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AMP Report – January 20, 2007
ABC hires noted Islamophobe as commentator
on “Good Morning America”
In a move sure to win the coveted "xenophobe demographic," ABC News has hired CNN's noted Islamophobe Glenn Beck as a regular commentator on "Good Morning America." According to the media reports, "Beck will make specials for CNN in 2007 on people who believe in the apocalypse, Islam in America and the 'myths of global warming.”
Calling his CNN Headline News show the "Fusion of Entertainment and Enlightenment," Beck has distinguished himself, not for cutting edge or insightful news, but by his almost obsessive hateful rhetoric attacking and vilifying the Arab and Muslim communities in the US. While this type of vitriol pervades talk radio, CNN Headline News has given Beck his own nightly television show, airing nightly at 7pm and replaying at 9pm and 12am EST on CNN's Headline Prime, and now he will be offering commentary for ABC's Good Morning America.
Beck has suggested that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism and that if they do not take action they will be “looking through a razor wire fence at the West.” You can read just a few of the blatantly prejudice statements he’s made on the show at the bottom of this alert.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab American Institute (AAI), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) sent a letter to ABC News and Good Morning America requesting that they reconsider Beck’s hiring.
Diane Sawyer hosted Glenn Beck on Good Morning America for a discussion of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey and the pope's recent comments on Islam. Sawyer identified Beck only as a "television and talk-radio host ... who has said it's time for the world to stop buckling to the pressure of radical Islam." She did not note that Beck is a self-identified conservative who has a history of making derogatory statements about Islam and Muslims. Good Morning America turns blind eye to Beck's smears.
BECK IN HIS OWN WORDS
On August 10 and September 5, 2006, Beck stated that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism—completely ignoring the positive contributions of the community, especially in regard to national security—and warned that Muslims “who have sat on [their] hands the whole time rather than “lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head” will face dire consequences. One of those consequences being that Muslims will be “looking through a razor wire fence at the West.”
On November 14, 2006, Beck interviewed then Congressman-elect Keith Ellison and asked him to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies simply because of Ellison’s religious affiliation.
On November 15, 2006, Beck said he was surprised by an American criticizing Al Qaeda because “the man who wrote it is a Muslim.”
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