Tonight, for at least the third time, Megyn Kelly “forgot” about Glenn Beck’s history as a race-baiting, fear mongering, smear merchant and put on her thoughtful face as he made a hammy (and about as believable as a $3 bill) show of calling for an end to divisiveness. Even though he had just approvingly listened to Kelly attack the left for opposing the Hobby Lobby ruling.
I haven’t written about this but Megyn “I’m not an opinion host” Kelly has been on a jag attacking the left over its anger at the Hobby Lobby decision. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Kelly was so moved that she violated her own rules just when it’s terribly convenient to have a charismatic conservative woman fighting back against the “Republicans are waging war on women” meme, just when it might make a difference in the midterm elections.
Kelly began the discussion with Beck by blasting the left. Not attacking the arguments against Hobby Lobby outrage but the people making that argument:
Not only is the left blatantly mischaracterizing the Supreme Court’s ruling because they need a narrative to be out there about these evil men on the Supreme Court who hate women and reproductive rights, but their hyperbole has gotten to the point now where the Green family that owns Hobby Lobby has been protested, they’ve been demonized by large swaths of the left in this country because they stood on religious principle.
“I’m a uniter” Beck had no problem with that demonization. He said:
I have to tell you, I mean we don’t do this to people who say my religion tells me I can’t go to war. We never did that with the Quakers. You have a right to practice your religion and if your religion says, I’m sorry, I can’t provide an abortion for you, you have that right and more so, you have a right to not be demonized for it.
Of course, there’s a big difference between a Quaker not wanting to go to war and a corporation refusing to comply with a U.S. law and demanding to have a say in its employees’ health insurance coverage.
But Kelly either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
Beck continued:
And quite honestly, I know the Green family. I know them very well. …The way they treat their workers, the way they do business with each other. They’re honest, they’re fair, they’re decent, they’re good members of the community and they’re offering health care, they’re just saying, “Guys, we believe that abortion is murder. If you don’t, that’s fine. But we do. And you can’t force us to do this.” What kind of country do we live in where you have to be forced to violate your most fundamental right of the practice of your religion?
That’s a load of hooey. In the first place, the contraception that Hobby Lobby objects to does not cause abortion, it’s contraception. In the second place, nobody’s making Hobby Lobby “pay for abortion” or even pay for contraception. Hobby Lobby is already paying for health insurance for its employees. What the left wants is coverage under that health insurance for contraception, not their boss’ idea of what contraception they should be allowed to have. And lastly, Hobby Lobby is not a person or a religious organization but a corporation. And regardless of what the Supreme Court says, I don’t buy that a corporation has religious beliefs.
But Kelly, our new poster child for “there is no right wing war on women, let’s demonize the left for saying so,” didn’t mention any of those things. Instead, she put on her most indignant face and used her most indignant voice to say, “And now they want to argue about, ‘Well, the Greens were wrong. These four drugs don’t actually end a fertilized egg, they just prevent ovulation.' Which is completely false. The FDA in their own briefs prove that’s not true.”
I don’t know what briefs Kelly was reading. I do know that the FDA classifies the Morning After pill as contraception and even the National Catholic Reporter found, “There Is overwhelming scientific evidence that the IUD and Plan B work only as contraceptives.”
How did Beck react? By mugging for the camera and saying, “May I just speak for all of America? This is why we love Megyn Kelly so much.” Kelly gave him her most winning giggle in response.
All that would be bad enough. But from there, Beck suddenly pulled out his “uniter” schtick. Right after approving of Kelly’s deliberate divisiveness:
I am so done with the left and the right and I’m so done with the talking points of both the Republicans and the Democrats. I’m so done with the Boogey Man. Even with me, with the president. The president …he does not play a role in my life. He doesn’t. I’m not upset with him any more, I’m not going to – I have my set of beliefs, he has his. That’s fine. I’m going to stand for the principles that I have but he’s not going to control my emotions any more. He’s not going to play on my emotions. It’s so divisive what’s happening to us. …We all play a role, we all play a role in the divisiveness or the uniting of our country. Every day, every word that we choose. Me and you at home. We just have to say. "No more. I’m not gonna play that game, I’m not going to play into your fear mongering of bad boogeymen."
I don’t know who Beck meant by “your fear mongering of bad boogeymen” but nobody beats Beck in that department. Yet instead of noting that – even though much of it occurred on her own network - Kelly now put her thoughtful listening face on and let him continue unchallenged.
Beck continued with what I’d call a healthy dose of fear mongering while pretending to stand above it.
I think there are really bad people in Washington. I think there are people that want to destroy the United States of America. …By not paying attention, we’re engaging in national suicide. But I will tell you this. I’m going to stand for my principles just like the Greens have stood for theirs. I’m not going to play this political game any more.
If you believe that, wait until you hear what he said in Part 2, which I will write about tomorrow.
But watch Kelly help promote Beck's claptrap below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_two-dollar_bill