Glenn Beck’s Witch Hunt Of The Day Deceptively Edits Obama’s Remarks About Constitution To Suggest He Doesn't Like It
Reported by Ellen - September 18, 2009 -
With the ACORN witch hunt temporarily on hold, Glenn Beck went back to his Un-American activities witch hunt with the spotlight, as usual, on President Obama. For a bit of variety, Beck added a few more Democrats: Timothy Geithner, Nancy Pelosi, Ben Bernanke and, for good measure, Beck found a new black person to smear, Rep. Jim Clyburn. Without bothering to discuss or analyze the serious insinuations he was making, Beck played selective soundbites to suggest that each of the people shown were somehow disloyal to or a threat to the Constitution. In the case of Obama, Beck stole an old smear from Rush Limbaugh by playing a clip of Obama saying that the Constitution is “an imperfect document.” But though Obama was referring to the document’s treatment of slaves when he said that, Beck cleverly edited Obama’s comment to leave that part out. He also selectively edited out Obama’s statement that the Constitution is “a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now.” With video.
Beck began the segment, which was really a montage, with patriotic music and visuals of our founding fathers, as though that gave him the bona fides to assail other people’s patriotism.
Then we saw Obama taking the oath of office. That was followed by a clip of Obama saying, “The original Constitution, I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time. I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture and that the framers had that same blind spot. It also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.”
Here is Obama’s statement in full. The parts in bold are what Beck edited out (audio of the full statement below):
The original Constitution, as well as -- as well as the Civil War amendments, but I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time. African-Americans were not -- first of all, they weren't African-Americans. The Africans at the time were not considered as part of the polity that was of concern to the framers. I think that, as [program co-panelist] Richard [John] said, it was a nagging problem in the same way that, these days, we might think of environmental issues or some other problem that, where you have to balance, you know, cost-benefits, as opposed to seeing it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth. And, in that sense, I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day, and that the framers had that same blind spot. I don't think the two views are contradictory to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now, and to say that it also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.
So Beck deceptively edits a clip of President Obama to suggest he doesn’t like the Constitution, without offering any real reporting to back up that inflammatory allegation for the purpose of standing in judgment of someone else’s patriotism – that of the President of the United States, no less? This is what Fox News calls “fair and balanced.”
