Glenn Beck Compares Fox News To The Persecution Of Jews

by Colby Hall | 7:32 am, October 14th, 2009

» 26 comments

arguingwitidiots Glenn Beck has been called a lot of things of late — “provocateur,” “hero,” “rodeo clown,” and “dad” are just a few. But few would argue that he’s nothing if not a master at hyperbole.

During yesterday’s radio program, Beck satisfied Godwin’s Law and then some by comparing the recent White House criticism of Fox News to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Too much?

In a rambling, extemporaneous analogy, Beck seemingly equated the White House with fascist dictators, though regular viewers of his Fox News program will know that’s not really news. But never before has he portrayed the Fox News Channel as persecuted subjects like Holocaust Jews. That is, until yesterday.

Beck went so far as to reference the “First They Came” poem by German Pastor Martin Niemöller, which includes the line “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.”

Beck’s specific quote on his radio show yesterday (October 13th):

These news organizations don’t have any idea who they are in bed with right now. Let me speak to the good journalists that are out there, because I believe there are a few journalists who are at NBC, or are at ABC or CBS. Or CNN.

I know decent journalists over at CNN. Ask yourself this question: When they are done with Fox and you decide to speak out on something… the old, “first they came for the Jews and I wasn’t Jewish.” When you have a question and you believe that something should be asked… they’re a… totally fine with you right now. They have no problem with you.

When they’re done with Fox and talk radio, do you really think they are going to leave you alone if you want to ask a tough question? Do you really think that a man that has never had to stand against tough questions, and has as much power as he does…

Do you really believe that after he takes out the number one news network… do you really think that this man is not then going to turn on you? That you, in your little organization, are going to cause him any hesitation at all not to take you out? If you believe that, you should open up a history book. Because you’ve missed the point of many brutal dictators. You miss the point of how they always start.

Niemöller wrote his poem about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of the Nazis’ chosen targets, group after group. In Beck’s analogy, the ranks of journalists who are ignoring White House criticisms of Fox News and talk radio occupy a similar position, appearing to be not only complicit in their persecution, but next on the White House’s list of victims. Whether or not you believe in that road map, the glib analogy borders on offensive; but then, that’s Beck’s game.

Full text of “First They Came”:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Does Fox News really belong on that list?

Hear the audio clip here:

Compare Fox to Holocaust Jews, Comparing Fox News Criticism to Holocaust Jews., Fox News Channel, Glenn Beck

sarainitaly

OK, Colby – this is dishonest on your part. When I read your headline, and began reading the story, I was thinking – yes, Beck has gone too far. But after reading what Beck actually said, I find your headline and article disingenuous.

Beck was 100% correct is saying what he did. He wasn’t comparing FOX to persecuted Jews, he was making the point that the WH was going after FOX to silence them, and if no one in the media defends against this type of abuse of power, what is to stop the WH from doing this against the next news organization that speaks out against Obama.

People use the theme of that poem all the time to make the point Beck was making – that if you don’t speak out when something is wrong, there will eventually be no one left to defend you when you are wronged.
Colby Hall

Hi Sara – as I clearly state in the post, Beck is using this as analogy:

a·nal·o·gy (-nl-j)
n. pl. a·nal·o·gies
1.
a. Similarity in some respects between things that are otherwise dissimilar.
b. A comparison based on such similarity. See Synonyms at likeness.

I also clearly state that he is using hyperbole:

hy·per·bo·le (h-pûrb-l)
n.
A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect

Thanks.
TBDave

Got to agree with sarainitaly. You’re really grasping at straws here Colby. I know the Mediaite columnists have to fill some daily quota on “outrageous” Beck stories. But this one is pretty ridiculous.
Colby Hall

TBDave – what part of reporting the hyperbolic analogy Glenn Beck made to be “pretty ridiculous”?
sarainitaly

Headline: Glenn Beck Compares Fox News To Jews Persecuted During The Holocaust

Sorry, I still think you are misrepresenting the actuality, which I find dishonest.
StewartIII

J$P: HuffPo Compares Blago to Jews During the Holocaust!
http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/itr277189650.html
Colby Hall

so – you don’t believe that Beck compared Fox News to Jews persecuted in the Holocaust?

“When they are done with Fox and you decide to speak out on something… the old, “first they came for the Jews and I wasn’t Jewish.” When you have a question and you believe that something should be asked… they’re a… totally fine with you right now. They have no problem with you.”

Is that not an analogy or comparison? I believe it is – in fact, I’m not sure how you can say that its not actually. But it’s hyperbole – which I clearly state at the very top of the article. Where is the dishonesty?
Robert Quigley

I agree that quoting “First They Came” by itself isn’t necessarily a Nazi reference (cf. Johnny Dollar’s thing on HuffPo using the poem to refer to Blago, in one of the comments above).

