MoveOn.org Petition Calls On Democrats To Stay Off Fox

Posted by on October 20, 2009 at 5:41 pm. 5 Comments :

What took so damn long? MoveOn.org has just announced a petition drive to persuade Democrats to Stay Off Fox.

This could be a turning point in the campaign to isolate Fox News and to re-brand them as a partisan purveyor of propaganda. As my regular readers may know, I have been calling for all Democrats and progressives to stay the HELL off of Fox News for more than two years. I launched my Starve the Beast campaign in August of 2007, by saying:

“The problem with Fox News is not that it’s a right-wing platform for war, intolerance, and greed; it isn’t that it’s spreading propaganda in support of an out-of-control White House that is hoarding unprecedented levels of power; it isn’t that they engage in relentless and unfounded attacks on Democrats, progressives, and the rest of the 72% of Americans that Fox portrays as unpatriotic because they disapprove of Mr. Bush and his war; it isn’t even that it sits at the center of a politically charged media empire run by Rupert Murdoch, a monopolistic ideologue with no allegiance to country or the common good.”

The problem with Fox News is that people grant them far more credit and influence than they deserve. They are a niche player in the cable news universe. Their highest rated program (The O’Reilly Factor) has fewer viewers than the lowest rated broadcast news program (CBS/Couric). They reach an audience of about 3 million, which is less than 1% of the population. In Starve the Beast, and its two follow ups, I painstakingly made the case that Democrats can and should avoid Fox News. There is almost nothing to be gained by patronizing them.

Now MoveOn.org has come aboard:

President Obama is fighting back against FOX. The White House communications director said FOX is a “wing of the Republican Party…let’s not pretend they’re a news network.”

To draw attention to its biased coverage, President Obama will not appear on FOX for the rest of this year. Can you sign this petition asking Democrats to support President Obama’s stance by staying off FOX as long as he does?

A compiled petition with your individual comment will be presented to Democratic senators and representatives.

MoveOn’s petition drive was inspired by the recent courageous comments by White House communications director, Anita Dunn, who said that Fox is “the communications arm of the Republican Party.” That simple and obvious observation has sparked a dialogue that, in the end, will reinforce the public perception that Fox is merely masquerading as a news enterprise. For her trouble, Dunn has been smeared by Fox presenters, particularly Glenn Beck, who has falsely asserted that she worships Mao Zedong. That is especially ironic considering that Beck himself was caught on video confessing his idolization of Adolf Hitler (Call me, Glenn. Tell that I’m wrong).

My original Starve the Beast column ended with a plea to my political compatriots that still reflects the urgency of embargoing Fox News and treating them as the partisan prevaricators that they are:

“Please stop hurting our cause by appearing on Fox News. Rupert Murdoch and his media megaphone is openly hostile to our agenda and our representatives. They will only use your appearance to distort your message and derail our mission. Studies have proven that their audience is unreceptive, and even antagonistic, to us. Your appearance will be rewarded more with ridicule than respect.”

Many thanks to MoveOn for coming aboard and giving this movement a much needed boost.

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More Consensus On The Fox Opinion Channel

Posted by on October 20, 2009 at 4:46 pm. NO Comments :

It’s only been a little more than a week since Anita Dunn made her initial remarks about Fox News being “the communications arm of the Republican Party.” At the time I regarded it is a purely positive development that exhibited courage and honesty. It seemed to me that inciting a discussion of Fox’s journalistic legitimacy could only do harm to Fox. Their unprofessionalism and ingrained biases would do them in and the formerly reluctant media would find their spine:

“For some reason, the targets of Fox’s attacks never seem to fight back. Well now they have an opening to do so in the form of addressing the allegations from the White House. If they miss this opportunity they are either incompetent or have a death wish.”

Much of the reaction by media pros to Dunn’s comments were a kneejerk condemnation of the White House for expressing what is a fairly non-controversial observation. Rather than conceding the obvious, they appeared to be taking a position that protected their own interests in some future administration when they may be on the outs. But so long as your reporting is honest, you have nothing to worry about. That’s where Fox goes off the rails – they lie.

