Glenn Beck's Witch Hunt: Who's Next?

He called Van Jones a "radical communist" and "revolutionary." Using the same incendiary language of Joe McCarthy 55 years ago, Glenn Beck brought down one of our nation's most visionary, passionate, and principled young leaders.

Watch the video:

Emboldened by his success, Mr. Beck, along with Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh and their extremist cohorts are moving on to their next progressive targets. Beck "tweeted" last week to his followers, "Find everything you can on Cass Sunstein, Mark Lloyd and Carol Browner." He blogged, "...[J]udging by the other radicals in this administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future."

Lloyd, the Federal Communication Commission's Chief Diversity Officer, is squarely in Beck's sights. And the claims being made against him are laughable: Localism, diversity and competition have been the cornerstones of U.S. media policy and the mandate of the FCC for decades. They have nothing to do with content, and no one is in danger of being censored. (And, for the record, Lloyd is against reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.) But, of course, Beck and his gang aren't interested in the truth.

Enough is enough. President Obama and our leaders in Washington need to stand up to the fear-mongering, stand behind Mark Lloyd, and not let the noise machine distract them from the work that needs to be done on these crucial media issues to make sure we have more speech in the marketplace of ideas - not less.

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Comments

[Happylall]

LAST NIGHT ON RAI,CHANNEL 3 IN ITALY,THEY ACTUALLY DISCUSSED GLENN BECK ON THE AIR.

THEY REFERRED TO HIM AS A FARABUTTO,WHICH TRANSLATES SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN SLIMEBAG OR DIRTY-JOURNALIST.

AS AN AMERICAN LIVING AND WORKING IN ITALY I VERY MUCH AGREE WITH RAI 3, IN EUROPE IT IS A WELL KNOW FACT THAT FOX AND THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ARE OWNED BY RUPERT MURDOCH,THE FORMER AUSTRALIAN AND NOW AMERICAN CITIZEN WHO HAS BECOME RICH BY PROMOTING TRASH JOURNALISN BOTH ON TV,CABLE,SATELLITE AND EVEN THE FORMERLY RESPECTABLE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

[jaggededge]

calling joe mccarthy..­....callin­g joe mccarthy..­...your party wants you back....th­ey ran out of things to scare americans.­....we need the red threat again.....­we havent used it in years....c­heck under your bed....the­r's a commie under every bed

[JulieSA]

How on earth can you defend Loyd after what he said? He said he thinks Chavez shutting down the Venezuelan media was admirable.

He shouldn't be allowed near any government position.

[AirForceBlue]

Beck nailed Jones by Jones' very own words and showed Jones' connection with various fringe groups. And Beck ain't finished yet. So the left, as forecast by Beck, went after him full bore ala Saul Alinsky, in effect, DESTROY YOUR ENEMIES!

There's similar circumstances involving Fox Snooze of the right's frequent and ever growing in numbers protests against President Obama's socialism, political favors to unions, and Treasury busting spending habits. Fox does not underwrite the demonstrations but is falsely charged with doing so as, too, Fox's reporting of events around President Obama.

Reading back over Saul Alinsky's life it seems he was a creepy sort of guy who's early years somewhat explains his taste for destroying both his political foes and his (Alinsky's) anarchist goals. Sure explains a lot about today's democrat leadership.

[winningticket]

Obama is the President of the US, NOT Glenn Beck!

[lippylaroux]

You are right; so if Glen Beck is not the POTUS then POTUS must have fired these Communists or they resigned on their own because they were under presure from their criminal or political histories.

[JulieSA]

Speaking truth to power is our right, unless someone like Mark Loyd takes it away, which his statements show he's VERY willing to do.

[Ekata]

the axiom says "Truth" to power, ergo speaking actual truth becomes necessary.

and no one takes away a right; they merely prevent one from expressing it. Rights are inalienable (though Foucault would attest differently and therein lies another debate).

[brklynivn]

I wonder where someone like Phillip Garrido turned for his news. Fox perhaps? Maybe he was a loyal Glenn Beck viewer? Be interesting for someone to ask him, and get a bit more perspective on the average Fox viewer....

[Ifticar]

Most of the country will never see it coming for whoever is next. The building controversies do not get covered in places like The Washington Post, The New York Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, MSNBC and of course The Huffington Post. People who do not follow Fox News nor scan the Internet for news will continue to wake up to surprises. Think of how surprised people will be tomorrow when they hear ACORN has been fired from the Census.

[mat3]

He called Van Jones a "radical communist" and "revolutio­nary."

Van Jones called himself that, Beck just played the tape.

[Brandy Laney]

You can't seriously be talking about the clip I just heard. Because I just heard Glenn Beck stating his opinion about 10 (he repeated this again and again) of the victims family members. He stated that he was basically outraged by their greedy behavior when people were trying to help them. Now I completely understand why they would be that way, but that's not the point at hand. He also stated that he was outraged by the fact that the coverage of Katina was 90% about New Orleans which was really about 2% of the total area that was damaged by the huricane. If anything I believe that he was trying to make an argument that there were other people in surrounding areas that also needed help.
I never heard it until now, but I'm still not convinced that he was making fun of the victims. He did say that he hated those 10 people out of thousands of family members because of their greedy reactions.
I disagree with his opinion on why he felt that way. But this is not enough evidence to make me feel that he is a threat and should be "shut up". If that's your argument then you should also tell Al Sharpton to shut up, or is his behavior and angry outrages acceptable.

