Beck said "I'm a little ashamed" for calling O'Donnell "a fat witch" -- then added, "But she's so fat"
On the March 23 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Glenn Beck discussed the March 22 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, in which host Keith Olbermann named Beck the runner-up in his nightly "Worst Person in the World" segment. Olbermann gave Beck the title for calling Rosie O'Donnell "a fat witch" and mocking her weight during the March 22 broadcast of his radio show, as documented by Media Matters for America. In response, Beck said: "I wasn't calling her -- I believe I was stating a fact." Steve Burguiere, the show's executive producer and head writer known on-air as "Stu," replied, "Yeah, and I believe that's a scientific consensus."
After playing the audio clip in which he called O'Donnell a "fat witch," Beck -- who hosts CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck and was recently hired by ABC News as a "regular commentator" for Good Morning America -- said: "I have to tell you, I'm a little ashamed of myself for saying that," adding, "technically, she's not a witch." He went on to say, "I don't like calling the names," but quickly said of O'Donnell: "But she's so fat. She's so fat."
As Media Matters noted, on the same March 22 radio broadcast, Beck also said O'Donnell "can take the sides with, what's his name, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a guy who was the mastermind behind 9-11." As Media Matters also noted, Beck claimed on his March 16 radio broadcast that O'Donnell "has more contempt for the United States of America than the guy who is the number-two guy of Al Qaeda."
Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates Beck's radio show, says the program is heard on more than 230 radio stations nationwide. According to Talkers Magazine, the program reaches more than 3 million listeners each week.
From the March 23 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:
BECK: Apparently, Keith Olbermann -- I was the "Worst Person in the World" last night on Keith Olbermann again.
BURGUIERE: No, no, you were only second place --
BECK: Oh, I was only second place?
BURGUIERE: Yeah, a little disappointing.
BECK: Oh. Who was the worst person? And what did I get in -- what was I second-place "Worst Person in the World" for?
BURGUIERE: For calling Rosie fat.
BECK: Really?
BURGUIERE: That's Rosie O'Donnell.
BECK: I wasn't calling her -- I believe I was stating a fact.
BURGUIERE: Yeah, and I believe that's a scientific consensus --
BECK: I believe that is.
BURGUIERE: We can look that up.
BECK: I mean we could do the body mass index, but I don't think we have to. I mean, why waste the time? Do we have the audio?
BURGUIERE: Yeah, this is the clip that basically he was very offended by --
BECK: OK.
BURGUIERE: From our radio program yesterday.
BECK [audio clip]: But there's a conservative on the set who's shut down. You can't just say your opinion. What the hell is this show all about, you fat witch? What is this show about?
BECK: Stop. I have to tell you, I'm a little ashamed of myself for saying that. I am. I mean it's technically true, she's a witch. Well, no, technically, she's not a witch.
BURGUIERE: Why are you ashamed of -- I mean --
BECK: No, I don't like calling the names, and --
BURGUIERE: That was very hateful.
BECK: But she's so fat. She's so fat.
BURGUIERE: Well, I mean, that's -- that part of it is accurate. You're right, though.
BECK: You're right.
BURGUIERE: As far as we know, there's no Wiccan tendencies.
BECK: There's no Wiccan tendencies there, and --
BURGUIERE: You should have left that out. That's -- that was --
BECK: I probably agree with Wiccans more than I agree with Rosie O'Donnell. So I apologize to all Wiccans on that.
BURGUIERE: But there's much more to the clip, Glenn.
BECK: All right. Go ahead.
[begin audio clip]
BECK: Try to find an intelligent whale joke.
BURGUIERE: Exactly.
BECK: I'm just -- I'm saying, because the whale jokes and the blubber that she has just pouring out of her eyes --
BURGUIERE: There's no reason to go to her weight. I mean, she's the type of idiot that watches documentaries online about 9-11 and conspiracies that a fourth-grader made on their PowerPoint and believes them. So there's much more to go to on that direction than just her rolls and rolls of hideous fat.
BECK: Do you know how many oil lamps we could keep burning just on Rosie O'Donnell's fat?
BURGUIERE: See, that -- that's --
BECK: Sorry.