Well, now some of the Conventional Media stalwarts have re-thought their original assessments:

Eugene Robinson (Washington Post): [I]t bothered me that virtually everyone I knew felt the same way. And then I came across a piece by media writer Michael Wolff in which he posits an interesting theory: That this might be a shrewd gambit to draw bright lines around the Fox ‘no to everything’ line. If the ideological struggle can be defined as Fox viewers vs. everybody else, the White House wins.

Michael Wolff (Newser): So I am revising my theory of what the Obama administration is doing in its frontal assault on Fox: I think they want us to take sides. Are you a Fox person or not a Fox person? And I think they want to identify Fox as the standard bearer of American conservatism. If you’re a conservative, you’re for Fox (ie, is that who you want to be?).

Peter Roff (US News): Now the White House is drawing conservative attention off onto other things […] And now, thanks to the White House’s provocation, there are those who are spending time trying to motivate the public to act in defense of Fox.

Each of these views recognize that by having a discussion about the proposition that Fox is not a news organization inures to the detriment of Fox. A network whose anchors air doctored video clips, read RNC talking points complete with the original typos, and take every opportunity to disparage their ideological opposites, is going to lose that argument every time.


Glenn Beck Idolizes Adolf Hitler

Posted by on October 19, 2009 at 2:28 am. 35 Comments :

Tonight, more truth. More truth that I, quite frankly, am shocked by. I’m going to show you a quote here in just a few minutes, something that will melt your brain. If you’re a regular reader of this web site, you are going to say, “You got to be kidding me!”

There is information that you’re just not going to see anyplace else. I have to first give you a little bit of history, because the context is so important. So, if you just bear with me for a few minutes, I have to tell you a story.

I don’t want to believe that these things are true. I would love to be wrong. I love my country. I think you do, too. I don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat. It’s not about party. It’s about our country. What I am telling you now is that there are Marxist revolutionaries who have dedicated themselves to principles that will destroy our nation as we know it! Now, that is a heavy charge, granted. That’s why I put the phone there.

That phone is directly to Glenn Beck. He is the one that Rupert Murdoch has put in charge to lead the campaign against Barack Obama and this web site.

Call me, Glenn. Call me! I’m begging you – call me, correct me. Tell me what I post here is not true. It would help me sleep at night. It would.

…..I haven’t received any phone calls…..

There was a controversy because people said, “You’re going to put Adolf Hitler up there?” Yes, Adolf Hitler. That’s a pretty hefty charge that people in America, in our media, listen to Adolf Hitler. Well, this person is in love with Adolf Hitler. These are Glenn Beck’s own words:

“Oh, you know who my favorite political philosopher is? Adolf Hitler.”

This week, I pointed out that Beck was a fan of the socialists and of the Marxists. Ask yourself, America, please ask yourself: If I am wrong, how is it possible he has not called? You’d think being labeled a fan of a guy who killed millions of people would make you pick up the darn phone. Don’t you think?

So, the reason why this phone hasn’t rung all week is because the most important political philosopher, for Beck is Adolf Hitler. The guy responsible for more deaths than almost any other 20th century leader is his favorite philosopher. How can that man be your favorite anything? He killed millions of people! It is insanity! This is his hero’s work! Millions dead. His favorite political philosopher. That was a quote.

America, how many radicals is it going to take? How many radicals surrounding our media will it take before you understand that when Rupert Murdoch says he wants to “shape the agenda” of the news – oh, he wants to shape it, all right.

[Editor: With a very few modifications, the preceding are Glenn Beck’s actual words regarding White House Communications Director Anita Dunn]


Speaking Truth To Fox ‘So-Called’ News

Posted by on October 18, 2009 at 10:58 am. 11 Comments :

This is getting to be fun. Last Sunday, White House communications director Anita Dunn said what most rational observers of the news already knew: that Fox News is “the communications arm of the Republican Party.”

Today, another volley has been fired in defense of sanity. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was on CNN and this to say about Fox News:

“It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective, and that’s a different take […] And more importantly, it’s important not to have the CNN’s and the others of the world being led and following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization.”

Well said, Rahm. Especially the part about other news organizations and the need for them to avoid mimicking the dishonest methods of Fox. But that’s not all. White House advisor David Axelrod was on ABC’s This Week and said:

“It’s not really a news organization […] We’re going to appear on their shows, we’re going to participate, but understanding they have a point of view.”

That is only partly good news. At least Axelrod recognizes that Fox is platform for a hostile, right-wing point of view, but why would he consent to participate with an enterprise that he concedes is “not really a news organization?” That’s like agreeing to participate with the National Enquirer. What’s the point?

Still, it is encouraging that the White House is aware of what they are up against. And it is even more encouraging that they are willing to openly and accurately characterize Fox as a fraud as regards the business of news.

Now all we need to do is get the rest of the political establishment to get on board. The first thing any Democrat or progressive should say when interviewed by Fox is “Well, if I were on a legitimate news channel I would say…” Properly identifying Fox News should be required in every appearance. Perhaps they could subtly interject reality by saying “Thank you for inviting me to be on Fox ‘so-called’ News,” or “the Fox Opinion Network.”

This new display of courage and honesty should also be taken up by the rest of the media. This is the perfect excuse for introducing a vibrant dialogue about the journalistic malpractice at Fox News and about the responsibilities of ethical journalism in general. Simply hosting segments with balanced discussions of these issues is a positive step. If nothing else, it reinforces the impression that Fox is a fake. The only response that Fox has been able to muster so far is that they believe their audience can tell the difference between news and opinion. That’s, in effect, an admission by Fox that their trade is opinion. It’s a lame defense and it isn’t even true. Studies have shown that Fox News viewers are far more likely to believe things that are demonstrably false than viewers of other news networks.

Fox News has been relentless in their disparagement of their competitors. they have placed advertising on the air and in trade publications that explicitly demeaned other news organizations. They routinely charge them with being biased and unprofessional. They even helped to promote protests against other news networks. For some reason, the targets of Fox’s attacks never seem to fight back. Well now they have an opening to do so in the form of addressing the allegations from the White House. If they miss this opportunity they are either incompetent or have a death wish. Fox has been eating their lunch in the ratings (on the cable side), and they have both a professional and a fiduciary duty to defend themselves.

Undoubtedly, Glenn Beck will do a show Monday accusing Axelrod and Emmanuel of being Marxists (if he hasn’t already). But the more he makes this ludicrous assertion the less power it has. He has already swept up Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Mother Theresa in his paranoid net. So bring it on.


If Glenn Beck Had Common Sense

Posted by on October 17, 2009 at 11:50 pm. 15 Comments :

Glenn Beck likes to imagine himself a student of American history. He (mis)appropriates the symbols of our nation’s past to spin morality plays with lessons that he can use to infect his disciples with his mental dystrophy. He speaks a lot about the Constitution, despite his utter lack of comprehension of it. His TV program is on a recruitment drive for “Re-Founders,” presumably a reference to returning our country to a time when wealthy, white, elitists, like himself, were the only ones who could vote, and could also own slaves.

More recently, Beck has adopted the title of one of our most revered political tracts, “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine. That title on a tome with Beck’s name below it was always perversely ironic. But now, ThinkProgress has published a fascinating excerpt from another Paine tract, “Agrarian Justice.” The title alone brings to mind the movements for civil, economic and social justice – all concepts that Beck maligns as Marxism. But the specific citations noted by ThinkProgress further reveal what a fraud Beck is as an historian or a political analyst.

