I live in Utah where they don’t even have a Democratic primary and the local church runs the state and local governments. Here, Beck is a hero. He is a Mormon after all. I watch his show once in awhile and he appears to me to be on the edge of some sort of mental illness. I fear for him. That said, Beck and Fox news are responsible for the lies about the proposed health care reform and continue to do so. Most of Utah is so wrapped up in their church that they are unable to think for themselves. They believe what they are told to believe.
Bill,
First, stop using the name of a great Patriot as a malediction. Even Liberal Academia is in agreement that McCarthy was right all along. As usual the typical liberal response to truth ( yes, objective truth really does exist ) and facts ( remember those ) which threaten the advancement of your ideology is to call them lies. Just as McCarthy WAS 100% CORRECT regarding the Communist infestation at the highest levels of government, ( Educate yourself and try reading Herb Romersteins “The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors or Arthur Hermans “Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America’s Most Hated Senator,” ), so too is Glenn Beck correct when he reveals the true LIFETIME BACKGROUNDS not “foolish mistakes” of President Obama and all the current crop of Communist associates he has personally selected to aid him in his effort to replace our Constitutional Democratic Republic with the same foolish Utopian Communist vision that has failed for 150 years everywhere it has been foisted on the ignorant masses. It won’t happen here Bill so wipe that stupid grin off your face. There are still a few too many of us who retain a solid knowledge of history and current events. Perhaps you should have waited another generation or two until we were all gone.
Bill,
This is the second time I’m posting this reply. Guess you didn’t like it the first time.
First, stop using the name of a great Patriot as a malediction. Even Liberal Academia is in agreement that McCarthy was right all along. As usual the typical liberal response to truth ( yes, objective truth really does exist ) and facts ( remember those ) which threaten the advancement of your ideology is to call them lies. Just as McCarthy WAS 100% CORRECT regarding the Communist infestation at the highest levels of government, ( Educate yourself and try reading Herb Romersteins “The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors or Arthur Hermans “Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America’s Most Hated Senator,” ), so too is Glenn Beck correct when he reveals the true LIFETIME BACKGROUNDS not “foolish mistakes” of President Obama and all the current crop of Communist associates he has personally selected to aid him in his effort to replace our Constitutional Democratic Republic with the same foolish Utopian Communist vision that has failed for 150 years everywhere it has been foisted on the ignorant masses. It won’t happen here Bill so wipe that stupid grin off your face. There are still a few too many of us who retain a solid knowledge of history and current events. Perhaps you should have waited another generation or two until we were all gone.
Joe Mcarthy was right about communist infiltration into government, education, journalism and Hollywood. They created a lot of destructive programs to the stability and strength of America. Iwitnessed Communist party member harrassment of my Mom in Portland OR during early 1960′s and again in Los Angeles CA a few years later. Union thugs beat my Grandfather up during the 1930′s to force him to join the Dairymens Union. This forced him to lose a good job running a dairy and lowered his standard of living permanetly. Glenn Beck is a hero and speaking truth that Barac Obama has forgotten could make his administration truly transparent.
How are videos and recordings of Van Jones “lies”? And why are YOU perfoming the same ad-hominem attacks that you accuse your opponents of?
Heh.
Free speech for ME, but noth for THEE. That’s the left’s motto.
You are so off base I don’t where to begin. Are Deaf, blind or just stupid! Van Jones is self proclaimed communist and you are supporting him. We or I live in America not Russia or some other communist country. If you want to live as communist please leave America!
if you really want this guy off the air his sponsors will have to pull ads from ALL of FixNews programming. Having to switch a few spots around will not deter them when his stink draws so many flies.
Is it true that Glenn Beck Raped and Murdered a Young Girl in 1990?