A couple of days ago, Glenn Beck ranted on his radio show against the use of the term "African American." In addition to announcing that it was "made" to "try to create a Superman" so black people wouldn't feel bad about themselves, he said, as another piece of support for his position, that it would be "ridiculously stupid" to use the term outside the United States.
Beck went on to speak about the term "colored" with what sounded to us like fondness (He and his co-host agreed that in other parts of the world, people use it and it's "not a bad thing." Then they lamented the fact that here, "we" are "made to feel bad" for using it.)
Now the conservative talk-show host has lashed out against the media and especially the Huffington Post for misrepresenting what he said for the sake of driving traffic and discrediting his character. (The HuffPost's headline was "Glenn Beck: 'African-American' Is 'Ridiculously Stupid' "; The Root's was "Glenn Beck: 'African American' Is 'Stupid.' " Read our coverage here.) He says the way his comments were reported makes it seem like there's a "smear campaign" against him:
You have to ask yourself, why did Katherine Fung and the Huffington Post write this and allow this to run? Why? The only reason is to smear and discredit me. These people that read the Huffington Post, they don’t know who I am. They don't listen to who I am. I have to tell you, I was in South Africa, I was surprised that anybody even knew my name. You wouldn't believe the amount of hate that people have towards me. Why? They couldn't even tell you. They would tell you half truths and everything else, and when I was finished speaking, they'd all say, 'My gosh, that's nothing like — ' Is it? Isn't that strange. Isn't that strange. It's almost like somebody who has billions of dollars is running a smear campaign.
Source: Mediate.
Well, it's either that the media is on a smear campaign or that Beck is on a paranoid hairsplitting and backtracking campaign (not surprisingly, we'd go with the latter). Listen to his original comments and his response and judge for yourself.
Read more at Mediaite.
In other news: No U.S. Job Growth in August.