Glenn Beck, Olympics Spoilsport
Reported by Ellen - October 1, 2009 -
"Patriot” Glenn Beck is so determined to attack President Barack Obama at every turn that he can’t even take pride in his country’s vying to be host for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Instead, Beck used the situation yesterday (9/30/09) to further his witch hunt against Obama and his advisor Valerie Jarrett and to baselessly suggest that bringing the Summer Games to Chicago was nothing more than a cynical ploy to enrich themselves. With video.
In his "The One Thing" segment, Beck's nearly 20-minute rambling monologue that opens every show, he purported to link Obama, Jarrett, William Ayers, Che Guevara, communism and more, this time with the Olympics thrown in. Rather than do an actual report on the supposed connections, Beck relied on his personal theatrics, a few clips, a few facts and a lot of inflammatory suggestions. He seemed to think that putting people's photos near each other on his chalk board was a good substitute for offering his viewers hard information.
Beck began the segment by accusing Obama of having only “one meeting with his national security advisers to discuss the 66-page memo from General Stanley McChrystal.” I could not find any information to verify that dubious accusation, though I did discover that Obama has five meetings planned, altogether, to discuss it. Furthermore, I find it hard to believe Obama had no other meetings and consultations on the war since receiving the memo in late August. But Beck, who has time to rehearse stunts to fool his audience, never seems to have the time to do any real fact-gathering about the accusations he constantly lobbies.
After a side attack on Obama for wasting money and carbon emissions with the jet fuel he and his wife will consume flying to Copenhagen (to advocate for Chicago), it was on to the real smear. “I wouldn’t think that with everything that’s going on, that Chicago and the Olympics would be a priority but it is for this president and his gal pal because remember, they’re playing for all the gold,” Beck said accusatorily. Beck noted that Fox & Friends had “showed you all the people involved around Obama who want the Olympics, like David Axelrod and Mayor Daley.” But, he added, foreshadowing the witch hunt to come, “To me, those people are secondary. There’s one player, one player that we’re going to talk about tonight… Tonight, I want to really have you meet Valerie Jarrett.” The malice oozed out of him, as he “joked,” “Oh, we’re going to spend a few minutes with Valerie Jarrett tonight.”
“I want you to ask this one question at the end of this,” Beck continued. “Should this woman be anywhere near the president of the United States and the White House?”
With more malevolent “humor,” Beck likened Jarrett’s long, entwined relationship with the Obamas as “Kind of like the Gottis, in a way… I’m just saying, maybe. I don’t know.”
“Her (Jarrett’s) mother also appointed Bill Ayers’ Dad… to the board of her Mom’s foundation,” Beck continued. It was guilt by association to association and it was all the “proof” Beck needed to suggest that Obama lied when he said he didn’t know Ayers. But actually, Obama never said he didn’t know Ayers. In reality, Obama said about Ayers, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis.” Despite all the histrionics, Beck never proved otherwise.
Beck went on to smear Jarrett for saying she had been pleased to bring Van Jones, one of Beck’s previous scapegoats, into the White House. Beck gave his audience a significant look to clue them in that if Jarrett recruited Jones, she must be as evil as he. Beck conveniently forgot that Fox News’ own sister company not only published a book by Jones, it continues to sing his praises, stronger than Jarrett did in the clip he played, on its website. Let’s see, Beck works for Fox News and Jones’ publisher is owned by the same parent company as Fox News. By Beck’s logic, that makes him as contemptible as Jarrett. Maybe more so because Jones has left the White House while Beck is still working for Fox.
Really working on the McCarthyism now, Beck plastered two more photos on his chalkboard. Next to Jarrett, Jones and a hammer and sickle, Beck put Mumia Abu-Jamal and Che Guevara. You’ll have to forgive me; I missed the connection. But I’m sure it was deep.
Next, it was time for an NEA smear for creating “propaganda art” and the clip of "indoctrinated" schoolchildren chanting the praises of Obama, neither of which had anything to do with Jarrett (except that Beck triumphantly played a clip of an NEA employee saying she worked under Jarrett) or the Olympics but everything to do with Beck’s daily witch hunt and, of course, his chalk board.
Finally, after more than 11 minutes of showboating, Beck got to Chicago by way of Rod Blagojevich. “Guess who was going to be considered to be tapped for that Senate seat (that Rod Blagojevich was trying to sell)?” Jarrett of course. Beck literally cackled before noting that Jarrett had turned down the position. “But don’t kid yourself about what’s happening here. She gave up her membership in the world's most exclusive club to be in this administration, in this little circle of power. So let's ask the reasonable question: Why would she do that?”
Beck promised more information but all he provided was more speculation. “Valerie Jarrett likes getting private money and giving it to public housing, so taking the money from you through taxes and giving it to her little pet projects.”
He was referring to Jarrett’s position as CEO of a real estate company called Habitat which, Beck forgot to mention, is also a developer of luxury condominiums. But it’s true, as Beck said, that the company also managed low-income housing, including a place called Grove Parc whose condition deteriorated while under Habitat management. “To this day, Jarrett refuses to answer any questions about …Grove Parc,” Beck said suggestively. But he never explained whose questions Jarrett refused to answer. She must have been willing to answer somebody’s questions because the Chicago Tribune quoted Jarrett discussing the problems at Grove Parc in November, 2008. While Beck gave short shrift to exploring any actually radical or wrongful or disreputable deeds that Jarrett had actually committed, he spent more than a minute describing the awful conditions at Grove Parc. It was a way of suggesting what she had done without having to report anything she actually did at Habitat. And not to excuse the deplorable situation at Grove Parc, but it was only part of Jarrett’s work, both at Habitat and elsewhere. But that was the only facet Beck fixed on. “Someplace, Al Capone is weeping with pride,” Beck said. The same must be true of Joseph McCarthy.
So having established, in his mind, anyway, that Jarrett is corrupt, Beck went on to smear her work on the Olympics. “Valerie Jarrett actually worked on the Chicago Olympic bid before. Did you know that? … She even lobbied for that. But don't forget Obama won't have any lobbyists in his administration.” Beck cut to a clip of Obama saying he would not hire lobbyists. Beck later revealed that Jarrett had been vice chair for the Chicago 2016 Summer Olympics Bid Committee, which is not quite the same thing as being a professional lobbyist. But Beck never acknowledged the difference. I found no reference to lobbying work in the Chicago Tribune’s profile of Jarrett last year.
Getting wound up for the end of his segment, when Beck always ratchets up the theatrics and the inflammatory rhetoric, he complained about federal money being potentially spent on the Olympic Village (notably Beck didn’t have a single actual statistic or figure to offer). Then, forgetting about how he had previously accused the Vancouver games of losing money, even though they haven’t happened yet, Beck went on to say that the 1988 Calgary Games lost money, as did the Sydney Games. He left out Atlanta and Salt Lake City, neither of which lost money under difficult circumstances, according to the Chicago Tribune. Furthermore, Beck overlooked an independent study that found Chicago and Illinois were likely to reap $22.5 billion of incremental economic activity in the State of Illinois—$13.7 billion in the City of Chicago alone—during the 11-year span of 2011 through 2021. The study also found that 315,000 new job-years will be created during this period.
Then it was time for the grand finale smear-by-suggestion: “Maybe the real beneficiary, might be – Oh, I don’t know, I’m just thinking out loud here, hehehe.” A photo of Jarrett appeared on the screen. “Her old company looks like it’s going to be a huge big winner because they own so much property and it's all so run down and it should be demolished.” So how would Jarrett benefit from the possible gain for her former company? Beck didn’t see fit to explain.
