Fox News’ Glenn Beck has drawn the ire of the Daily Beastand the Anti-Defamation League for his remarks about billionaire George Soros. Beck, in a week-long attack on Soros, has gone over the top by accusing the billionaire of anti-Semitism and actions against Jews during WWII.
According to the Daily Beast:
To inoculate himself against charges of anti-Semitism, Beck hurled them at Soros, pointing out that he’s an atheist and a critic of Israel. He accused Soros of helping Nazis steal Jewish property as a teenager and of feeling no remorse about it. In fact, when Soros was 14 in Nazi-occupied Hungary, his father bribed an agriculture official to pretend that the boy was his Christian godson. Soros once had to accompany his protector to inventory a confiscated Jewish estate. Asked by 60 Minutes if he felt guilty about it, he said no, because he wasn’t at fault. The slander that he was a Nazi collaborator has proliferated on the right ever since.
Meanwhile, while airing all these charges, Beck made stupid faces and mimicked Soros and his organizations that provide food and shelter to desperately poor people. To date, there have been 3 shows devoted to Soros-bashing. Beck has not hold back. He calls Soros “The Puppetmaster,” and has puppets Beck handles himself. The Anti-Defamation League has weighed in on these shows.
From the Anti-Defamation League website:
New York, NY, November 11, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today criticized as “completely inappropriate and offensive” remarks by Glenn Beck on his radio and television programs, in which he inaccurately connected George Soros, who was then a young boy, to the actions of others in sending Jews to death camps during the Holocaust.
On his November 10 radio show, Beck described how Soros, who was born in Hungary to Orthodox Jewish parents, “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps.”
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement:
Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top. For a political commentator or entertainer to have the audacity to say – inaccurately – that there’s a Jewish boy sending Jews to death camps, as part of a broader assault on Mr. Soros, that’s horrific.
While I, too, may disagree with many of Soros’ views and analysis on the issues, to bring in this kind of innuendo about his past is unacceptable. To hold a young boy responsible for what was going on around him during the Holocaust as part of a larger effort to denigrate the man is repugnant.
The Holocaust was a horrific time, and many people had to make excruciating choices to ensure their survival. George Soros has been forthright about his childhood experiences and his family’s history, and there the matter should rest.
At what point does Fox News tell Beck that he has stepped over the line of not only good taste but also credibility? At what point does Fox News decide it will not allow individuals to be vilified or anti-semitism to be part of any program shown on their network? Perhaps Beck needs to be on an action plan which includes network censorship before he is allowed on the air.
the adl and abraham foxman have very little credibility with me. the same organization and man criticized rush limbaugh not too long ago for something he said, and as an ardent listener of rush, and not someone who merely gleans distilled out of context soundbites of his filtered through media matters, i can tell you that the jewish people and the state of israel has not a more ardent supporter than rush.
the fact of the matter is that there is controversy about soros’ activities during the holocaust. is it forbidden to talk about it? why? has anyone denied beck’s claims? then why not sue him for libel?
every item on beck’s show is carefully vetted and screened to ensure accuracy. maybe you don’t like the conclusions he arrives at. prove him wrong.
furthermore, if the holocaust were to reoccur, i can guarantee you that beck would be the first to stand in the breach to defend the jewish people. he has said as much on his radio program, and that his home would be a place of refuge. bombast? i place faith in his sincerity. i would not recommend anyone seeking refuge at soros’ residence. this is the cold harsh reality, and it is illogical to allow the primal instinct of survival to be blinded by the insane messianic complex of progressive-liberalism. karl marx was no friend of the jewish people, and neither is soros
I think people have just about had enough of the ADL, the SPLC, and ACLU, and a thousand other letter-organizations that add no value to society.
Beck did clearly state yesterday that he did NOT hold the actions of a 14 year old boy against him(Soros). I’m no Beck fan, but I do tune in daily. I do feel Beck held back on some of his “Spooooky duuuude” and “Blah, blah, ba blah”(vampire talk) this week. This week has just been a week of one clown schooling America on another clown. 🙂
I thought it was creepy how he kept “petting” the pressure cooker.
