Yesterday, Glenn spoke out about the importance of protecting free speech during the Talkers NYC 2013 conference. Glenn was honored with the Freedom of Speech award, and took the time to talk about why it's important to protect all speech, especially speech that some might find offensive. Media Matters, the disgraced and discredited boycott-leading blog, once again managed to miss the point.
"I gave a speech yesterday. I won the Freedom of Speech award yesterday here in New York City, and I gave a speech, and Media Matters was standing right there. They were practically on the stage. I'm not kidding you, practically on the stage and they were videotaping the whole thing. And it's a freedom of speech award and so I used and exercised my freedom of speech," Glenn said.
During the speech, Glenn spoke about the importance of protecting the right of freedom of speech, but also emphasized that people should be responsible in how they exercise that right. He specifically pointed out that while cartoonists could draw mocking images of the Prophet Muhammad, it doesn't mean that they should.
“But should you have the right to do it? Yes. But this society focuses on rights and not responsibilities," Glenn said.
He added, “Any role that I have played in dividing, I wish I could take it back — I don’t wish I could take back the truth that was spoken, but [many] times I could’ve said it differently."
So that whole “protect the rights of those we vehemently disagree with” message really didn’t resonate with the disgraced and discredited Media Matters blog, best known for attempting to lead ineffective boycotts against anyone they disagree with. The “dopes” from MMFA provided their (un)insightful analysis of Glenn’s speech to the press which boiled down to: “Uh, we don’t believe it.”
"Brand repair doesn't happen immediately," the MMFA representative said. "It's a process. Beck knows that. This soft contrition seemed like an attempt to advance that slow process. I'm not sure this will be effective, though, given that his approach hasn't really changed."
Please, tell us more before you retreat further into irrelevancy...
Why would the AP, and by extension other media outlets, decide to include such uninsightful commentary from a disgraced blogger whose whole career is based around attacking the First Amendment rights of those he disagrees with?
"Well, it's not a new Glenn Beck, you dope," Glenn said. "It's the same Glenn Beck that has been here that everyone has heard that doesn't have an agenda."