AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

I'm sure you do. You have yet to fail to defend the President in every absurd statement he has made. You have yet to fail to defend anybody else who will defend him. You have yet to fail to excoriate or express disgust for anybody who doesn't see it as you see it.

But the bottom line is that the double standard is alive and well. The Left will do their damndest to destroy Beck even as they defend or let slide those on their side who have said far far worse.

If you consider all of Beck's rantings against Obama, Beck sounds really ignorant. (Calling Obama "heroin pusher", pretending to be Obama and pouring gasoline over someone, stating that the motive of Obama healthcare reform is to gain reparations for slavery.) I have seen moderate Republican bloggers describe Beck as embarrassing and opine that Beck needs to be taken off of television and confined to radio only.

Foxfyre wrote:

And I think that your view that there is no other possible motive for Beck's opinion and that therefore he must base it on the fact that the President is black or that Beck is not happy with a black President is in itself a racist view.

Except that's clearly not what I said. I don't profess to know Beck's motive, but the effects of his words are what I'm talking about. You seem to want to modify the definition of racist to be "someone who perceives racism". You muddle definitions of words at your own risk.

Quote:

Remember that the discussion was within the context of President Obama's public reaction to Professor Gates' arrest. Obama immediately saw racism and didn't consider any other possible reason for the arrest. There are simply too many such incidents in President Obama's record to dismiss them all as irrelevent. Even conservative blacks have raised the issue more than once.

Even if he "immediately saw racism" that doesn't make him a racist with a deep seated hatred of white people.

Quote:

As I said, I think Beck is seeing it as more extreme than it probably is. But that is Beck's perception and he is being demonized for it, even as you folks defend the President's racist response re Professor Gates.

I don't think his response was racist. He may have jumped to conclusions or been defending a friend, both of which are mistakes but neither of which are racist. And if Beck is allowed his perception then so am I. And I think Beck is a paranoid douche bag.

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

Again, since it was previously ignored...

Foxfyre wrote:

He didn't dump any Petrobas stock.

Foxfyre wrote:

He reduced the stake by reducing shares.

Sounds like a bit of a contradiction.

Foxfyre wrote:

I haven't seen anybody really put the pencil to it, but I would be really surprised if his hedge fund reduced the dollar amount of its investment.

From the article you quoted:

• Soros Fund Management LLC sold 22 million U.S.-listed common shares of Petrobras
  
• Soros bought 5.8 million of the company’s U.S.-traded preferred shares
  
• The common shares were 21 percent more expensive than preferred today
  

Sounds like his hedge fund reduced the dollar amount of its investment.

The fact that you seem to see a perception of racism in the President as being in itself automatically a racist view is, in my opinion, racist.

I agree. But it doesn't mean that he doesn't have a deep seated hatred of white people either.

Again it was an opinion, a point of view, that, had it been directed toward a conservative black person would have been okay and let slide.

And again, far worse has been said by media and entertainment folks on your side and that was deemed acceptable or certainly not worth even a small hissy fit.

I'm sure you do think that of Beck. You are entitled to your opinion and I respect it even though I really question the prejudices of people who judge people without making the effort to actually determine what their message is or who let others define it for them. My hope is that there are still enough Americans who would see it as wrong to attempt to intentionally and proactively destroy somebody for an expressed opinion. Who would see as douchebags those who would encourage such a thing and rejoice if it was successful. My hope is that there are still enough Americans left who see that as unAmerican and who will rebuke those who would presume to do that.

Attack on Obama riles Beck's advertisers
AP

NEW YORK " Glenn Beck returns to Fox News Channel on Monday after a vacation with fewer companies willing to advertise on his show than when he left, part of the fallout from calling President Barack Obama a racist.

A total of 33 Fox advertisers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., CVS Caremark, Clorox and Sprint, directed that their commercials not air on Beck's show, according to the companies and ColorofChange.org, a group that promotes political action among blacks and launched a campaign to get advertisers to abandon him. That's more than a dozen more than were identified a week ago.

While it's unclear what effect, if any, this will ultimately have on Fox and Beck, it is already making advertisers skittish about hawking their wares within the most opinionated cable TV shows.

The Clorox Co., a former Beck advertiser, now says that "we do not want to be associated with inflammatory speech used by either liberal or conservative talk show hosts." The maker of bleach and household cleaners said in a statement that it has decided not to advertise on political talk shows.

The shows present a dilemma for advertisers, who usually like a "safe" environment for their messages. The Olbermanns, Hannitys, O'Reillys, Maddows and Becks of the TV world are more likely to say something that will anger a viewer, who might take it out on sponsors.

They also host the most-watched programs on their networks.

"This is a good illustration of that conundrum," said Rich Hallabran, spokesman for UPS Stores, which he said has temporarily halted buying ads on Fox News Channel as a whole.

Beck can bring the eyeballs. With the health care debate raising political temperatures, his show had its biggest week ever right before his vacation, averaging 2.4 million viewers each day, according to Nielsen Media Research.