There‘s an article in The Daily Beast about Beck’s insane anti-semitic rant. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-11-10/glenn-becks-anti-semitic-attack-on-george-soros/?om_rid=CgCwBH&om_mid=_BM3FTTB8Vqgx81 What’s more enlightening than the article itself are some of the wacky comments posted by some of the sheepeople (or in Beck’s case is it weepeople). They makes some of the comments you guys or gals post on Moonhowling seem downright literate. The one that sums the whole Glenn Beck aura up best was posted by someone using the alias (rightwingnuts seem to love aliases for some reason) “teabaggingforjesus.” Teabaggingforjesus writes: “Now, some have said he (Beck) is mentally ill …. this is just not true. He has been touched by God and anyone touched by God does not come out quite right.” Thanks, Teabaggingforjesus, for explaining that Beck is merely God’s messenger. I guess what comes out as an idiotic rant is just speaking in tongues. You guys or gals make sure and tune in when Brother Glenn delivers today’s sermon. Amen.
seriously, anyone using such an insane alias as that is obviously a left wing plant posing as a beck supporter. this is obvious.
bottom line: it is easy to make fun of a person’s idiosyncrasies. i am waiting for someone to dispute the accuracy of beck’s report.
Check out the Daily Beast and the ADL. They pretty much did.
Beck takes a shred of truth and gives it a life of its own. It is difficult to go through one of Beck’s board bashes. One ends up totally confused by all his rubbish, whether he is speaking of Woodrow Wilson, Van what’s his name, Soros, or anyone else Beck wants gone.
E, Rush Limbaugh is a complete and total hypocritical horse’s ass, just in case any of the contributors are too polite to say so.
Big of Beck to come along after bashing the crap out of Soros and say, well he can’t be blamed for what he did as a child. that brings up the ultimate question–why bring it up in the first place? One has to ask that question.
And the final question, perhaps the only people who ever go after Soros are people connected to Fox and Murdock. Who wants to control America elections? Fox? Soros?
I watched that segment. Beck may be attacking Soros, but he’s no anti-Semite. He even predicted that this would be the angle ifrom which his show was going to be attacked. He didn’t attack Soro’s faith, of which he actually has none. He attacked his political and financial dealings.
The only thing that is accurate in those pieces is that Beck glossed over the fact that the other “regimes” were dictatorships. However, Beck’s argument is that Soros is using those same tools, now, against a non-dictatorship.
Other than those points, nothing that Beck said was disputed. Soros does destroy economies to get rich. He does feel that there should be a one world society with weak gov’ts and little sovereignty. He does think that the US stands in the way of that.
Beck is fisking the ADL article on the air right now.
Moon – Horses everywhere weep because of your hurtful comment. What did they do to deserve that?
“e” – I wouldn’t count on Beck and his type to be out front leading the charge like you claim. If you noticed yesterday, Beck, Limbaugh, Cheney, Malkin, Hannity, et al were the ones saying “thank you,” not “you’re welcome,” because the chest-thumping blowhards only send others off to fight the wars they don’t have the guts to fight themselves. You can call them a lot of things…but not Veterans.
If Beck wants to expose who pulls our strings and manipulates the public then he should do a story on the Koch brothers. They are richer than Soros (they’re #5 of the Forbes list ($43B between the two of them) while Soros is #14 with $14.2B) and come from a lineage of rightwing radicals (their dad, Fred, co-founded the John Birch Society).
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
And I don’t believe he is an anti semite either. But…he is careless in his speech. No one should HAVE to defend him. I watched it too. He originally said it to cast doubt upon Soros. Coming along afterwards and defending him is just hypocritical and a ploy. You don’t say things like that in the first place. And it was Beck who was throwing around the term, anti-Semite.
Some of the economies Soros has targeted were communist countries.
Every movement needs an enemy. I guess Soros is part of Beck’s hate list.
I worry more about Murdock, myself.
“because the chest-thumping blowhards only send others off to fight the wars they don’t have the guts to fight themselves. ”
Soooo, anyone that has a conservative opinion and supports the troops in their efforts, supports the idea that fighting terrorists overseas is a good idea, yet has not volunteered to serve in the military are cowards? Because Beck and Michelle Malkin, and Hannity did not volunteer to serve in….?the 80’s or 90’s, they’re cowards? And then there’s Cheney….oh, no! He got deferments. Like thousands of others.
