Putting an End to Glenn Beck's Racist Antics and Apocalyptic Rhetoric

Shock jock and Fox host Glenn Beck, who has built a career out of stoking the paranoid delusions of the right-wing fringe, managed to outdo himself last week when he accused President Obama of hating white people.

"The President has exposed himself as a guy … over and over and over again … who has a deep-seated hatred for white people … or the white culture…. I don't know what it is" Beck said on Fox and Friends.

Beck's wildly offensive charge, spurred by the recent controversy over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was the latest low in a longstanding conservative narrative that ludicrously paints white men as the victims of "reverse racism" and oppression by minorities.  Beck's egregious attack has prompted Color of Change to launch a campaign urging Beck's advertisers -- which include GEICO and Proctor & Gamble -- to stop sponsoring the shock jock's divisive hate-mongering.

It's about time. Beck's attack on Obama shocked even fellow conservatives. One of the hosts of Fox and Friends Brian Kilmeade – who recently made headlines by essentially arguing for eugenics – pointed to a pretty major flaw in Beck's reasoning: for an alleged racist, Obama sure spends a lot of time around white people, who make up the bulk of his administration.

"I’m not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist."

This is hardly the first time that Beck's shameless scramble for ratings has led the talk show host to abuse logic and attack the President with thinly veiled racism. Or even the first time he's done so this month: a few weeks ago, Beck essentially claimed that Obama plans to surreptitiously impose reparations on an unsuspecting American public through his health care plan. The fact that there is no such thing as an "Obama health care plan" -- the President has laid out preferences but has not issued a "plan" -- was perhaps the least disingenuous part of Beck's accusation, which basically implied that Obama would betray the interests of White Americans to push the interests of Black Americans.

Beck has made a hobby out of using extreme and inflammatory theatrics to attack Obama. In a recent disturbing example, Beck poured water out of a gasoline can on a volunteer, screaming that Obama's position  on immigration spelled America's doom.

"Apparently, you can say anything about the President of the United States and still stay on the air" said Kurtz. "My needle has hit the maximum [of outrage]."

Even Joe Scarborough signalled that Beck had gone too far, tweeting "Conservatives attacked the Dixie Chicks for saying much less about President Bush than what Beck said about President Obama."

Unfortunately, Beck's irrational, vitriolic rants have also earned him high-ratings, a book, a series of attention grabbing profiles in the mainstream media, and perhaps most ominous of all, a country-wide comedy tour.

Despite widespread criticisms,  Beck's high ratings ensure that the Fox network (and Clear Channel, which hosts his radio show) will not push Beck to lay off. In fact, last week Fox put out a statement "distancing" itself from the controversy, but not condemning Beck's statement. The network relied on a strategy employed by woosy corporations everywhere, stating that Beck's opinions do not reflect those of the network but stopping short of censuring the host.