He was actually on another Fox show July 28 when he referred to Obama as a racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." The network immediately distanced itself from Beck's statement, but Beck didn't. He used his radio show the next day to explain why he believed that. He would not comment for this article, spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said.

ColorofChange.org quickly targeted companies whose ads had appeared during Beck's show, telling them what he had said and seeking a commitment to drop him. The goal is to make Beck a liability, said James Rucker, the organization's executive director.

"They have a toxic asset," Rucker said. "They can either clean it up or get rid of it."

It's not immediately clear how many of the companies actually knew they were advertising on Beck's show. Sometimes commercial time is chosen for a specific show, but often it is bought on a rotation basis, meaning the network sprinkles the ads throughout the day on its own schedule. Sometimes ads appear by mistake; Best Buy said it bought commercial time for earlier in the day, and one of its ads unexpectedly appeared in Beck's show.

One company, CVS Caremark, said it advertises on Fox but hadn't said anything about Beck. Now it has told its advertising agency to inform Fox that it wanted no commercials on Beck.

"We support vigorous debate, especially around policy issues that affect millions of Americans, but we expect it to be informed, inclusive and respectful," said spokeswoman Carolyn Castel.

Besides the unpredictability of the opinionated cable hosts, the rapid pace of today's wired world complicates decisions on where to place ads, said Kathleen Dunleavy, a spokeswoman for Sprint. She said she was surprised at how fast the Beck issue spread across social media outlets and how quickly advertiser names were attached to it.

UPS' Hallabran said the decision to pull commercials "should not be interpreted as we are permanently withdrawing our advertising from Fox." He said the company wants to reach viewers with a wide spectrum of opinions.

Except for UPS Stores, there's no evidence that any advertisers who say they don't want to be on Beck's show are leaving Fox. Network spokeswoman Irena Briganti said the companies have simply requested the ads be moved elsewhere and that Fox hasn't lost any revenue.

She wouldn't say whether Fox was benefiting from any anti-anti-Beck backlash, with companies looking to support him. Some Beck supporters have urged fans to express their displeasure at companies for abandoning their man.

Beck supporters have suggested that retaliation might have something to do with ColorofChange.org's campaign. One of the group's founders, Van Jones, now works in the Obama administration and has been criticized by Beck. But Rucker said Jones has nothing to do with ColorofChange.org now and didn't even know about the campaign before it started.

Beck's strong ratings " even at 5 p.m. EDT he often outdraws whatever CNN and MSNBC show in prime-time " make it unlikely Beck is going anywhere even as the list of advertisers avoiding him approaches three dozen.

But it could mean advertising time becomes cheaper on his show than such a large audience would normally command. Some of his show's advertisers last week included a male enhancement pill, a law firm looking to sue on behalf of asbestos victims, a company selling medical supplies to diabetics and a water filter company.

Rucker said ColorofChange.org has contacted about 60 companies regarding Beck, and is heartened by the response.

"It's causing a certain conversation around Beck, which I think is important," he said.

___

On the Net:

http://www.colorofchange.org

http://www.foxnews.com

___

EDITOR'S NOTE " David Bauder can be reached at dbauder"at"ap.org

The fact that you seem to see a perception of racism in the President as being in itself automatically a racist view is, in my opinion, racist.

For if Bush or McCain were called racists who hate black people, I'm pretty sure you would say that kind of talk has no place in mainstream discourse.

So, basically, instead of just not watching Beck these people have decided they do not like his use of the first amendment and want to shut him down.

Are they losing money? I hadn't seen anyone post that.

Foxfyre wrote:

The fact that you seem to see a perception of racism in the President as being in itself automatically a racist view is, in my opinion, racist.

Let's see. Beck accused the President of being a racist for perceiving racism in the Gates incident. He saw Obama's reaction automatically as a racist view.

In your opinion, wouldn't this be racist, too?

maporsche wrote:

Are they losing money? I hadn't seen anyone post that.

NewsCorp has been taking a beating along with everybody else--they took an especially heavy hit in the last of 2008, and Murdoch has been scrambling to slow the bleeding during the recession like everybody else. Beck didn't move over to Fox until January 2009.

Fox News however, had been enjoying unprecedented revenues, and is definitely a bright spot within the NewsCorp family. And Beck's tremendous success in his time slot has certainly contributed to that.

It would honestly depend. If Bush or McCain had automatically assumed 'racism' in the Gates incident, without knowing any of the details involved, I would consider that a 'racist' view as much as Beck considered Obama's reaction to be 'racist'. And, when it is offered for public consumption, I don't think it would be wrong for anybody to point that out.

It would be wrong to conclude any kind of deep seated racism, however, without more history than one off-the-cuff remark. So again, you have to add in all the other stuff like the book passages, phrases from speeches, background, and relationships in order to form a better informed opinion.

So, was Jesse Jackson demonstrating racism when he said this?:
"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery -- then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

Ok; I fully understand that everyone is taking a beating. I thought someone was trying to argue that Fox has lost money based solely on this Beck crap.

I think it may be time to get the dictionary out. Perceiving racism is not itself racist. You'll note I did not accuse Beck of racism for the same.