Morning Edition has been interviewing "conservatives" this week. Of course conservative is a virtually meaningless term encompassing a vast terrain from the basic rightwing Republican conservative like Chuck Hagel to the far right, trash-talking brownshirts of the airways like Rush Limbaugh and......Glenn Beck! That's right, this morning NPR went bobbing for guests and came up with a doozy: Glenn Beck. Yes, that class act radio/TV personality who called Cindy Sheehan a "pretty big prostitute," warned Muslims about ending up in concentration camps, and claimed that " if you're an ugly woman, you're probably a progressive as well." (Oh and there's more.)
Steve Inskeep interviews Beck and does he brings up some of these unsavory remarks to put Beck's opinions in perspective, and perhaps to challenge them? Not a chance. Inskeep puts quite a shine on Beck:
Of Beck's racist mockery of John McCain, Inskeep states matter-of-factly: "The radio and TV host went on to refer to Senator McCain as Juan McCain which suggests an issue where conservatives disagree - immigration."
Inskeep says nothing when Beck says, "Let them bottom out and this is - boy this is tough medicine. Let Barack Obama get in."
Again silence from Inskeep as Beck characterizes the elections of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton as a "swing to the extreme."
And lastly when Beck says of former Senator Rick Santorum, "the guy is a Winston Churchill in many ways," not only does Inskeep not laugh out loud at such rubbish, he actually praises Beck:
"Does it say something about the lack of leadership in the conservative movement if you as a relatively well informed conservative look around and Santorum, a guy who was defeated in 2006, is the only name that comes to mind, that excites you?"
Stunning, isn't it. That's our listener-support dollars at work. If you thought this was fun, tomorrow its back in the bowl for "drown it in the bathtub" Norquist of the Americans for Tax Reform front. I can barely wait.