BURGUIERE: You're back to the facile whale jokes, and there's no --
BECK: Think about how much perfume we could make out of Rosie O'Donnell.
[end audio clip]
BECK: OK, stop, stop, stop. All right. So, you get the point.
BURGUIERE: And that's why you were the second "Worst Person in the World" from yesterday.
I'm sorry for saying Beck is full of Sh%t, but then his eyes are brown...
Pardon me for shooting a fish in a bucket...
O'Donnell can diet, but Beck's beyond help.
To take a play from Solon's standard rules of engagement, let me use language you understand. You are all a bunch of hypocritcal, uninformed morons. (how's that for posting in the tone most used by the lefties here?)
If MMFA would have posted THE REST of the transcription you would have read for yourselves the NINE fat comments Olbermann made about a conservative politician. Beck played the audio. MMFA just failed to include THAT part. Pot, meet kettle.
So for those of you so filled with hate you can't even watch the show to form your own opinions, try getting the facts straight before you launch into baseless comments. Have a nice day. :-)
If MMFA would have posted THE REST of the transcription you would have read for yourselves the NINE fat comments Olbermann made about a conservative politician.
Olbermann's behavior isn't a defense for Beck's. Try again.
...try getting the facts straight before you launch into baseless comments.
Get the facts straight? You mean Beck didn't call O'Donnell fat?
If we were HALF as ignorant, uniformed or hypocritical as YOU are we would just commit suicide in disgrace. You are still the champ. When it comes to absolute moronity, you wingnuts are in a class of your own. Stupid, bigoted, and proud of it is no way to go through life moron.
My POINT is that MMFA wastes headline space whining about all of the bad things the Right is saying. Why is it worth an article? If MMFA is not biased, where is the matching headline covering Olbermann's comments? It's hypocritical. It's biased.
By definition: MMFA is dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
What is the misinformation that Beck reported about Rosie the lefties egomaniac? Is it an insult to call her fat? Perhaps. Is it erroneous? Heck no. The left whines so often about how the right supposedly takes a holier than thou attitude. Is this not what MMFa is doing? Ooh look! Someone we hate called someone we like a name! Let's blow it out of proportion and say that we are reporting bias on the right.
Total bullcrap.
Well yeah Rosie is fat. There's no getting around that [no pun intended] But as I wrote on the other thread, it's really unnecessary to mention her girth when criticizing her.
And yeah Rosie comes off rather bitchy at times, so referring to her as a bitch instead of a witch would have been more accurate. But why sink to that level?
I don't like Rosie. I think she's rude & crude, and a tad kooky. Maybe me writing that isn't too nice either, but I think it's a lot less nasty than Beck's description ;-)
Jeter, you really should show your gratitude to Beck.
He's managed to lower the bar in public discourse to the point that your own negative comments on O'Donnell's weight seem almost polite.
Jeter, remember your favorite former poster's motto: It's not a personal attack if it's true!
I am shocked that any network would allow these men to have any airtime. Okay, so they have to give conservatives some time, but come on, do they have to pick from the bottom of the barrel? The conservative mentality has me worried.
I'm wondering if they really are the bottom of the barrel? Or have we been seriously overestimating the intelligence and humanity of conservatives as a class - these reprehensible individuals might actually be "best of breed"?
(Gag reflex kicks in as I contemplate the true dregs, in that scenario.)
Tell me again why this man has a TV show?
I'd guess because there are a lot of poeple out there with the same sort of problems and anger that Beck has, they just don't have the guts to say these things out loud.
A hero for the scared and stoopid.
I can't help but note the irony that a 'man' who looks eerily like the Pillsbury Doughboy is making derisive remarks about someone else's weight.
Makes y' wonder what he sees when he looks in the mirror.
VICTORY !!!!!
and daddy not coming home for weeks at a time.and how angry that makes him still.
Wow, you are so mean for pointing that out about beck's weight...way to continue lowering the bar...
You're right, Libs. Mentioning Beck's weight is pointless. I'm not exactly anorexic myself, &, more to the point, it misses the main thrust of what I'm really trying to say here. His cruelty & dishonesty would be just as profound if he was an Adonis, & these sort of spiteful 'fat' cracks are just as wounding to a lot of good & caring people who happen to be struggling with their own weight issues. Why should I contribute to their discomfort? Its shallow & insensitive & sure to wound the wrong people.