“It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural, cultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race. In that state every man would have been born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietor with rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions, vegetable and animal.”

~~~

“[C]reate a national fund, out of which there shall be paid to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, as a compensation in part, for the loss of his or her natural inheritance, by the introduction of the system of landed property. And also, the sum of ten pounds per annum, during life, to every person now living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others as they shall arrive at that age.”

Essentially, Paine is declaring that all people have an inherent right to the land and it’s product and profit. Those who are granted stewardship of it owe compensation to everyone else. In other words, redistribution of wealth. OMG! Beck is glorifying an avowed socialist who wasn’t even a natural born American. Beck is promoting the philosophy of an illegal alien who aspires to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Beck must therefore be complicit with this plot to destroy the country.

If Glenn Beck had Common Sense we wouldn’t have to be Arguing with this idiot.


Fired By Fox News: Marc Lamont Hill Gets What He Deserves

Posted by on October 16, 2009 at 11:56 am. 18 Comments :

Marc Lamont Hill is described on his web site as “one of the leading hip-hop generation intellectuals.” He is an author and a professor at Columbia University. For the past few years he has also been a paid contributor at Fox News.

Hill’s appearances on Fox have been almost exclusively with Bill O’Reilly. He is actually one of the few foils who has demonstrated an ability to hold his own, to not get railroaded by O’Reilly, and to hold fast to true liberal arguments. In other words, he is no Juan Williams (aka Right-Wing Tool/Fool).

The news out of this morning’s annual meeting of News Corp shareholders is that Hill has been fired. This announcement came right from Murdoch himself. Murdoch was responding to a question about why he would employ a radical leftist defender of cop killers.

It appears that Hill was getting the Van Jones treatment and that Murdoch was as thin-skinned as President Obama. The question was presumably from Cliff Kincaid of the uber-rightist Accuracy in Media. Kincaid had issued a press release prior to the meeting announcing that he would be posing this challenge to Murdoch. Kincaid is so far to the right that he has railed against what he views as the “leftward drift” of both Matt Drudge and Fox News.

Well, now those drifting pinkos at Fox have set Prof. Hill adrift. They certainly couldn’t tolerate the presence of an intelligent, articulate, black man, spoiling the fun of the 24 hour Tea Party people at Fox. It will be interesting to see if O’Reilly has anything to say about the blackballing of one of his most frequent guests.

But Hill ought to have known better. He was crossing a river with a scorpion on his back. Did he think he would not get stung? Had he not taken the time to look around at the pathetic husks of Juan Williams, Kirsten Powers, Alan Colmes, or the rest of the limp losers who Fox allows to represent their version of the left? It was just a matter of time.

This is further evidence that it is a complete waste of breath to appear on Fox News. It only lends them credibility that they haven’t earned on their own. It permits the false claim of fairness and balance to persist. It boosts their ratings. The fireworks sparked by the conflict and manufactured debate is what Fox thrives on. I couldn’t be happier that Hill was fired. I hope that he’s learned something from the experience, and I hope that others take it as a warning.

No good can come from fraternizing with scorpions.

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A White House At War With The Media

Posted by on October 15, 2009 at 3:17 pm. 10 Comments :

A few days ago, White House communications director, Anita Dunn, made a rather obvious assertion that Fox News was “a wing of the Republican Party.” That fact shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been paying attention. But the fallout from that eruption of honesty was a flurry of accusations that the Obama White House is engaged in an unprecedented war against Fox News. Glenn Beck even thinks that the war is against him personally.

However, this isn’t the first time that a White House has gone to war against the media. The most famous was the Nixon White House who compiled an enemies list that included some journalists. His vice president, Spiro Agnew, famously castigated the press as “Nattering nabobs of negativism.” But there’s a more recent example.

The Bush White House had a presidential counselor named Ed Gillespie. He was also a former chairman of the Republican Party. In May of last year, responding to a question asking why Bush would ever appear on NBC, Gillespie answered “I don’t know why he would.” Not surprisingly, the question was asked by a Fox News anchor, E.D. Hill. Another Fox anchor, Laura Ingraham wondered on air “why would the [Bush] White House agree to do an interview with [NBC reporter] Richard Engel?” This all adds up to a deliberate assault from the White House (and Fox News) on a major news broadcaster.

Fox News is aghast that anyone should challenge their legitimacy as a news operation. They regard the criticism as an effort to suppress their free speech rights. Of course, freedom of speech doesn’t guarantee one a television show (if it does, where’s mine?). It also does not guarantee freedom from rebuttal. It certainly doesn’t guarantee that your opponents will patronize you. Yet Fox believes that Obama and his administration have a some sort of obligation to grace their studios and sit still for some partisan abuse.

I have been advocating for years that all Democrats and progressives stay the HELL off of Fox News (see Starve the Beast). Fox pretends to regard that as inappropriate, but the quotes above demonstrate that they hold the same view in reverse. In fact, in September of 2007, Republicans openly engaged in a boycott of MSNBC. At the time I called MSNBC The Luckiest Network On Television.

So the White House that was at war with the media was the Bush White House. Nobody on the right complained about that at the time. The bottom line is that Dunn was correct about Fox News. They are not a legitimate news enterprise, and should not be treated like one. We can ignore their complaints about the White House waging war against them, because they are so blatantly hypocritical and self-serving. It is long past time to show Fox News for what it is – partisan rightist advocacy – and to behave accordingly.

So I say again: Just stay the HELL off of Fox News. And, note to the media: Call them out for their lies and disinformation. No more complacent toleration of propaganda.


The Fox Frame: Obama’s Stock Market Voodoo

Posted by on October 14, 2009 at 6:36 pm. 8 Comments :

After months of turmoil, the stock market has clawed its way back to levels that haven’t been seen for a year. Passing the 10,000 mark would ordinarily be perceived as good news by most market analysts and millions of investors, many of whom are relying on market performance for their future security and retirement.

But Fox News, the network that celebrates America losing the Olympics, and laments the President being honored with a Nobel Peace Prize, sees things differently.

Last March, Fox News was the first to report that a declining Dow was unambiguously the fault of Obama, who had been in office for a little more than a month.

Fox declared the declines “Obama’s Bear Market.” They illustrated their coverage with colorful charts highlighting the foreboding financial trends that were about to sink all future hopes of America.

Unfortunately for Fox, later the same month the market began what would become an unprecedented turnaround. It would rise 21% in 16 days – a feat that has not been recorded in modern stock market history

Undaunted, Fox came up with a unique explanation for why Wall Street would suddenly seem to be reacting positively to a Muslim, communist, alien president. It was the Tea Parties:

“Call it a tea party rally. Wall Street’s sure partying, up six weeks in a row. The bulls came out about the same time these guys started to shout.”

In April the market continued its winning ways. This led Fox News to seek a new excuse for good fortune that was clearly driving them nuts. I mean, nothing positive could possibly be attributed to this president, so there must be another explanation. They hit on the notion of a bear market rally, which they then turned into a persistent talking point.

And capping off the Fox News campaign to deny Obama any credit for the still advancing market, having now risen about 40% in seven months, Fox has raised the stakes and brought in their “A” game. They are now, in all seriousness, proposing that what we are seeing here are the effects of the Bush recovery.

The same folks who were insisting that Obama was responsible for every negative occurrence – from suicide bombings in Islamabad to pimples on teenagers – from the day after his illegitimate inauguration, now assert that Bush, from whom financial duties were stripped when the economy went south in August of 2008, that Bush somehow deserves recognition for his role in the market comeback.

To summarize, if something bad happens it doesn’t matter how early in his term it is, Obama is the owner and the cause of it. If something good happens it wouldn’t matter if it were the middle of his second term, he is merely a lucky bystander. It was probably something Reagan did thirty years ago.

Are even Fox News viewers stupid enough to fall for this? Please tell me they aren’t.


White House: Fox News Is A Wing Of The Republican Party

Posted by on October 12, 2009 at 5:50 pm. 13 Comments :

Perhaps I should just forward this to the Department of Redundancy Department. White House communications director, Anita Dunn, appeared on CNN’s Reliable Sources with Howard Kurtz and made some rather obvious, though too often unsaid, remarks about Fox News’ role as a right-wing megaphone.

It is about time that the administration articulate what anyone paying attention already knows. The highlight of Dunn’s comments is simple and straight forward:

“The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party. And it is not ideological… what I think is fair to say about Fox, and the way we view it, is that it is more of a wing of the Republican Party.”

These remarks were in response to an inquiry by Kurtz about previous comments by Dunn that Fox was “masquerading” as news. Kurtz went further to inquire as to whether Obama would appear on Fox again. Unfortunately, she said that he would. That, of course, would be a mistake for all the reasons she just articulated. Fox News is not a news network, and they no more deserve Obama’s presence than does the National Enquirer. Why would they agree to appear on a network that masquerades as news?

In response to Dunn’s comments, Michael Clemente, Senior Vice President of News for FOX News, said:

