Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Glenn Beck: a threat to the health of my television

Apparently right-wing blowhard Glenn Beck didn't get the memo about respect for the office. From Media Matters:
On the November 14 edition of his CNN Headline News program, Glenn Beck interviewed Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), who became the first Muslim ever elected to Congress on November 7, and asked Ellison if he could "have five minutes here where we're just politically incorrect and I play the cards up on the table." After Ellison agreed, Beck said: "I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " Beck added: "I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way."
Ellison attributed his victory to an anti-war coalition that included people of all faiths.

While Ellison has had some past dealings with the Nation of Islam (which an idiot like Beck should know is a thoroughly American organization, whatever one thinks of it) he also drew a key endorsement from a Jewish newspaper in his state. Ellison appears to have distanced himself from the Nation of Islam; probably a good move considering its long record of anti-Semitism.

Beck is catering to the ignorant, counting on the fact that too many people on the right view all of Islam as the enemy, and are stupid enough to extend that to American black Muslims. Which reveals Beck to be the clownish, racist jerk many of us always suspected.

Democrats should consider placing Ellison on whatever committee is likely to hold hearings on media reform, and make sure Mr. Beck is invited to testify, along with his boss from CNN. We have a feeling there are some questions Democrats would like answered, like why CNN thinks it is appropriate to question the patriotism of a newly elected member of Congress.

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