During an interview on the March 18 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, host Howard Kurtz asked Glenn Beck, host of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, if he will “be toning it down a bit” during his upcoming appearances as a "regular commentator" on ABC's Good Morning America. Beck told Kurtz: “No. I mean, I think my success comes from being honest. ... How do you tone down honesty? You just are who you are.”
During his lead-in to the interview, Kurtz noted that Beck has been “mired in one controversy after another” since his television show premiered in May 2006. Kurtz aired video clips -- documented by Media Matters for America -- of Beck joking about putting Braille on coffee pots and labeling the Iraq Study Group recommendations “Operation White Flag.” Kurtz also noted that Beck recently called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) a “stereotypical -- well, it's an unflattering word starting with B.” As Media Matters noted, on the March 15 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Beck described Clinton as “the stereotypical bitch.” Further, Kurtz confronted Beck about this statement, made during a November 14, 2006, interview with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who recently became the first Muslim elected to Congress: “I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' ”
From the March 18 edition of CNN's Reliable Sources:
KURTZ: Since joining CNN's Headline News 10 months ago, radio talk-show host Glenn Beck has been getting mired in one controversy after another.
[begin video clip]
BECK: 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!
[...]
BECK: The Iraq Study Group recommends a new course of action in Iraq. I like to call it “Operation White Flag.”
[end video clip]
KURTZ: Just the other day on his radio show on Premiere [Radio] Networks, Beck called Hillary Clinton a stereotypical -- well, it's an unflattering word starting with B. Earlier, I spoke with him from New York.
[...]
BECK: I find it very offensive. I find it extraordinarily offensive in rap music, and [Rev.] Al Sharpton and I had an hour-long conversation -- we both agree on the N-word. I agree on the K-word. I agree on the F-word.
However, when you are having a discussion about words, can you not utter the words in an adult conversation? And need I remind everyone you can call me all kinds of names. Racist is a word that I find very offensive. Bigot, I find very offensive. I'm not a bigoted man. I'm not a racist. I'm a guy who asks honest questions. And when you get into the situation where you can't have conversations about words, I have to go back to what my mother said, and that is, “Sticks and stones my break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Names -- those words said in hatred are absolutely offensive and have no place in our society. But when you're having a discussion about the power of words, and when are you having a discussion of what words are acceptable, what words are not, can we not be adult enough to have that discussion?
KURTZ: All right. I want to ask you now about the single most controversial thing you've done since you've joined Headline News, this was your interview with the newly elected Democratic congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of Congress. Let's watch what you asked him.
BECK [video clip]: You are a Democrat. You are saying, “Let's cut and run.” And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.
KURTZ: I've got to be blunt here. I found that horribly offensive.
BECK: I can appreciate that. It was a poorly worded question. And I apologize for a poorly worded question. However, I think we're all living in denial if we are really saying to each other that a world that we live in now, where we can't -- where we have to shut up because of political correctness, and we can't say, “Muslim extremists are bad. Ten percent of Islam is extreme and want to kill us.” Because I say those things, people gather together and want to shut --
KURTZ: Why assume that an elected member of Congress, who happens to be a --
BECK: No sir. I didn't -- no sir.
KURTZ: -- Muslim would in any way be affiliated with those extremists?
BECK: That is not what I said. And I immediately said, “I am not accusing you of that.” But we need to recognize because it's dangerous for Muslims, good Muslims, the 90 percent-plus of Islam, it is dangerous for them. Because there is a feeling in a lot of Americans that, “Jeez, everybody is trying to shut me up. Nobody wants to admit that maybe as much as 10 percent of Islam is bad, and so we can't have these conversations,” and that buries these, “Gee, I don't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are.”
I am not saying anything like he was a bad guy. What I was trying to say is, is there is a feeling in America that is unreasonable, but it is being fostered by a political correctness blanket that we have to throw on everything.
[...]
KURTZ: Got about 20 seconds here. You are going to start soon as a contributor to ABC's Good Morning America. Will you be toning it down a bit on those appearances?
BECK: No. I mean, I think my success comes from being honest. How do you tone down honesty? How do you tone down honesty? You just are who you are.