The Anti-Defamation League Has Glenn Beck's Number
This is my first weekly Friday column in my new capacity as senior fellow at the Media Matters Action Network. For those of you unfamiliar with Media Matters Action Network, it is a progressive research and information center dedicated to analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation coming from politicians and advocacy groups.
As some of you know, I spent the previous decade at Israel Policy Forum, a think-tank dedicated to advancing the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. My portfolio here is broader but much of my focus will remain on promoting a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that offers security, sovereignty, and justice to Israelis and Palestinians.
But that won't be my entire focus. For instance, this week I've been thinking about the rise of right-wing extremism in this country. And I am gratified that one of the leading pro-Israel advocacy groups, the Anti-Defamation League, is among those confronting it.
Historically, the ADL has monitored activities by racist groups and individuals (with special emphasis on anti-Semitism). It has also taken a very hard line on Israel, quite often attacking critics of Israeli policies, particularly those on the left. In fact, it has appeared reluctant to take on right-wing bigots if they were not critical of Israel.
That has bred great skepticism about the ADL among progressives who tend to see it giving a pass to anyone -- no matter how odious -- if he or she was viewed as strongly supportive of Israeli policies.
But that seems to be changing, largely due to the rise of Glenn Beck, the nativism he champions, and his penchant for trivializing the Holocaust to score political points against liberals.
As early as 2007, Abe Foxman, the ADL's National Director and a Holocaust survivor, ripped into Beck for likening former Vice President Al Gore's efforts to combat climate change to the Nazi's slaughter of six million Jews. Referring to Gore's support for a carbon tax, Beck said, "Al Gore is not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however."
Foxman called Beck's statement "insensitive and deeply offensive." He told Beck that the millions of Jewish and "other victims of Hitler deserve a measure of respect. Their deaths should not be used for political points or sloganeering."
That was over two years ago, but Beck and his acolytes (including some in Congress) are still quick to employ Nazi analogies with abandon. They use them against the President, against health care reform, against the graduated income tax, and against pretty much any idea or individual they do not like.
That is not going to change. And the ADL seems to understand that. It now recognizes that the problem goes well beyond the use of Nazi and Holocaust analogies by a motley crew of extremists.
In fact it has just issued a report, "Rage Grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies," which delineates the threat posed by right-wing extremists. The most striking aspect of the report is that it singles out Glenn Beck for special condemnation. This is not to say that the ADL ignores such hate spewers as Michael Savage, Orly Taitz, Lou Dobbs, Alex Jones and others.
But it justifies its emphasis on Beck by noting that he is "the most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke the fires of anti-government anger.....While other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists. This has not been the case with Glenn Beck. Beck and his guests have made a habit of demonizing President Obama and promoting conspiracy theories about his administration. On a number of his TV and radio programs, Beck has even gone so far as to make comparisons between Hitler and Obama and to promote the idea that the president is dangerous."
Additionally, Beck says that his goal is to create a mass movement that will funnel his rage and bigotry into political action. That is what seems to worry the ADL most.
And there is one other thing. Its report makes clear that the ADL has come to the conclusion that the organized "ranks of anti-government extremist groups and movements...could give rise to individuals who are willing to act out on their anger." (It specifically cites Richard Poplawski in Pittsburgh, who after "educating" himself with the conspiracy theories of right-wing radio talkmeisters like Alex Jones went out and shot dead three policemen).
It is not hard to see where the ADL is going with this. It was founded in 1913 following the lynching in Georgia of a young Jewish businessman, Leo Frank, for allegedly murdering a white Christian girl. Frank did not commit the crime and was pardoned by the governor. But the hate campaign against Frank in the newspapers, and by word of mouth, so inflamed the local populace that he was kidnapped from jail and lynched. The ADL was founded as a result and it fought hard against lynching throughout the 20th century, a time during which 900 African-Americans and others were lynched just like Frank.
The bottom line is that the ADL knows where all this incitement leads all too often: to hate crimes, assassination, and other attacks by those inflamed into deadly action by the organized loudmouth right.
Glenn Beck is, not surprisingly, in a state of rage about the ADL report. He defends himself by asking the ADL to "name the person who has been more friendly to Israel" (the predictable defense). This, of course, is utterly irrelevant. The issue here is not Israel but the United States. It is here where Beck spreads his hate, not Israel.
And then Beck turns on the ADL itself. Beck said that the Anti-Defamation League itself has "much to do with the plight of the Jewish people." I don't know what plight Beck is referring to, perhaps the Holocaust which so often pops into his head and out of his mouth. But, obviously, the ADL fought for the victims of the Holocaust, not its perpetrators. The Holocaust was the product of professional hate mongers, the mob who listened to them, and politicians who came to power on their backs. That is precisely the combination the ADL is worried about now.