This is just a version of the canard that unless you served in the military you don’t have the right to have a strong opinion and that any declaration of defending another is a lie.
I’m a vet and I don’t have a problem with any of them being the ones saying “thank you.”
My comment was in response to “e” saying “i can guarantee you that beck would be the first to stand in the breach …” My point is good luck with that line of defense as the reality doesn’t match the rhetoric. Neither Beck nor any of the blowhards has ever “stood in the breach,” they send others to do that.
Many civilians have never stood in the breach until necessary. I understood what you are saying. Many who have not served would stand in such a breach, even “anti-war” protesters. True anti-war protesters, that is. Code Pink and their ilk would probably lead the cheering…..
Its getting scary again. I was reading this blog when the author called into Beck’s show. Here’s an politically conservative orthodox Jew’s take on the ADL. I swear that Beck is tapped into me somehow………..where’s my tin foil?
http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/
I read him quite regularly.
Neeeiggghhhh, Moe, you just exposed my Native American moniker, Weeping Horse.
Neeeiiigghhhh, not fair.
@Cargo, You should be scared. I am afraid he might take over your mind instead of your computer. aRRGGHHHHHHHHHHH
@Cargo, I read until I tired of it. What that article is saying has nothing to do with what Beck said on Wednesday. He wasn’t the least bit sympathetic on Wednesday. And the ADL can stand up for people other than Jews. Actually, it can take any position it wants. Beck was over the top. I don’t need ADL to even tell me.
Beck is a cult leader.
Cargo, interesting article. It makes a good number of points. If you want to give to a good Jewish group, may I recommend the Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership.
That both groups don’t like each other is also very telling. 🙂
This does not surprise me at all – it is Beck being Beck. Why doesn’t he look at who was at the bottom of the SNL (Savings and Loan) scandal, and who profitted from that bailout. Or the New World Order conspiracy theory.
I am no defender of George Soros, but he is not the only one who has made money rigging financial and political systems of the world – usually those people are held in high esteem on Wall Street for being financial wiz’s.
marin – I would not call “Jews for the Preservation of Firearm Ownership” a good Jewish group – you do not even have to be Jewish to be a member, and they are not promoting any Jewish causes. I do not know anything about the organization but at first glance it seems to be a racket to me.
Beck is obsessed with Soros. I certainly am not singing his praises either. I don’t care about him one way or the other. As I said, the one I am watching is Murdock. Now I can see what he is doing and I don’t like it.
Watching the Republican channel right now and Old Weepy Beck is on. I am really beginning to intensely dislike this guy. I used to feel sorry for him. That is gone. He is dishonest and frankly, just gross.
He is now trying to insinuate that people are prejudiced against the military. He stirs up discontent and he will have a million beckites believing people hate the service academies.
The fact that Glenn Beck attacked Soros about his Jewishness is what is offensive. First of all, 2/3 of hungarian jews were slaughtered. That George Soros survived because he had a gentile “godfather” is not his fault. The implication that George and his family collaborated with Nazis is unfounded. The Jewish Council which sent out the deportation notices had no choice. Like Elie Weisel has said, there were no “choices” during the Holocaust for jews. Do we blame the jews that put the bodies in the ovens?
Glenn Beck, unknowingly has put created another “hated” jew for the neo nazi’s and other anti semites. Now George is not only a jew but a traitor jew. Soros fits the stereotype of the “zionist” take over of the world. That Glenn Beck decried ” I am not saying he is a anti semite” is friggin bullshit. If he doesn’t believe it than WHY try to SELL the narrative that he and his parents were the reason that jews were killed in Hungary. Beck should be ashamed of himself. If you can’t disagree with Soros over his political views than STFU. Soros has done what this country does via the CIA, try to bring down communist regimes. And succeeded by the way. Isn’t that a REAL conservative agenda item. Isn’t making lots of money via capitalism a TRUE conservative ideal.
For those attacking the ADL, just an FYI, not that facts matter much these days, but the ADL has said some pretty unflattering things about Soros and his criticism of Israel. ADL has also openly supported Glenn Beck because of his stance to defend Israel.
Soros’s father spend several years in a Russian prison which led to the subsequent name change from Schwartz to Soros.
