Glenn Beck was just trying to see a screening of Alfred Hitchcok's The 39 Steps when he and his family became the targets of verbal assaults and a wine soaking by fellow moviegoers. At least that's how he tells it.
From Slate:
On his radio show, Beck said his fellow moviegoers yelled such gems as: "We hate conservatives here."
To make matters worse, Beck says, someone kicked a cup of wine onto his wife's back, completely soaking her. Beck described people in the crowd as "some of the most hateful people I have ever seen." He also compared the ordeal to a public lynching. (You read that correctly.)
" 'I swear to you, I think, if I had suggested, and I almost did, 'Wow, does anybody have a rope? Because there's [a] tree here. You could just lynch me.' And I think there would have been a couple in the crowd that would have," Beck said on his radio program.
Really, Glenn? How did things escalate from people being about as hateful as you are on your show every day to their being one tree away from brutally murdering you? And why is lynching the first method of doing so that popped into your mind? (Never mind, don't answer that.)
In any case, a 25-year-old woman told New York magazine a different side of the story, writing: "Iit was [Beck's] security detail (two bodyguards) that seemed to be unnecessarily prickly with the crowd, scolding myself and my friends for acrobatics and other harmless activities taking place well before the movie started, and contributing to a considerably less relaxed atmosphere than is typically experienced" at the screenings," and adding that her friend spilled half a glass of wine on Beck's wife completely by accident. And then provided napkins.
Are we surprised at the idea that Beck might have stretched the truth a bit on this one? No, of course it would have been out of character if he didn't. It's actually a shocker that he likened the crowd to a lynch mob instead of Nazis, as he does everyone else. Gotta give him some credit for getting more creative with the totally misplaced and inflammatory historical comparisons.
Read more at Slate.
In other news: Philly: One Weekend, 32 People Shot.