I should have simply called him a sleazy dumbf*ck & left it at that.
When will the hatred stop?
Now you're starting in on plumbers.............."fat cracks"...YOUR words.
He, Beck, is a sad sack.
Trying to hold it together, probably cries into his pillow at night because he is such a waste of space.
I think what bothers most people is that many people listen to rosie and not them.
Sad.
Chuckles also called Michael Schiavo's children bastards and refused to apologize because he was "technically correct." Classy guy eh.
This (and other various and sundry rants) coming from a family values man. A man who teaches Sunday school. What is he teaching?? A man who openly talks about his Christian beliefs, but never turns the other cheek. A man who says things he regrets, then repeats them day after day after day. A man who claims to have the courage of his convictions, but when it comes to fighting a war, he'd rather stay home.
Beck also says he's a Conservative. I wonder...in order to be a Conservative is it also necessary to be a hypocrite??
In answer to your question, yes it is a requirement. Didn't use to be.
Schaivo's Childern are bastards... in the literal sense. He had them out of wedlock with a woman that was not his wife.
Your point?
Here's my point.
You are clearly little more than a brain stem...a moron, if you will.
Meh, who cares? If you did a BMI on Rosie she would be considered obese. What's the big deal?
By the way, it's fácil (Spanish for "easy", from the "Eso Era Fácil" (That Was Easy) buttons from Staples). I think this whole bit was more of a way to mock the Fácil Button than to mock Rosie. It was all a lead up to the "fácil jokes" that had been a running joke that whole day.
I think Beck would be the first to agree with you. He jokes about his own fatness all the time. Before he was on TV he was a lot fatter still, and he'd be the first to joke about it.
...and when was the last time he jokingly called himself a bitch?
There's a thing called decorum and class. Sure, Rosie may be fat, but Beck reduced it to a personal attack. Instead of rebutting any message or point she's trying to make, he just attacks her weight.Beck and other conservative puppets just hate women. They don't like to see women succeed and they are simply afraid of women. This has been going on for years, and nothing is more evident than it is now.So, if we can "scientifically" prove that Beck is an arsehole, do we get to say that he is one without fear of retribution?
Please! Like Glenn Beck is missing meals.
Seems they'll give anybody a show/forum, these days.
Rosie O'Donnell has done more for adoption, children, gay rights, the disenfranchised, The Tony Awards, Broadway, and The View, than Beck has ever done...exactly, what has he ever done?
Pseudo conservative that he is....a Fox news talking head on CNN..I guess to balance the equation. We could do without his fluff.
Aaron
I feel a little ashamed of callling Glenn Beck a charlatan who is either incredibly dishonest or incredibly dumb. Actually, no I don't, because its the truth.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
Didn't see you guys complain too much when Keith Olbermann called Roger Ailes "fat" 8 different times in 7 minutes...
http://hotair.com/archives/2006/09/29/video-olbermann-calls-ailes-fat-eight-times-in-seven-minutes/
Just another example of liberal hypocrisy..'tis nothing new.
Olbermann has apologized for his remarks. So, when do you suppose The Beaver will apologize for his?? When do you think the "thinker", the guy who teaches Sunday school and calls children "bastards" will say he's sorry?
Want to take bets? Didn't think so.
Ah that old worn out excuse for dismissing bad behavior. Just say "I'm sorry". Poof all gone. Like it never happen. And don't bring it up cause "I'm sorry" takes it off the books. Nothing to see here, move along.
While an apology [genuine or not] is better than no apology, it does not, IMO, absolve the speaker of the remark and/or action.
You said it...you own it.
That goes for BOTH Democrats & Republicans. Conservatives & Liberals.
Olbermann & Beck.
Should an apology excuse bad behavior? Should there be forgiveness? Perhaps yes, so long as the behavior is acknoweldged and never repeated.
A sincere apology is the utter essence of owning ones words and actions. An apology is an appeal for forgiveness. Of course the offense is not erased but an apology is the soulful revelation of an offense given.
I respect liberals like Olberman because they have strength of character to accept responsibility and apologize. Compare that to a republican weasel like Beck who dismisses personal responsibility and deflects criticism. I know whose behavior I would rather emulate.
