Joe Klein Defends Sedition Charges Against Glenn Beck, Slams “Nauseating” Media

I missed this yesterday, but Time‘s Joe Klein provided some further explanation (more like a follow-up punch….suffice to say, he’s not sorry) of the serious charge he made over the weekend that Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin were nudging up close to committing sedition. Says Klein:

Let me be clear: dissent isn’t sedition. Questioning an Administration’s policies isn’t sedition. But questioning an Administration’s legitimacy in a manner intended to undermine or overthrow it certainly is. A rally like this yesterday in South Carolina is a good example of seditious speech. It’s not illegal–unless actions are taken to overthrow the government in question–but it is disgraceful and the precise opposite of patriotism in a democracy.

Klein doesn’t limit his harsh criticism to the “infotainment gasbags” either, not by a long shot.

On a related note, my phone’s been ringing with requests from cable news shows–left and right–to discuss Tea Party extremism. The same phone was silent last week when my cover story about the difficulties facing our troops in Afghanistan was published. I won’t be appearing on any cable shows to discuss the Tea Party extremists this week. I said what I said, and stand by it. But I do find the “news” judgment of the cable networks nauseating…and I can understand why, despite the yellow ribbons and “We Support Our Troops” blather, our young people in uniform feel abandoned by a bored, ignorant and self-involved public back home.

Related: Sedition [TIME]
Glenn Beck: I Am Not Seditious, I Pray For Obama [Mediaite]
Joe Klein: The Howling Beast on the Borderline Separating Speech From Sedition, Since at Least 2009 [Reason]

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