It is amazing how misinformation and mistruths can become fact in this modern age of technology. A quick google search found this website. The 60 minute interview has been “edited” to fit this version by Beck. Can anyone say 200 million dollars a day for Obama’s visit to India was completely false and YET it somehow became reality enough for Michelle Bachman et al to spread the lie like it was truth!
From the Daily Beast:
How about this fact. How about suggesting the man who “adopted” soros as his godson to keep him alive RISKED his own life!
There are many Jews who are anti zionists, do we call them antisemites? There are also many jews who actually do not believe in own religion, do we call them antisemites? They may be culturally Jewish but not religiously Jewish.
Thanks, Elena, for reminding us of those important distinctions.
I think Beck tackled something that is a lot bigger than he is. His ego got him a tiger by the tail and he will have a lot to live down. I was offended by his words.
He just tied too many unconnected lose ends together and it backfired. Soros is Soros. Why did Beck even bring up his Jewish roots. One day he is painting the picture of an evil young Jewish youth and the next day says he isn’t criticizing him and making excuses. Well….why bring it up in the first place. It is actually irrelevant.
many on the left who call themselves antizionists indeed hate jews, but don’t have the cojones to come out and admit it, so they hide under the figleaf of antizionism. the religious right in america is the greatest friend of the state of israel, whereas if soros could make a buck of the demise of the jewish state he would gladly do it in a heartbeat, just like he broke the british pound and the malaysian currency
E,have you really looked at why the ‘right’ is a good friend of Israel? In the first place, look at the epicenter of this ‘approval.’ It all has to do with prophesy and Armageddon. Israel has to be in place before all that can happen according to the ‘rapture’ type end times philosphies. Don’t think for a minute that these Christians think that the Jews are going to be sitting at the right hand of God along with them.
I would say it is a false friendship. I also don’t think that people who don’t like some of the things Israel does are anti-semitic automatically. I don’t like some things my country does either. It doesn’t mean I am anti-American.
the adl doesn’t represent all of american jewry any more than cair stands (i hope) for the totality of all american muslims. i’m sure the naacp didn’t give a rat’s rear end over how clarence thomas was verbally lynched during his confirmation hearing, and the “reverends” al sharpton and jesse jackson didn’t have anything to say about how juan williams was booted unceremoniously from npr. ditto no word fron the now gang over the shameful treatment of angle and odonnell by their democrat detractors
e, why shouldn’t Angle and O’Donnell be criticized? They were horrible candidates. It doesn’t mean they weren’t nice human beings. It just means they shouldn’t have been elected and they stood out as people who weren’t qualified to be in office. I would throw Sarah Palin and Paladino in the mix. I don’t think Paladino was even a nice person.
i have heard this claim about the right ever since i became interested in politics many moons ago (pun intended). given the choice between someone with less than fully altruistic motives handing me a gun for self defense, and someone pointing a gun at my head regardless of his motivations, i will choose the former
i just know the now gang was all over limbaugh for his castigating remarks about hillary and chelsea clinton, but when republican females are called whore witch etc, they have nothing to say. it seems only liberal women are to be defended. thats why the credibility of these liberal groups is questionable, only liberal members of their group are defended, but once they step off the reservation they are on their own
e, so you don’t mind that the religious right will leave all the Jews in Israel standing there on the plain of Armageddon while the sky opens up and swoops them all up to sit with God?
Check this out:
http://www.rense.com/general72/ssome.htm
and from 1984:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,954482,00.html
or 2008
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1728510,00.html
Actually, Beck, Limbaugh, and a few others have become very skilled at some of the tactics of covert action. The rule of thumb is that, if no one is talking about you, you had better start to worry about the effectiveness of your role in the contest. Ergo, you make some statements which you know will raise the hackles of certain others, and those “others” will start sending up the flak. The flak then turns rather nasty, causing those in your camp to close up ranks and turning off others who just inherently don’t like the nastiness of the flak, thereby adding a note of sympathy and possibly some recuits to your cause who might have been lukewarm or even benign otherwise. Works well very often. Even guys like Al Sharpton have discovered this. So has Palin. The idea is to keep them talking about you and boost your visibility in the game. Then wait until the vilification starts to blossom. How do you know when it is working? Well, there is that old credo of the bomber pilot: “When you start seeing the flak, you know you are over the target.” What is the very obvious but seldom recognized antidote? Respond calmly with factual counterattacks and avoid the nasty flak. Otherwise, you risk fulfilling the role they are seeking for you: that of an unwitting publicity agent, ratings booster, and recruiter. For instance, some of the best recruiters conservatives have are in the HuffPost and the Daily Kos. You cannot buy that kind of turn-off support.