Frankly, it's not the name calling that bothers me. I really don't care and don't think Ailes or O'Donnell do either. I think they can handle it.
Here's what's really facinating to me.
I've never heard Olbermann tell his viewers that he is "one of the good ones" as Glenn Beck has told his listeners. I've never heard Olbermann talk about being a family values guy; Glenn Beck does it all the time. I've never heard Olbermann talk about his religious convictions the way Glenn Beck does. And I've never heard Olbermann call toddlers "bastard children" like Glenn Beck has.
You can't tell your listeners that on one hand you are a church going, Sunday school teaching Christian and then denegrate the target of the day the next. Because if you do you lose all credibility (except for the folks who live for the red meat Beck throws you).
That's the problem with The Beaver. Sometimes the "thinker" speaks before...well, thinking.
Glenn Beck, THE BOY, is his stage image. It's his style of humor, he's not likely to break out of that personality, and no amount of pious pronouncements (listen to yourself) is going to change it.
HE'S AN ENTERTAINER!!!!! Sorry for yelling, but you're being just a little bit rigid (unLiberal).
HE'S A MAINSTREAM CONSERVATIVE THINKER!!!!!
If you don't like that he is a movement conservative then I suggest you endeavor to rearrange the conservative worldview.
Sorry, didn't realize his humor had a style.
Olberman had substantive criticism of Ailes; the fat references were as metaphoric as anything else - as in a symbol of his greedy and selfish ignorant gluttonous stewardship of media. Olberman apologized nonetheless. Beck had no substance behind his fat remarks, just mindless venom. If you are really that concerned about hypocrisy, note that conservatives have cornered the market. And on cowardice too. I note the hotair (well named) site has closed registration, apparently afraid of upsetting their quota of nodding heads with scary things like dissenting opinions.
Olberman had substantive criticism of Ailes; the fat references were as metaphoric as anything else - as in a symbol of his greedy and selfish ignorant gluttonous stewardship of media. Olberman apologized nonetheless.
What bull ca-ca
Read my post above to Moe.
I can't believe how the pretzel logic & outright disingenuous nonsense some of you come up with here to excuse bad behavior when it's a Liberal.
Ajwan...
What you nodding heads HERE do to dissent is something to see.
I don't like Rosie. She irritates me. I think she scares people and is essentially detrimental to any cause she supports.
This is an interesting conundrum for me. I'm a freelance writer who puts on 'The View' in the background, to listen to their "hot topics" segment in the beginning of the show. I applaud that show for bringing certain issues to the daytime domestic audience that they wouldn't necessarily digest. While I agree that RO'D is sometimes irrationally brusque (she's a shouter rather than a debater), she also exposes the sins of an administration who cons the middle class with their "values" strategy. It is good that this type of voter can gain some semblence of balance beyond the con and RO'D is willing to provide it and has this forum.
It's easy to dismiss someone out of hand for being overweight, loud, a woman AND within an alternative lifestyle paradigm. It's harder to listen.
A comfort to know that Rosie's going to alert the middle class when it's getting conned, WHOEVER may be doing it and WHENEVER it happens.
I'm tearing up.
Class act.
I wonder if CNN Headline News is proud of the quality of its programming.
I dont think you can truly apologize if you are in the media. Beck could say he was sorry all day long but that clip would be ignored. and If he is such a scum-bag hatemonger then why is he held to such a high standard?? I dont go down to the las vegas strip and critique the ranting of Bling Bling from bum-fights. when did sophmoric humor become propaganda? when you fight with pigs you both get dirty and the pig likes it. so why do it? and besides, i think calling someone one of the worst people in the world constitutes a personal attack. a lot more than just calling someone fat. but did anyone even notice that he didnt attack back? its because its no big deal. a lot worse things have been said to people and they are not expected to appoligize. and even though he shouldnt have said what he said it was not inaccurate. i thought mmfa was here to report on false information. not difference of opinion.
"I probably agree with Wiccans more than I agree with Rosie O'Donnell. So I apologize to all Wiccans on that."
On behalf of all Wiccans "I apologize for thinking Beck was a stupid idiot. But he's so stupid!"