I told you this was coming. Two weeks ago I predicted that when Glenn Beck returned from vacation, he would go on the offensive against Van Jones and the others behind the boycott of Beck’s Fox News show.
This was the only available strategy, since the boycott only nominally was aimed at Beck. The real target was and is Fox News, and the ultimate goal is to take down the one non-liberal network. Fox could not let this happen, or O’Reilly and Hannity would be next.
This all stems from Beck’s comment that Barack Obama was a “racist.” I think Beck was wrong to use that term. But one can accept that Beck was wrong without calling for a boycott.
False accusations of racism unfortunately are so commonplace — and almost always made by supporters of Obama — that the comment hardly rose to the level needed to force someone off the air or to demand that the speaker recant under threat of an advertiser boycott. Most of all, liberal flame throwers like Keith Olbermann benefit from allowing controversial and often wrong statements to be made on television, such as when Olbermann called George Bush a fascist.
In the meantime, Beck’s ratings are soaring. When the boycott, to the extent it has accomplished anything, wears off, Beck will have more viewers than ever and Fox News will have emerged stronger.
The real victims of the boycott may be people like Olbermann, since many of the advertisers supposedly boycotting Beck actually have pulled their advertising from all opinion shows. This will hurt MSNBC more than Fox News.
Now Beck gets his revenge. Beck played on the radio this morning a tape of Van Jones calling Congressional Republicans “assholes.” The tape is making the rounds on the internet.
So using the speech standards imposed by the Beck boycotters, there should be a boycott of organizations at which Jones works. But wait, Jones works for Obama.
Not quite Checkmate for Beck, but at least Check.
UPDATE 9-3-09: Turns out Van Jones is a 9/11 Truther.
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Beck Boycotters’ Waterloo
Beck Boycott A Defining Battle In Racial Politics
Ten Top Reasons I’m Happy About The Glenn Beck Boycott
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