If Huffpost does it for conservatives they have a low threshold. Daily Kos is another matter.
I defended Christine Odonell when people laughed at her in the crowd. However, she is clearly out of her league when it comes to understanding government in my opinion. She is great at talking points, but an indepth debate, totally unprepared. BTW, SHE was the one that called herself a witch not anyone else. Actually, since I don’t believe in defending people simply based on color, religion, or gender, I defend who deserves being defended and don’t defend others. Sarah Palin has not been attacked because of her gender, she has been challenged because of her obvious lack of problem solving ability. Say what you will about Hillary Clinton, but she is one smart lady. There are plenty of Republican women that I believe are smart, but I would never give credit where it is not due.
Now, back to the topic at hand. What Glenn Beck did to George Soros was disgusting. As disgusting as Rush Limbaugh making fun of Michael J Fox when he made a commercial without taking his medication. Yeah, Rush Limbaugh is a pathetic human being, one I would NOT want on my side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5INPn9lCNp4&feature=related
George Soros is disgusting.
Why Wolverine, what has he done that would deserve such a reaction?
I shared a very specific incident with Rush Limbaugh, can you share with me one with Soros? I honestly am asking.
Elena, I cannot believe that you would defend one of those guys who operates from the financial shadows and uses his immense fortune to buy his way in our politics and pursue his views toward one-world government. Well, would the Soros effort to grab off millions through speculation by trying to break the Bank of England be something which merits your approval? Not exactly like attempting to bring down a communist government, eh wot? I would think that you might have old Georgie right up there on your no-no list along with the Koch brothers. In my opinion, the guy would make a good villain in a James Bond movie.
the very specific incident about limbaugh is erroneous. he was merely commenting on the fact that fox normally did not exhibit symptoms of his disease, but suddenly in his ad for the democrats he was twitching out of control. if memory serves, fox deliberately took himself off his medications so the symptoms of his illness would become apparent, and presumably, bring more support for his cause. if memory serves further, i don’t think it was let known at first that fox was off his meds, so it came as somewhat of a shock to suddenly see him in such a condition. limbaugh had a live “dittocam” in his studio, and all he was doing was demonstrating with body language what he was describing. of course the soros funded media matters and all the other members of the left wing cabal spun it out of context to demonstrate the supposed insensitivity of limbaugh. this is a common tactic of the left.
try listening to the program for 3 hours a day, noon to three. 630 on the dial in d.c.
There is something more than a bit puzzling about all this criticism of the Beck video. It does seem to me that the criticism centers on Beck’s discussion of the actions of George Soros as a young Jew during the holocaust in Europe. The argument that Soros at that age and in those dire circumstances cannot now be considered “guilty” of something is a perfectly valid point. However, do not the Beck comments themselves (parse them as you may) indicate that he might be unhappy about the possibility of Soros participating somehow in the persecution of the Jews? I have no standing whatsoever to even make a comment on what Soros did back than and will not do so. But it hardly seems to me that Beck’s statements about Soros can be translated into a larger anti-semitism. Sounded to me like Beck was saying, in essence: “Persecution of the Jews. That’s a big no-no by me.”
I cannot see where people are going with this particular argument. I double that perplexity after seeing Elena’s timely comment about how the ADL itself has criticized Soros for his attitudes toward Jews and Israel. I especially found distasteful that taped statement by Soros that, in effect, there are enough Jews to take care of Israel so don’t bother my head about it. Whoa, fella. Here I am a Christian gentile on a fixed income who is a foe of anti-semitism and all out supporter of the state of Israel not for religious reasons but simply out of fairness and a sense of obligation to a friend and ally. But you, an actual Jew with wealth and the personal power such wealth brings, couldn’t care less? The ADL may be right. Something does not compute here.