[bigdaddy247365]

There are plenty of communist contries out there, Right??? Why don't those who think that it's such a wonderful idea go there. What made AMERICA exceptional is individual freedom, If you hate that so much why not just move? If you want the goverment to provide for you move to China, Cuba, Venezula, {Kalifornia} Russia, I know that we have all been prgramed to hate being better than everyone else but you can't re write history...­. Communisim kills more people than it helps because it renders you helpless unless the goverment steps in. HELP YOURSELVES Leave big brother out of it.
The more Goverment gets involved the worse things get, I don't see why thats so hard for people to get.......­. They want control PERIOD. They could care less about you they want your money nothing else.
Calling glen beck out for calling self avowed communist's out is pointless. it makes you look silly and mis informed because he's not lying or bien dis honest. Communisim has no place in AMERICA.

[Steve Kaplan]

bigdaddy247365, the 50s and 60s just called--they want their anti-communist hysteria back.

[brklynivn]

Yeah, and if you have such problems with a government YOU elect, why don't you go someplace where there is no government, like Somalia.

[zanzig]

Cool, disavow ALL your government benefits and we'll both be happy.

[measie]

Glenn Beck will become a victim of his own paranoia. He will hear the voices, continue to think he is being watched, his phone tapped, and his life threatened. He will continue to spiral toward insanity. All because he was not prepared to handle the stress his fame has brought to his door. He and his family are now under a microscope. The spotlight will be unrelenting. It is what he wanted: to be more famous than Rush; and more popular than O'Rellly. He must really hate himself to spew that kind of hatred day after day. His show is like a dysfunctional family drama: he beats people up with vile, rage filled rants, trying to destroy them by publicly humiliating them. He justifies these beatings with the "they asked for it" rationale. His listeners are willing participants to the beatings and gladly join in. I wonder if Beck is really just a guy who hates himself and wants to make others feel as terrible about themselves as he does about himself? It doesnt' really matter. The public beatings and the floggings go on. And on. And on.

[JulieSA]

He's exposing corruption. Are you against that?

[Ekata]

You think he is exposing corruption, but many of us do not think that is what he is doing. I do think he believes in what he is doing. But many of us think he is lost in a game of his own making, one not based on actuality and objectivity. His behavior in the public arena has effects on our society that we believe are negative. It is this which we decry.

[JerryLevy]

How is a simple quotation of the Van Jones "incendiary" language? Maybe it is but Jones said it. You have to understand, the only thing Beck did was quote Jones, read from his writings, and show exact speeches Jones made. No one lied, besmirched, or defamed Jones-----they only reported the truth and if you find it "incendiary" then maybe Jones made a lot of "incendiary" comments. The question you should be asking isn't about Beck but about why Obama would have this kind of "incendiary" individual on his White House team?

[nicole473]

He made no comments that have not been made by d.amn near every repub politician out there.

Get real. The Republican Party, or what's left of it, is on a witch hunt. Why? Because they are angry that we put a black man in the White House, and they want to bring him down.

Their behavior is despicable, and I pity their children because history will not be kind.

[JerryLevy]

Yawn------its all about RACISM, that's it. What a broken record.

[UNLVGOP]

First, you say Beck called Van Jones a "radical communist"­...well Van Jones openly admitted he was a communist.­..so what exactly is the problem here?

Then a video of Jones surfaces showing a video of him saying White people are putting poison into minority neighborho­ods....wha­t?

Then there is a video that he wants an entirely new system to get rid of the one we have....wh­at?

"one of our nation's most visionary, passionate, and principled young leaders." Principled? The guy spend time in jail. Most visionary.­..yeah ok.

[billhodges]

He was not convicted of anything, as you will be told by others. But it does not diminish the fact that Jones was a Marxist who taught the classes within his STORM organization for 10 years.

He and others within this administration have no business working with the government.

[Ekata]

of course that's only if you believe Marxism somehow is intrinsically evil rather than a divergent political philosophy with which you vehemently disagree.

[DeloresT]

What's amazing to me is that Fox didn't show President Obama's health care speech....­but showed the GOP response!! How ignorant is that?

[UNLVGOP]

Fox News or the basic Fox channel? Because I watched it on Fox News....

[andyg]

The Fox channel won the night, by not showing Obama.

[winstonian22]

Dont you think if Beck was so wrong that NONE of this people would have resigned or been demoted? im just saying..th­e fact that they ALL stepped down or got demoted tells me there is truth to what he is saying.

[billhodges]

All this howling about how Glenn Beck is lying and going after people. If he is beyond the truth and making this up why not just go after him with the truth?

I do not understand why, if like you say, he is lying about people that the truth does not come back to bite him. I have not seen the evidence refuting him.

As for Mark Lloyd,I have no use for any person that thinks Hugo Chavez was smart in saving his so called democratic revolution by managing the private media. If he thinks Hugo Chavez is anything short of a Socialist dictator then he is not to be in our government. There are just to many people in this administration that appear to be opposed to the US constitutional form of government we have. They support radical ideas that are Socialist and Marxist in type and that is not acceptable.

Look at the most recent ACORN scandal now 2 videos showing them assisting a couple that claim to be a pimp and prostitute who admit they use underage illegal immigrant girls in their trade. This is the same organization that Obama worked with and has many criminal complaints against them..

To me something stinks in Washington and with ACORN/SEIU and we need to have more people like Glenn Beck seeking to expose it. If he lies then prove it! But stop the stupid name calling.

[WowJones]

The extent of Obama's relationship with ACORN is as a lawyer for a large law firm that represented ACORN and in combination to start Illinois's Motor Voter Registration. That is all. ACORN and SEIU are large organizations, the actions of a few bad apples does not reflect the whole anymore than a few bad apples in the Army committing heinous acts against detainees reflects the entire U.S Army.