“An increasing number of viewers are relying on FOX News for both news and opinion. And the average news consumer can certainly distinguish between the A section of the newspaper and the editorial page, which is what our programming represents.”

The problem with that statement is that Fox’s news is as much opinion as their opinion is. Even their top “news” people, like Bill Sammon, Major Garrett, Neil Cavuto, Carl Cameron, etc., are steeped in personal biases to which ethical journalists would never sink. Another problem with Clemente’s statement is that it contradicts Bill Shine, senior VP for programming, who admitted that Fox News is the “voice of opposition.”

Glenn Beck was moved to spend the first 20 minutes of his program on this matter, and another six minutes later in the show. That’s half of his airtime, during which he characterized Dunn’s appraisal as an assault on free speech. Never mind the fact that Obama, and any public figure, has the right to book their own appearances. That does not in any way impose on the free speech rights of Fox News. They can, and do, continue to spew their partisan views. More evidence of this is that Bill O’Reilly also spent about nearly half of his show grumbling about Dunn’s remarks. Beck and O’Reilly are just whining about being left out, the same way Chris Wallace did when he called the Democrats a bunch of “crybabies.”

At one point, Beck makes the ludicrous claim that it is Fox News who is “standing up for the republic and the Constitution.” He later complains that he was corrected by Dunn on a misstatement he made about Major Garret not being called on in news conferences. It was, of course, true that Beck made that statement and that it was false, but he just laughs it off. Then he goes on to make some more mistakes (otherwise known as lies).

Most notable was his mention of Nixon’s enemies list, about which he said, “That whole thing. That was just about who’s not coming to state dinners.” However, Nixon aide John Dean stated the true purpose for the list as “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.” This meant tax audits, grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, and prosecution. For Beck to so cavalierly lie about what was one the most despicable actions by a leader in our nation’s history says so much about Beck. He probably thinks that the Final Solution was a dish washing detergent.

In the end, Fox’s defense is the best evidence that Dunn’s remarks are are all too true.


Glenn Beck: Give Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize To Tea Baggers

Posted by on October 9, 2009 at 2:51 pm. 5 Comments :

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that they were surprised by this morning’s announcement that the Nobel Committee was awarding their Peace Prize to President Barack Obama. There may be reasonable arguments as to whether a president struggling with two wars and various other diplomatic challenges was the best choice. But even more surprising is the reaction to the announcement.

Michael Steel, chairman of the Republican Party, said it was “unfortunate.” Rush Limbaugh said it was “an embarrassment.” John Bolton said he should “decline it.” But leave it to Glenn Beck to surpass the Conventional Idiocy:

Beck: “The Nobel Peace Prize should be turned down by Barack Obama and given … to the Tea Party goers and the 9-12 Project because — because of the arrogance … because of the arrogance of the progressives that thought no one would stand in their way, that he would be able to accomplish everything. Two weeks into his presidency, they nominated him for it and said, oh, this is going to be a slam dunk. And because of the Tea Party goers and the 9-12 Project people that stood in his way and stopped him from accomplishing the things that he thought — please, I’m the messiah. I’ll be able to accomplish that. We have now seen — we are now pulling the curtain back and seeing, oh, wait a minute, he just got an award for doing things he couldn’t get done. Hmm.”

That’s right. The Tea Baggers should get Obama’s Peace Prize. These folks:

The violent, racist, unpatriotic, fear mongers who go to Tea Parties are the ones who deserve a Peace Prize, not for anything they’ve done, but because they “stopped [Obama] from accomplishing” things. Of course.

And what have they stopped? Well, in truth, nothing. The President is still pursuing the same goals that he articulated in the campaign. Plus, he has already successfully passed an $800 billion stimulus plan. He nominated the first Hispanic to the U.S. Supreme Court. He signed the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He repealed Bush’s policy against stem cell research. He gave us Cash for Clunkers.

There have, however, been delays on issues like closing Guantanamo Bay, drawing down troops in Iraq, and finishing up health care reform. But all of those initiatives are still going forward. And it is patently insane for Beck, on behalf of the Tea Baggers, to boast about delaying them, considering how important and popular they are.

Nevertheless, it is the Tea Baggers who Beck thinks…

“…have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.

All I can say is that it’s a damn good thing that Beck isn’t on the Nobel Committee.

Addendum: In 2007 Al Gore won a Nobel Peace Prize and was attacked by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh actually dispatched his attorneys to see if he could challenge Gore’s award, even as he asserted that it had become “devalued.” But that didn’t stop him from declaring that he ought to win it himself.