Glenn Beck Would Rather Talk About His Made-Up Foreclosure Crisis

Suddenly Glenn Beck cares about a foreclosure crisis. Just not a real one.

After months of ignoring an actual foreclosure crisis - one that could result in a $20 billion dollar settlement between major banks and homeowners in all 50 states - Beck has finally fabricated a reason to talk about mortgage foreclosures, all while accusing the labor movement and the Obama administration of economic terrorism.

Beck bases his latest conspiracy theory on statements purportedly made by Stephen Lerner, whom Beck describes as "a former top official" at the Service Employees International Union. In audio posted at Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" website, a man identified as Lerner discusses civil disobedience that can be directed at banks, citing as an example homeowners who owe more money on their mortgage than their homes are worth:

For example, 10 percent of homeowners going back to where you started a quarter of the people who own a home are underwater, right? Their home, they are paying more than its worth. Ten percent of those people now are strategic default, meaning, they are refusing to pay but they are staying in their home. That's totally spontaneous, right? They figured out it takes a year to kick me out of my home because foreclosure is backed up, I'm going to stay I won't pay. It's a good business decision. If you could double that number, you would make banks -- put banks at the edge of insolvency again.

Based on the comments of this one man, Beck has fabricated a conspiracy theory positing that labor unions are, with President Obama's full knowledge and acquiescence, collaborating to engage in economic terrorism in order to overthrow the U.S. government. Yesterday, Beck devoted the better part of his three-hour radio show and the entirety of his Fox News show to warnings about this utterly made-up conspiracy.

But contrast this obsession with Beck's practical silence regarding the actual foreclosure crisis that prompted a national investigation into whether major lenders had illegally foreclosed on what was estimated to be millions of homeowners.

In late September 2010, JPMorgan Chase announced that it was suspending foreclosure actions against defaulting homeowners. GMAC also suspended foreclosures, and Bank of America - the nation's largest home lender - joined the freeze within days. 

These actions came amid questions as to whether major lenders had met their legal obligations. In depositions, bank employees acknowledged signing 10,000 foreclosure affidavits each month - a process that came to be known as robo-signing -- raising concerns that millions of homeowners could have lost their homes in error. 

With dozens of states pursuing legal action against the banks, Democratic lawmakers called on the Justice Department to investigate the industry for possible fraud.

But Beck could scarcely be bothered to address the concerns of homeowners who had never missed a payment, or whose payments were lost in the shuffle as banks swapped and resold mortgages -- homeowners who now faced foreclosure notices from banks that were under investigation for fraudulent foreclosure practices.

The one time Beck brought up the actual crisis, he issued a generic call to "find out about it" in case "bad things are going on," and then immediately bashed Democrats for calling for an actual investigation:

If there is corruption in the bank, it needs to be found and it needs to be found quickly. As this drags on, and it will, it brings the mortgage industry to a grinding halt.

If banks can't foreclosure, well then they can't loan either. Why would you loan if you can't be guaranteed you're going to get something back? And if banks won't loan, well then, how do you buy a house? How do you sell your house?

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi and 30 other geniuses in Congress are moving to investigate foreclosure practices of the U.S. mortgage lenders. Gee, I wonder if the mortgage companies will be painted as the evil corporations who are kicking people out in the street while the evil, greedy CEO gets a bonus.

Look for a punishment followed by a necessary takeover of another industry that's too-big-to-fail. Actually, it won't be a takeover, not in a socialistic sense, it will just be in a little bit of control. [Fox News, Glenn Beck, 10/7/10, via Nexis]

That's the only reference to the crisis from Beck's show that can be found in Nexis. In late October, Beck said, "Mortgages are underwater. Foreclosures, banks are going under," only to then complain, "We're now going to punish the rich with taxes [10/22/10, via Nexis]."

These comments are indicative of Beck's reflexive hostility to any attempt at holding banks accountable. During the May 27, 2010, edition of his Fox show, he criticized a provision in financial regulatory reform that targeted abusive lending, connecting it to the "fundamental transformation" being pursued by "radical progressives and the revolutionaries." After asking, "what is abusive lending." Beck opined:

You see, it puts the pressure on the lender, and not -- you know, and not the -- not to just offer full disclosure but to take full responsibility of not only themselves but the person sitting in the other chair. Don't worry if you can't pay your loan. Blame the abusive, greedy bank.

Who's going to loan money in that atmosphere?

So when dozens of attorneys general launch an investigation into possible mortgage fraud affecting millions of people, Beck can't really be bothered. And when Democratic lawmakers try to curb abusive lending practices, Beck attacks their efforts as a plot hatched by "radical progressives."

But when one person says that more homeowners should stop paying their mortgages in order to destabilize the banking system, Beck ratchets up the apocalyptic fervor, launching a massive on-air campaign to vilify organized labor and the Obama administration.