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An Apology to Glenn Beck

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Earlier today I posted something on Huffington Post that was taken down by the staff there. I can accept and respect their reasons for doing that.

The post was called "$100,000 For Glenn Beck's Sex Tape." It was supposed to simply make the point that the right does not hesitate to play rough with the left, and the right is far better financed. It was glib, but finally off-kilter and misdirected.

I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters, and by misapprehending the way they do things, I went too far. (I offered to broker a deal for anyone who had damaging media pertaining to Glenn Beck.)

First, I owe Glenn Beck an apology. I crossed the line. On the off chance something comes in over the transom...scratch that; I'll delete the email account. Problem solved.

I meant to tilt at a windmill in the post, and I planted my lance in the dirt.

A friend commented:

The people on the left who parrot and jerk their knees are just as much an obstacle to an outcome that benefits the maximum number of people as the "sheepies" are.

Well said, Struan. For me, it is back to the drawing board.

 

Follow Beau Friedlander on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BeauFriedlander

 
 
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07:40 PM on 10/03/2010
Thanks for taking a step in the right direction, Mr. Friedlander.

As you well may have realized by now, "the truth shall set you free." :-)
02:17 PM on 09/10/2010
There is an easy way to determine if the email account has been deleted. If you mail it and there is not a failure message from gmail, then it still exists. I wasn't aware you could delete gmail accounts.
11:04 PM on 09/05/2010
Was this an apology to Beck? Read like a justification for your bad writing and behavior. Have a very nice life and FLIP THIS HOUSE!!!!! CAN YOU HEAR US NOW????
08:45 AM on 09/02/2010
Of course the original post was based on a completely incorrect premise that the "right" plays this kind of game and is "better financed" to begin with. The reason the left has so much trouble understanding the tea party or the Beck rally is many don't know a true spontaneous movement, and don't recognize something not financed by Soros, Labor Unions or the identity grievance industry. Such movements did exist, but that was decades ago. There are exceptions -- those true liberals who do know the difference between a real movement and astro turf..and I suspect more and more of them (you) are showing up at tea party functions and finding out what it's actuall all about...
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Brian Ross
Managing Editor of Truth-2-Power.com
08:37 AM on 09/01/2010
At least you offer an apology. When Beck dives off the deep end, all we hear is rationalizations.
04:11 PM on 09/01/2010
You obviously don't even listen to him.
04:07 PM on 08/31/2010
I wonder if you will offer this apology to Beck in person, though I doubt you could even look him in the eye after what you did.

I think you have stared into the abyss too long Mr. Friedlander...
02:39 PM on 08/31/2010
Ahh, trying to beat the right wingers at their own game. I'm certain then that you can provide an example of a similar offer made by some wingnut? I'm assuming that no one is going to buy that lame excuse. There are enough problems in this world without you making an ass of yourself and giving people a reason (excuse) to dismiss out of hand progressive views.
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deepfreezevideo
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01:22 PM on 08/31/2010
I'm not sorry and if I had a hundred grand to spare I'd gladly offer it.
When will people realize that sometimes "taking the high road" only exposes you to
more sucker punches from the higher level elites in the wingnut universe.
There IS NO "high road" in this any longer, the Koch Empire and Fox have poured billions into this and they will stop AT NOTHING to claw their way back into power, and when they do, we will be reduced to serfs working the plantations with no rights, no social justice, no chance at bettering ourselves, no hope for peace in the world.
We will be indentured servants to Big Oil, the MIC and to the banking elites and so will our children.
It is time we started realizing that this is a dirty fight.
If Beau Friedlander doesn't want to take the bull by the horns then let some other brave soul do so, and by any means necessary and through any channels necessary.
01:42 PM on 08/31/2010
Just so I'm clear on this deep; you don't believe that there is such a thing as 'going too far'?
So if someone offers $100k for dirt on you, its all fair, because the means justify the ends for you?

On one hand, I have to give you credit for admitting that you aren't taking a high road. But the left kinda lost that when they started trying to stifle free speech and call Tea Party members names. Now all you're left with is suggesting that at one point, you had a high road. I beg to differ.
03:39 PM on 08/31/2010
You could start by reprimanding or at least correcting your Republican leaders who intentionally use Democrat instead of Democratic in any and all references to the Democratic Party. They do it to diminish and mock the other party to their faces. It's childish and way beneath the supposed dignity of Congress.
If you don't like name calling, call your Republican leadership on it first.
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deepfreezevideo
Now with even MORE microbial micro-bio!
08:26 PM on 08/31/2010
Touched a nerve.
I'm glad.
03:52 PM on 08/31/2010
"by any means necessary and through any channels necessary"

I guess that means Beck was wise to wear body armor to his rally last weekend. This kind of talk sickens me...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
deepfreezevideo
Now with even MORE microbial micro-bio!
08:22 PM on 08/31/2010
Body armor? Did I mention violence?
No, I didn't, you imagined it.
But I suppose IOKIYAR, right?
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deepfreezevideo
Now with even MORE microbial micro-bio!
08:28 PM on 08/31/2010
By the way, the track record for "needing body armor" at this stage points in the other direction. I don't know anyone in the Democratic Party who has attended presidential speaking engagements strapped with semi-automatic firearms and signs that speak of watering trees with someone's blood.

So far we have two posters who have taken my suggestion that dirt get dug up on Beck and they've managed to parlay that into implying that I advocated violence.
Wow, I think we have some paranoid readers out there.
12:41 PM on 08/31/2010
Why can't anyone seem to make a straightforward apology anymore? Whatever happened to, "I was wrong and I'm sorry."
02:17 PM on 08/31/2010
He wasn't wrong.
02:22 PM on 09/03/2010
He says he was: "I crossed the line." He says, "...I owe Glenn Beck an apology." He just doesn't offer one. Do you want to apologize now? ;-)
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supertim
12:31 PM on 08/31/2010
didnt he rape and murder a girl in the 1990's?

..just kidding, he won the lawsuit and promptly shut that site down, cest dommage!
01:24 PM on 08/31/2010
Actually he lost and the site is still up and running.
01:49 PM on 08/31/2010
http://urbanlegends.about.com/b/2009/09/03/internet-hoax-says-glenn-beck-raped-murdered-young-girl-in-1990.htm

Never let facts stop a really good rumor in its tracks.
02:41 PM on 08/31/2010
If you have to make stuff up in order to attack someone doesn't that say something about the strength of your position?
12:26 PM on 08/31/2010
So what we've learned is that a lot of Huffpo articles are not edited, or have no editorial control until after the fact.
Yep. That's about right.
11:33 AM on 08/31/2010
Seriously, the notion that the left doesn't smear its political opponents is a fantasy that is as absurd as it is hilarious.
11:30 AM on 08/31/2010
"I was actually trying to mimic what I saw as the way right wingers go about these matters..."

I challenge you to produce the name of one "right winger" who has done something like this. This is a Larry Flynt.
And Andrew Breitbart's case is not even remotely similar to this as he was trying to force people to prove their smear.
11:00 AM on 08/31/2010
"It was supposed to simply make the point that the right does not hesitate to play rough with the left"

So the implication here is that the left doesn't play rough? Um, sure. Just a bunch of pacifists here at HuffPo, right? "Mormons revere women much like Hindis do the cow..." Now, who could possibly be offended by that?
09:57 AM on 08/31/2010
I read through twice, no where do i read "I apologize?" Owing isn't doing.