Beck crops video to absurdly claim "the mask is coming off" a plot to take over the country
Glenn Beck played cropped video of a speech by Green for All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins to suggest she admitted that there is a "plan to take over the country." In fact, the full context of her speech reveals that Ellis-Lamkins' agenda is one of equality -- not government takeover.
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Beck crops speech to claim CEO admits to "plan to take over the country"
Beck: "They do have a plot, a plan to take over the country. And the mask is coming off." On the June 10 edition of his Fox News program, Beck played cropped video of a speech by Ellis-Lamkins to suggest that "the mask is coming off" the left's purported plot to take over America.
From Fox News' Glenn Beck:
BECK: The CEO of Green for All, here she is. She's a big player in Crime Inc. She sits on the board of Emerald Cities. She spoke at this America's Future Now. Here's what she had to say when she brought up my name.
ELLIS-LAMKINS [video clip]: When Glenn Beck started talking about me, someone said, "Are you angry?" And what I said to him is, "Absolutely, we have a plot to take over this country. Absolutely we do." It's not a hidden agenda.
BECK: Nope, it's not. It's not. Nope. It's right out in the open. And she's just like you. She is. She's just like you. Yeah. She's just like the American family of the 1950s. See, this is what it is. The crazy people, the people, the people just like you, and the man. See what's happening? They do have a plot, a plan to take over the country. And the mask is coming off. But will anyone join us in this conversation out in the light of day?
Green for All's stated agenda is that "all people deserve equality." At the America's Future Now! conference on June 7, from which Beck excerpted the video shown on his program, Ellis-Lamkins explained that the "agenda" of Green for All is that "all people deserve equality" -- not, as Beck suggested, a sinister plot to take over the country. After sharing her personal hopes that her nieces will have a "future as bright as someone who grew up in a community that had better opportunity," Ellis-Lamkins went on to state [Ellis-Lamkins begins speaking at 39:15 in the video. The portion aired by Beck -- highlighted in bold below -- begins around 43:30]:
ELLIS-LAMKINS: And so, you know, I thought about, well, who are we? Well, we believe that a coalition of working-class white men, people of color, environmentalists, that we're capable of change. We recognize there's honor in being a coal miner in West Virginia, and we don't blame the coal miner. But we recognize that the needs of the coal miner, of the white West Virginian coal miner, and the black woman working in Chevron in Richmond, that they have the same needs, and an agenda can meet both of their needs. That's who we are.
You know, I have a -- you know, I come out of the labor a moment so I am used to people yelling at me. And so -- members, politicians -- it doesn't hurt my feelings. So when Glenn Beck started talking about me, someone said, "Are you angry? He said you want to take over the world." Like maybe we shouldn't talk about it for awhile. And what I said to him is, "Absolutely, we have a plot to take over this country. Absolutely, we do."
It's not a hidden agenda. It's an agenda that says that all people deserve equality, that white coal miners in West Virginia and black women in Richmond, California, want the same thing. What they want is for us to divide ourselves. What they want is for us to say that one is better than another. That it's immigration versus coal mining, that it's this versus that. And what we say is no, because our vision of America has all of us, not some of us. That when we think about what green is, it is green for all, not for some. That's the difference.
Now that's an interesting Tag.
Is it well deserved? Are we being a Nag?
I'll hold the Chloroform, if you'll hold the Gag.
Speak truth to power.
Mr. News
I really hope that is a rhetorical questions. This is definitely Daily Show material.
Beck continues to carry out his anti progressive campaign. Is this Emerald Cities attempt to form coalitions on evironmental issues new? Not really but Beck wants his listeners to gasp at the thougth that real live progressives and their agenda have the audacity to still exists. For Beck such political reforms were evil in the past and they are evil now.
So in order to purify our nation, this idea of working class people organizing around environmental issues becomes sinister. I imagine Beck would like our politics to be entirely limited to narrow discussions over cutting taxes and outlawing reproductive decisions.
It was a political hit job... period.
You can tell on the clip that the piece has been edited. It also makes it sound like Ms. Ellis-Lamkins is being facetious as in
yeah, sure Becko, we're out to take over the world, right after we send all the white males to Pluto...
Sloppy editing job.
This is so true. Beck and his minions project their issues on to their rivals all the time. Beck is on a witchhunt to remove over 100 years of progressivism from our politics, yet he is ultra sensitive to the idea that environmental issues in the inner city and in the country would bring people together. Somehow that is a big threat, yet Beck telling a large segment of our progressive citizens that their ideas and beliefs are evil and have to go is somehow ok.
I know of no influencial movement to remove conservative politics from our nation. Obama has not made taking away guns a part of his agenda. He has not raised everyone's taxes or weakened our security. There is no plan for a socialist government... Yet Beck and company are hysterical, mostly because they can not tolerate non-conservatives in power.
It's pathetic.
I could call myself a liberal, but I also hold some views that are considered conservative. But I want nothing more than all citizens of the United States to come together and work toward a better future. Because if we don't look past our differences and work together, then this ship IS going down.
I don't want some crazy left-wing dictatorship nor do I want some crazy right-wing dictatorship.
Glenn Beck has created a phantom that he uses to try and scare anyone who is vulnerable, angry and looking for answers.
Shame on him. Shame on his handlers. Shame on Fox News for making money off of his fearmongering.
And finally, there is such a thing as REAL America. And it is made up of all the people who want to see this country thrive and become the beacon of the principles freedom and liberty that it was founded upon.
It's a mindset, not a tv show or super-exciting best-seller. And Glenn Beck wouldn't know a thing about it.
They apparently decided a couple of decades ago that the only way they could stay in control was to divide the populace with lies and propaganda. That's why they created the Talk Radio monster that is poisoning our politics. That's why the created FOX "News", a sham news network that is nothing more than a media outlet for Republican talking points.
And it's working, much to the shame of the country.
This shows quite clearly that Glenn Beck and FOX news are abusing their licensed use of the public airwaves.
It has come down to this...that now organizations and individuals targeted by the right wing media must carefully speak every word in such a way that they cannot be edited, and chopped apart, and cropped, and taken out of context. No use of sarcasm or irony, no use of clever rhetorical devices, no use of metaphor or may be used. Now all statements must be made in simple, non descriptive three second sound bites.
Any right winger who wonders how America is being dumbed down and why there is so much partisan vitriol needs only look to the deliberately misleading hack jobs of people like Glenn Beck.
Shameful.