Beck Controversy Over “Death Camps” Commentary…
The Upshot’s Michael Calderone writes about the latest Glenn Beck commentary and how FNC executives got sucked into it…
Greer said that while he doesn’t share the “same worldview with Glenn Beck and Fox News,” he was impressed with the executives’ response. He said that Ailes and Cheatwood agreed “that the use did cross a line.”
“They took things very seriously, and I have a lot of respect for that,” Greer said.
Greer received the letter from Beck last Wednesday. Although Greer said he wouldn’t categorize the letter as an apology, he said that Beck explained he’d been informed of the organization’s concerns and took them very seriously.
“It was a very quick response and felt like a peace offering,” he said.
A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update: TVNewser’s Kevin Allocca has pushback from FNC’s Joel Cheatwood…
Cheatwood said he felt it was an “honest, open, dignified meeting,” and that Greer’s account as it appeared in the Yahoo! article “didn’t bear any resemblance to the truth.” “The story basically — as I read it — indicated that Roger Ailes and myself had agreed with Greer,” he told us.
“We absolutely stood behind Glenn Beck 1000%,” he said.
Inside Cable News 
August 3, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Good old Glenn. He’s hard to stop once he gets on a roll.
As Stephen King says in this week’s Entertainment Weekly;
“He’s crazy, but …. he actually seems to believe what he’s saying. I can get behind that.”
August 3, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I thought the common good was Chris Matthews scthick?
August 3, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Beck sounds more & more like Marjoe Gortner every day.
August 3, 2010 at 4:47 pm
Marjoe Gortner? There’s a reference, kids..
August 3, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Marjoe frakkin’ Gortner!– wow, preacher boy early on– he reminded me of a crazed yoga dude and i can’t remember what movie he did that got him cult– can someone dial up fritz and ask him to Google?–
August 3, 2010 at 5:07 pm
^ “Hellhole” is the one I remember. My buddies and I went to see it. It was the funniest not-supposed-to-be-funny movie I ever saw.
August 3, 2010 at 5:21 pm
‘Marjoe’. And I thought I was deranged.
August 3, 2010 at 6:05 pm
Speaking of ‘deranged’, I somehow missed the ‘death camp’-commentary. No doubt he was refuting the concept..
August 3, 2010 at 6:08 pm
heh, heh thanks guys, now I remember–
August 3, 2010 at 6:18 pm
What Beck said was that Greer preached a theology of “God first, which means humanity first”. Beck extrapolated that to “humankind first, the common good, the ‘lesser thans’ shall be liquidated, death camps”. Which is a pretty big stretch from a Jewish theologian preaching a variation on “love thy neighbor”..
August 3, 2010 at 6:23 pm
— “love thy neighbor”.. —
You know how you people are.
August 3, 2010 at 6:29 pm
You know how you people are.
“The State no longer needs you.” – Twilight Zone
August 3, 2010 at 7:05 pm
i was always with Beck until he started evangelizing– once he started mixing religion and how this country should be run, then that’s when i walked away– he used to just leave it on the radio show but now he’s starting to bleed it into his TV show– conservs. and repubs. don’t need this garbage– most of us don’t give a goldang about anybody’s religion as long as it doesn’t call for the destuction of Western culture–
August 3, 2010 at 9:12 pm
toon – Yeah, mixing in the religion was a big turnoff for me as well. I don’t mind him saying that people should pray for this and that, but to state that the US Constitution was divinely inspired is a bridge too far.
I also couldn’t stand the period when he had the teacher’s desk in the set and was giving hour long lectures on Woodrow Wilson. I felt like I was being home schooled.
I’ve noticed he is back to covering politics with the mid-terms coming up even though he’ll say he doesn’t care about politics – he does have ratings to keep in mind.
August 4, 2010 at 5:39 am
I will admit I still have not heard the Beck clip that started all this, but Beck comes out looking great when Fox officials issue such a sweeping denial (“bears no resemblance to the truth”) of the original story.
In other words…Liar Liar pants on fire!
August 4, 2010 at 8:28 am
Jwe, the transcript of the radio thing is in the article, and – if do say so myself – I summarized it succinctly.