Glenn Beck’s Latest Smear Target: India
Reported by Ellen - December 10, 2009 -
Glenn Beck, perhaps upset because Fox News is coming down on his shilling for Goldline International, has been on a tear of malice above and beyond his everyday hate mongering. Yesterday’s (12/9/09) targets: SEIU (In addition to the smears, Beck reiterated an old falsehood about SEIU), his recent fave Robert Creamer, Obama, of course, and India. Among other smears, Beck compared getting medical care in India to buying a counterfeit “Gucci” handbag on the street and, joking that the Ganges sounded like a disease, said, “if somebody said, ‘I’m sorry, you have a really bad case of Ganges,’ you’d want Cipro.” With video.
The lead off batter, so to speak, was one of Beck’s favorite targets, SEIU. As he has previously done, Beck brandished a baseball bat. “Why don’t we just mandate that SEIU president, Andy Stern, just is in charge of every corporation in America?” Beck said in some kind of southern accent that was, one presumes, supposed to sound like a mobster. Beck jokingly suggested that “we” provide “Andy and his goons” with free baseball bats. “That way, they can just beat those company heads into submission.”
Beck then repeated a falsehood he has used before, claiming that Stern “shows up at the White House more than anybody else.” PolitiFact did some research after Beck made this same claim on December 3, 200i and ruled it false.
What happened to Fox News’ “zero tolerance” for errors? What happened to Beck’s promise to correct any of his mistakes on the air?
Next up, suggesting that President Obama is un-American. After playing a clip of Obama, speaking to SEIU members and saying that their agenda is his agenda, Beck sneered, “I wish he had an American agenda.”
Then came a new-to-me target: India. “Get this, it is cheaper to get health care in India,” Beck said, mugging for the camera. “Who would have guessed?”
Beck played a clip on the SEIU website of a woman saying she had gotten a hip replacement in India. She said American health care system is excellent but thought it was so expensive and wondered why other countries could do health care for “a lot less.”
Beck probably doesn’t spend a moment worrying about paying for any of his own health care - or anything else - but he used those of us less fortunate as a foil for more of his own hammy shenanigans. He went on to compare medical care in India to buying a “Gucci” handbag on a streetcorner in New York for a few bucks. He also said that SEIU members in the American health care industry “make slightly more here than in India because, you know, they have an American lifestyle – maybe a couple of cars, great union benefits (which, if Beck had his way, he’d do away with) and homes with something that we in America like to call ‘flush toilets.’”
“If you have a choice between getting a hip replacement surgery at the Mumbai Clinic at Punjab or the Mayo Clinic – I’m gonna go for the Mayo Clinic.” News flash for Beck: I’m sure everyone would, if cost were not a factor, the way it surely isn’t for you.
Beck went to the chalkboard to mock Indians' yearly earnings of $1,016. “What do ya’ do with all of that money?” multimillionaire Beck jeered. Then, after saying that US workers earn $27,000 a year, he painted the false picture that SEIU’s efforts to bring more equalization would bring the $27,000 down to $10,000. What Beck probably worries about is that he might be forced to “make do” on say, $15 million a year down from his current $23 million. Beck claimed that Indian doctors earn $5,760 a year. He never said where he got his numbers from but that seems like quite a bit of an underestimate.
“I don’t want a discounted doctor,” Beck said. “I don’t want discounted wages.” No, he doesn’t. He just wants discounted wages for the rest of us. This is from the same guy who believes health care is not a right. So for those of us who don’t get health care with our jobs and are not earning millions a year, we can just go to India so that Beck doesn’t have to.
But Beck wasn’t through smearing India. “I’m sure it’s beautiful and everything… especially this time of year… especially by that one big river they have there that sounds like a disease.” He leaned into the camera and put on his imp expression. “Come on, it does. I mean, if somebody said, ‘I’m sorry, you have a really bad case of Ganges,’ you’d want Cipro.” Hilarious.
“Stern would like nothing more than to collapse the wages of the American worker, with the wages of our economy, then he can assist Obama in resetting America,” Beck said. He leaned into the camera again to say, “Andy Stern has a global master plan.” It had something to do with tax on their "Cadillac" health care plans (you know, the ones that save everyday folks from having to go to India for treatment) and moving all their health care plans to the federal government. How that relates to a globalized union, I didn’t get.
“What is going on here, America,” Beck said, self-importantly referring to his audience. “How is it they’re (SEIU) controlling the legislation in this country?” He didn't feel the need to show any evidence that SEIU was actually controlling any legislation.
Then it was time to smear Robert Creamer, the convicted felon Beck feels certain is “the person who apparently drew up the blueprint for all of this reform… who wrote the 10-step plan in federal prison.”
“SEIU sees the U.S. as just one small market. That’s all this country is to these people, a market… They don’t care about the American worker,” Beck said. This from the man who doesn’t want union wages, thinks health care is not a right and wants to abolish Medicare.” Yeah, he’s a real champ for the little guy.
Now it was time for a quick bit of xenophobia. “It is the emerging countries that (SEIU) is concerned with now, not you… Where are the majority of future SEIU workers coming from?... (It’s) more likely that they’re gonna come from India, China, Pakistan, Copenhagen, however all these people on television are now saying these stupid country’s names.” So Beck played a clip of an SEIU official saying that there are a number of immigrants and undocumented immigrants among its members along with American-born members. That and his say so were all the proof he needed.
As the segment wound down, Beck began to tie all his conspiracy theories into one hate mongering package. “We do not need to settle for a convicted felon… or for a union thug bent on redistributing America’s wealth to the rest of the world. These two people are just the hand-selected goons who are leading the way down to the road of total transformation.”
Back to health care again, Beck asked, “When has ‘Hurry up and just do it’ ever been the right strategy for something this big?” Um, how about Afghanistan? It was just two weeks ago that Beck was attacking Obama for taking too long to decide on sending more Americans to die in Afghanistan. Not that chickenhawk Beck ever served. But the guy who was willing to cry for his country was quite happy to play the role of military smarty-pants on TV. But this time, Beck claimed that “only stupid people” would fall for a “you gotta buy it now” routine.
Beck’s next “expertise” was global warming or the lack thereof followed quickly by pronouncements about terrorism, military commissions and Fallujah. And then, the great patriot Beck said, “The only thing? Is getting help to our troops in Afghanistan.” Beck put on his sincere face and used his sincere, earnest voice. “Listen to your gut, America. Something is very wrong.”
He got that right. When a man makes millions from this kind of demagoguery on what is supposed to be a news network, there is something very, very wrong.
You can contact Beck's show at [email protected] or http://twitter.com/glennbeck and Fox News at [email protected].
