Mr. Beck, Please Pick Up the Red Phone

Media Matters challenges Beck to denounce conservatives who have cited Mao, Lenin, Viet Cong

Washington, D.C. - Today, after Glenn Beck attacked White House communications director Anita Dunn for calling Mao Zedong one of her two "favorite political philosophers," Media Matters for America challenged the Fox News host to similarly denounce the numerous conservatives who have also approvingly cited the tactics of Mao, Vladimir Lenin, and the Viet Cong, stated that they had used those tactics in their political work, or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies.

"By Glenn Beck's logic, Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove, and the CATO Institute are all part of the same revolutionary communist conspiracy," said Ari Rabin-Havt, vice president of Media Matters. "Beck should do better research before hurling around McCarthyite accusations."

BACKGROUND:

In his latest example of targeting an Obama administration official, Beck has been attacking Dunn, claiming that she "worships" her "hero" Mao Zedong. Prior to this attack, Beck had unveiled a "red phone" Dunn could use to "correct the mistakes" on his show. One mistake Beck recently made was to air a clip of Dunn calling Mao Zedong and Mother Teresa two of her "favorite political philosophers" and to use those comments to falsely link Dunn to the murder of tens of millions of Chinese under Mao's reign. However, Beck ignored the numerous conservatives who have approvingly cited the tactics of Mao, Vladimir Lenin, and the Viet Cong, stated that they had used those tactics in their political work, or have otherwise highlighted their philosophies. Examples include:

• Former Speaker of the House Gingrich quoted Mao. A May 1995 Roll Call profile of then-Speaker of the House and current Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich reported that "Gingrich even quoted a political leader not previously known to be one of his influences. 'War is politics with blood; politics is war without blood,' said the Speaker, citing the late Chinese Communist leader Mao Tse-tung."

• Karl Rove: President Bush "encouraged me to read a Mao biography." From Rove's December 26, 2008, Wall Street Journal column: "We recommended volumes to each other (for example, [Bush] encouraged me to read a Mao biography; I suggested a book on Reconstruction's unhappy end)."

• Goldwater "alter ego" Shadegg: "[I]n all ... campaigns where I have served as consultant I have followed the advice of Mao Tse-tung." In his 1964 essay "The Paranoid Style in American Politics," Richard Hofstadter wrote that Stephen C. Shadegg, whom The New York Times described as "a political campaign manager who was regarded as the alter ego of Senator Barry Goldwater in the Senator's unsuccessful quest for the Presidency in 1964," approvingly cited Mao and quoted him, saying that he "followed the advice of Mao" while working for Goldwater and in his other campaign work. Beck has repeatedly called on Republicans to "get back to the conservative roots of Barry Goldwater."

• LA Times cited 1983 Cato Journal article as part of "the groundwork" for Bush's push to change Social Security. According to Los Angeles Times staff writer Janet Hook, "[a] generation of free-market conservatives like [Cato Institute president Edward H.] Crane" had been "laying the groundwork for" "Bush's plan to allow younger workers to divert Social Security taxes into personal investment accounts." Hook then cited a 1983 Cato Journal article in which Heritage Foundation analysts Stuart Butler and Peter Germanis wrote: "It could be many years before the conditions are such that a radical reform of Social Security is possible. ... But then, as Lenin well knew, to be a successful revolutionary, one must also be patient and consistently plan for real reform."

• GOP strategist and frequent Fox News guest Reed reportedly cited Mao approvingly. A 1992 Seattle Times 

  article reported that Republican strategist and former Christian Coalition director Ralph Reed said in an "interview with The Phoenix Gazette" that "Mao Tse-Tung said politics is war without bloodshed. Clearly, there are some metaphors that sit nicely with politics."

• Reed called for using Viet Cong-style political tactics. In The Art of Political Warfare, John J. Pitney Jr., a contributing editor to the libertarian journal Reason, wrote that Reed explained the Christian Coalition's strategy of sometimes backing " 'stealth candidates' for local office who would downplay their affiliations in order to attract broader support" by saying, "It's like guerrilla warfare. If you reveal your location, all it does is allow your opponent to improve his artillery bearings. It's better to move quietly, with stealth, under cover of night. ... It comes down to whether you want to be the British army in the Revolutionary War or the Viet Cong. History tells us which tactic was more effective."

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