Over the weekend, Glenn tweeted out that the actor who plays Satan in History Channel’s The Bible bears a striking resemblance to President Barack Obama. Yesterday, Glenn spent some time talking about how the media overreacted to the tweet and he was saying nothing more than the actor, under all his makeup, and the President could have been separated at birth. But no one went further into the gutter with their attacks than CNN host Erin Burnett, who used the tweet to smear Glenn by selectively editing years old footage and comparing Glenn to a genocidal, anti-Semitic dictator.
On her show, CNN host Erin Burnett said:
“Today, Beck took to Twitter again and not to clarify. He said this: ‘Media, relax. Actor has been in similar roles before. Funny, nothing more. For different reasons, 'The Bible' is one of my fave shows. Keep watching.’Actor has been in similar roles before. In the world of Glenn Beck, that means he's definitely a ringer for the president because this isn't the first time he's made that comparison.”
Well, that certainly is a stretch. Burnett couldn’t go with the simplest explanation (two people look alike in photos), but rather made the extreme leap in logic that because the actor has played similar roles before he must be a ringer for the President.
Sorry Erin, it was simply his looks, not his IMBD.com resume that led to the comparison.
But spinning Glenn’s tweet wasn’t the real issue. After all, the media has made a habit out of taking Glenn out of context for ratings. No, the real issue comes from the fact that Erin Burnett and the producers of OutFront on CNN selectively edited footage of Glenn from his time at CNN Headline News to carry out their smear attack.
During her attack, Burnett aired a montage of Glenn clips supposedly showing his “ugly history” of comparing President Obama to Satan.
Stu explained what Burnett and her team were trying to do. “Remember what she's trying to create here: The fact that Glenn Beck has an ugly history of calling the president Satan. This happens all the time: Look at all the clips we found. They're trying to show a giant pattern of behavior with her clips,” he explained.
Here are a few of the clips Burnett used to make her point:
1. GLENN: “Some of the "Book of Revelation" crazies out there actually believe that Barack Obama is the Antichrist.”2. GLENN: “And there are people -- and they said this about Bill Clinton -- that actually believe he might be the Antichrist.”
3. GLENN: “Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist?”
Wow, that certainly seems like several different occasions of Glenn bringing up Obama and Satan or the Anti-Christ.
But in actuality, Burnett selectively edited one segment. Not only did she take these clips out of context, she and her producers selectively edited the video package to make it appear that these three sound bites were from three different occasions.
In reality, all three clips came from one HLN episode of Glenn’s show when he was recapping an interview he had with Pastor John Hagee.
Glenn explained, “This was a news story. It was in the news cycle, and CNN was reporting on it. CNN, not my show. I was on CNN Headline, but CNN proper was also reporting on this story. So the next day I'm recapping, I talked about it, and they make it look like again a separate time I'm bringing it up.”
Here is the full transcript of the CNN segment from March 10, 2008:
GLENN: I was speaking with evangelical pastor John Hagee. We were headed on into a break. And I asked the self-professed end of days expert about the fact that some of the "Book of Revelation" crazies out there actually believe that Barack Obama is the Antichrist. (Clip 1)Here it is.
BECK: Let me ask you -- and this is -- because I got -- I get so much e-mail on this, and I think a lot of people do. And I`ve only got a couple of seconds. And they say, Glenn, you in the media, you`ve got to wake up. Barack Obama is making people faint and cry and everything else, and he`s drawing people in. And there are people -- and they said this about Bill Clinton -- that actually believe he might be the Antichrist. (Clip 2)
Odds that Barack Obama is the Antichrist? (Clip 3)
JOHN HAGEE, EVANGELICAL PASTOR: No chance.
Not only did they selectively edit one segment from Glenn's days at CNN to make it look like three separate instances, they also removed the context where Glenn was disproving the argument that Barack Obama was the Anti-Christ. Did Erin Burnett and her producers just elevate unethical smear jobs into an art form?
How about one of their other "devastating" clips? The selectively edited portions are in bold:
(RADIO SEPTEMBER 30, 2011)GLENN: Yeah. Speaking of nice abs, is it possible that Barack Obama is the anti Christ?
STU: No, wait.
PAT: I think it's more likely
STU: We can confirm that it's not true. That's on the other side of the sign, George Soros, anti Christ; Barack Obama, puppet socialist incompetent economy wrecker. So
GLENN: Well, you know what? Can I tell you something? That's true.
Yeah, any segment with “nice abs” is going to be serious. For the record, the radio guys were mocking a sign that someone was carrying, not calling the President “Satan”.
When did CNN fall so far from being the most trusted name in news?
“Now, this is really important. This is not about me or us or anything else. This is to show you how easily it is to fool people with creative editing. If you thought NBC was bad with creative editing, wait until we show you this. This again is not about us. This is really about who can you trust to tell you the truth?” Glenn said.
Sadly, selective editing isn’t the only smear Erin Burnett and her producers carried out against Glenn. They went the extra mile and compared Glenn to anti-Semitic Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
“Real quick I just want to add the last part because this is really the important part: She then takes, after all of this propaganda, she then compares me to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. She then compares me in saying that, ‘You know who else has called him the Antichrist? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.’ So she plays Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”
Of course, it was only a week ago that Erin Burnett asked Former First Lady Laura Bush “…anti Semitic, anti American, does the U.S. need to accept that when we want to make change?”
More on that story HERE.
“It's bad for you (Glenn) to compare the appearance of an actor and the president but it's okay for her (Erin Burnett) to say you're (Glenn) the same as a vicious brutal murdering dictator,” Stu said.
Despite the attacks, Glenn had a sincere word of caution for Burnett, whose show has been struggling in the ratings and consistently losing to competitors on other news networks.
“Erin is and I say this sincerely - Erin, I know what it's like to be on the verge of being fired. I know what it's like to have horrible ratings. I've had them,” Glenn said.
“I mean it sincerely: It is sad what's happening to you and what you're allowing. And it's hard, and I understand that. It's I do understand that. But don't lose yourself,” he said.
Even though Glenn empathized with the struggling Erin Burnett, he does want CNN to issue a statement either rejecting the unethical practices used in the attack or acknowledging that this was just part of the new CNN.
“I'd like a statement either rejecting this kind of journalism or letting the American people know that's what CNN is now going to do because apparently they are desperate for ratings,” Glenn said.
If anyone out there needed another excuse to call their cable operator and demand that they offer TheBlaze as an alternative to networks like CNN, here you go.
Watch Burnett and CNN’s blatant smear below:
And here is the video where they selectively edited one segment to appear as three separate instances:
