There’s nothing sadder than some completely irrelevant media figure trying to make a career out of bashing Glenn. Take Dana Milbank, a political reporter (in the loosest sense of the word) for the Washington Post and a failed author, who tried to blame Glenn and Sarah Palin for the actions of the Arizona shooter during a recent appearance on CNN.
During a segment on CNN’s Reliable Sources, Milbank was forced to defend a column where he called for Glenn and Sarah Palin to be criticized for their rhetoric, despite the fact that there has been no evidence to suggest any link between the shooter and the duo.
Mediaite has the full story here.
Glenn played the audio on radio.
“You said there's no evidence, no evidence that they inspired the Tucson gunman and then you said, and I'm quoting here, both are being held to account for recklessly playing with violent images in a way that is bound to incite the unstable. Bound to incite the unstable. You are connecting the dots between their rhetoric and violence,” said host Howard Kurtz.
“Well, between violence but not the -- not in this case, the Loughner case. In a sense it's rough justice. I think it is very important that people are held to account for this nasty rhetoric. That is causing, in Glenn Beck's case I've documented a few cases of which it's led a crazy person to snap in the opinion of –“ Milbank responded before being cut off.
But as Pat pointed out, the case that Milbank has cited of Glenn inspiring violence has been disproved. Pat said, “He was interviewed in jail. And the guy said specifically that you did not inspire that. And in fact, the opposite. He said he felt forced to act out in violence because you and others were not fighting hard enough. So it's a directing lie.”
Stu added, “And again it's absurd standard, by any account to hold a commentator responsible for 300 million people. It's ridiculous.” (Dana Milbank may have problems understanding this point as he has influenced approximately two people in his lifetime).
Glenn pointed out that Milbank’s language parallels that of the critics of Martin Lither King, Jr. on the days leading up to his March on Washington. “This is exactly the kind of thing that they said about Martin Luther King. When we saw the headlines of Martin Luther King before the march on Washington, when we looked at those headlines, we went back in history, they all said the same thing. He's going to cause a riot, he just wants violence, this is going to be -- it's going to be -- avoid Washington at all costs, and it wasn't Martin Luther King. It wasn't the people that were on the bus.”
Glenn also mentioned how at any given time, he has fifteen operating threats on his life, and its not likely they are coming from the Tea Party. Glenn said, “ Let me ask Dana Milbank, how many operating threats does he have on him? I have 15 at any given time. How many of those have been caused by those on the left? Is it the right that is coming after me and threatening my life?”
But as Stu and Pat joked, Dana Milbank doesn’t have enough influence over anyone to be responsible for the legitimate threats on Glenn’s life. Pat said, “But you need to choose somebody who actually has some influence.”
Stu jokingly added that for Dana Milbank to be responsible for the fifteen threats, he would have had to sell fifteen books.
Glenn retracted his statement, saying, “I retract that Dana Milbank could have any influence on anyone including himself. He even reads the tripe that he writes and goes, this is tripe.”