Fox’s fickle liberal, Bob Beckel, was finally bugged enough about the tactics of his The Five colleagues yesterday that he called out their anti-Obama attacks for what they are: “abysmal,” “disgusting” and “treasonous.”
It started when Kimberly Guilfoyle put forth what I’m sure she calculated would be received as a witty anti-Obama smear:
I just don’t think that he understands. Honestly, I really don’t think he has a grasp on what it means to have a cohesive, coherent foreign policy or how to combat the war on terror. We cannot go around to our enemies,"‘Let me hug you" and then "Let me drone you. It won’t hurt that much.”
Instead of admiring her cleverness, Beckel exploded. “That’s treasonous, is what you just said,” he told Guilfoyle.
Guilfoyle was obviously taken aback by this reaction. “No, it’s actually accurate,” she sniffed.
Beckel did not let up. He continued, “It is not accurate. The way you guys treat the President of the United States is abysmal and disgusting!”
“Oh, my gosh. We love this country,” Guilfoyle sneered.
Better late than never for Beckel, I guess. Fox’s steady stream of hate and anger is toxic for our country. Beckel is in a real position to combat it. Let’s just hope he keeps it up.
Enjoy the contretemps below.
I also wonder what’s going on, especially with Beckel’s outburst today. Unless Beckel is planning on quitting, he’s got to have the approval of his higher ups – either because of the low ratings (check my post in the AM) or because Beckel demanded it. Or maybe he just got away with it for now and they’ll be shutting him up next week.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
I think they did the same with Colmes when Hannity was given a staff of 6-7 researchers and Colmes was “on his own.”
It’s mostly scripted for Beckel and he’s kept on a tight leash. I can imagine he looks like he just ate a lemon because the voice in his ear piece is repeatedly telling him NOT to respond to the other hosts outrageous statements.
Just my take on it.
And I’ll repeat here what I said talking about this elsewhere: On almost every other Fox News program where Beckel is a regular, or a guest host, he’s given a lot more leeway, and therefore the discussions are both a lot more balanced, and we see a lot more of what he could be on another network. This is most notable on “Outnumbered” -If Beckel’s the man in the chair, the conversations are civil, and he’s gentlemanly to them, even when bringing down one of the Five’s female rotations, all of whom seem to think they can bring that show’s garbage to him there.
In a strange way, I really do think that how much further than usual Watters took things leading up to this was at least part of what made Beckel snap. I know I was angrier than usual at this show with him.
