CNN's Beck on the blind: “Just to piss them off, I'm going to put in Braille on the coffee pot ... 'Pot is hot.' Ow!”

On his CNN Headline News program, in discussing the “politically correct world we live in,” which, he said, will not allow “stereotypes or sensitive questions” to be broached, Glenn Beck claimed that Braille on walls (used to identify rooms for blind people) “drives me out of my mind.”


On the August 24 edition of his CNN Headline News program, nationally syndicated radio host Glenn Beck claimed that Braille on walls (used to identify rooms for blind people) “drives me out of my mind.” When he made his comment, Beck was discussing the “politically correct world we live in,” which, he claimed, will not allow “stereotypes or sensitive questions” to be broached. He explained that “a blind person would have to be feeling all of the walls to find [the] 'kitchen.' ” Beck then waved his hands about, presumably to mimic the actions of a frustrated blind person. He then said, “Just to piss them [blind people] off, I'm going to put in Braille on the coffee pot ... 'Pot is hot.' ”

As Media Matters for America has documented, Beck has previously claimed that one reason different races are “afraid to hang out with each other” is that “we're afraid ... somebody's gonna sic the NAACP on us, or somebody's gonna sic an attorney on us.” He has also mocked the names of Egyptians students and used mock commercials to make fun of Mexican immigrants.

From the August 24 edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck:

BECK: All right. If you look up the word “stereotype” in the dictionary, you will see it defined as conventional or over-simplified conception, opinion or image. But if you run that definition through my bull crap-to-English dictionary that I was just talking about there in that radio clip, you'll find that stereotype -- I mean, it's stuff that a lot of people believe in because sometimes they're really true.

Either way, the politically correct world we live in, a world where, you know, I can't even show a picture of a missing student because he's Egyptian, “Oh, don't. What? You hate all Arabs?” No! It doesn't allow you to publicly talk about stereotypes or sensitive questions about age or race or religion. You can't even say anything about it or just ask an honest question.

It's not very often that questions like, “How come Asians are so good at math?” or “Have you ever noticed, Jews, they're all good at making money?” You can't say those things out in the open. But for our next guest, answering those kinds of questions and then dealing with the -- just the on-fire, inflammatory responses that they cause are this guy's life. Phillip Milano is -- oh, jeez, with a name like Milano, you must be in organized crime?

PHILLIP MILANO (Florida Times-Union columnist): Yes. Oh, absolutely.

BECK: You are -- you're the writer of "Dare to Ask." What is the point of this column?

MILANO: Well, “Dare to Ask,” Glenn, like my book, I Can't Believe You Asked That!, is -- it's a chance for people to ask those kinds of taboo cultural questions that we all wish we could ask but we're so afraid of offending in this P.C. world that, you know, we -- we dance around it, as you were saying earlier.

BECK: OK. I have one. I have one. I'm going to get to some of the questions that have already been asked, but I've got one that drives me out of my mind. I work at Radio City in midtown Manhattan, and up by the doors, you know, like where the -- you know -- the office kitchen is, in Braille, on the wall, it says “kitchen.” You'd have to -- a blind person would have to be feeling all of the walls to find “kitchen.” Just to piss them off, I'm going to put in Braille on the coffee pot -- I'm going to put, “Pot is hot.” Ow!