But I think the nut there is Beck’s ending, “Because you’ve missed the point of many brutal dictators…” Sure, he uses that rhetoric a lot, but when you put it next to the poem, it’s hard not to connect the dots and assume that Beck is doing the same.
JunkJunk

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the headline. If there is a beef to be had, it needs to be with Glenn Beck and his willingness to use unnecessarily inflammatory rhetoric.
TfT

WOW! It’s Beck, Beck, and more Beck on this board! I bet he is lovin it!

Where is your article and headline about Keith Olbermann? Or are you not outraged at what he said? Or is it just that you recognize that Olbermann doesn’t really have a voice?

Your silence on Olbermann’s comment about Michelle Malkin “without facistic hatred Malkin is just mashed bag of meat with lipstick” is pretty amazing. Do I presume that mediaite’s silence on his commentary means you concur?
Colby Hall

no — we just haven’t gotten to it yet. need I remind you that, according to Olbermann, Mediaite is a worse person of the day? (an honor we take some pride in!)
TfT

Thanks Colby — I do believe that anyone/everyone who makes the WPITW list takes it as an honor. Glad to know you will be posting on it.
Colby Hall

nm
m

Does Beck even have an original bone in his body? That quote has been used and mangled a thousand times over.
sarainitaly

No, I don’t believe he is comparing Fox News to Jews persecuted in the Holocaust. He used a poem reference about what happens when people don’t speak out against wrongs. I think your headline is the perfect example of what is wrong with the media today…. things taken out of context, blown up, and exaggerated, with the intent to inflame.

People use that poem ALL the time for making points.
sarainitaly

Wow, look, M and I agree on something.
Puter Boi

Colby:

I have no dog in this fight….I just don’t care what Beck and Olbermann etc. have to say….but your condescending answer to your reader at the top says more about you than it does about the reader.

That being said.

This whole exercise seems to be mindless….you all write endlessly here about Beck. His ratings go up…you hope your readership goes up….you are feeding off of each other….but you write as though you are catching some great villain at work…when in fact you just repeat everything he says. You give your verdict, but so what? It’s an echo chamber.
Grammie

While you’re in this, shall we say “fair and balanced”, mode may I suggest a much more analagous example from that paragon of jounalistic fairness and integrity, Keith Olbermann, to write about.

There is this from ICN:

“September 10, 2007
Uh oh…

Al Qaeda really hurt us, but not as much as Rupert Murdoch has hurt us, particularly in the case of Fox News. Fox News is worse than Al Qaeda — worse for our society. It’s as dangerous as the Ku Klux Klan ever was.

- Keith Olbermann in the October 2007 issue of Playboy…”

http://insidecable.blogsome.com/2007/09/10/uh-oh-3/

Here is some nice commentary from Johnny Dollar and Hot Air about this:

http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/iblog/C1049953760/E20070910121642/index.html

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/09/10/worst-person-in-the-world-fox-news-is-worse-than-al-qaeda/

As best as I can remember it this did not get any real play except in the right leaning blogs and it should have grown legs, IMHO, that ran KO right off MSNBC.

Glenn Beck compared this early action of the most powerful man in the free world and his admin re FNC to the early actions of the most powerful murderous dictator of the 1930s re Jews. He did not draw a correlation between Jews and FNC with BHO and the monster Hitler. He pointed out that this is exactly how people may lose their freedoms, whetyer that freedom be their lives or whether it be free speech, by the tactic of incrementalism.

I’ll admit when I first heard Dunn’s interview I immediately thought of First They Came myself.

For an analogy to be valid it does not have to match in every degree and this one the point, that ALL MEDIA should fight this lest they be next is right on.
Grammie

I see that Johnny Dollar has done a special blog about this subject that is quite interesting.

http://homepage.mac.com/mkoldys/blog/jdp.html
http://www.facebook.com/people/Anthony-De-Rosa/503357744 Anthony De Rosa

Is anyone surprised? This is Beck’s shtick. It lost it’s shock value awhile ago. When you’re constantly acting like a circus clown, nobody is going to take what you say seriously.
Grammie

Grammie says:
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

October 14, 2009 at 12:37 pm

Can you tell me why this is still not approved?

I can’t see any reason that it would be objectionable.

Thanks,

Grammie
sarainitaly

grammie, I noticed whenever i have more than one link in a comment it gets moderated. it is most surely automatic.
ImNotBlue

Way to go Colby… do you read other sources than the left-wing blue blogs like Huff Po? Or is that where you copy/paste all your articles from?

Nice to see everyone around here did the “fact check” of ANOTHER Colby Hall smear before I got around to it. WTG folks!
ImNotBlue

Yes, Sara… WordPress doesn’t like multiple unformatted links.

If you need to know how to format them, you can click here, and it will give you the HTML directions.

That should help keep your posts from getting jammed up.
sarainitaly

Thanks Blue!
Sunnyr

I didn’t find anything offensive about Glenn Beck’s analogy. It was the TRUTH! This White House is acting like a bunch of bed-wetting crybabies because Fox doesn’t fall at their feet and worship them the way NBC, CBS, ABC CNN and PMSNBC does. Fox will win this “WAR” hands down with Glenn Beck leading the charge. Go Glenn!