Glenn Beck has repeatedly said that Fox News executives would fire him if he made inaccurate or baseless claims on air. Does Fox News agree? Was Beck told by the higher-ups at Fox that he could be fired for telling untruths and making things up?
- Beck: “I could not stay on the air if I were making these things up.” While discussing his series of Fox News episodes purporting to expose George Soros, Beck stated on the November 10 edition of his radio show: “You do your own homework. All the footnotes are there. You check us. I could not stay on the air if I were making these things up.” Addressing Soros later in the show, Beck said: “If I were making up lies about you, I couldn't stay on the air. First of all, you wouldn't have to pressure. Rupert Murdoch wouldn't put me on the air. He would fire me.”
- Beck: “If I was inaccurate, they would have fired me long ago.” Responding to groups putting pressure on Fox News because of Beck's rhetoric, Beck said on the October 28 broadcast of his radio show: “I have nothing bad to say about Fox. They have left me alone. They have let me do - they hold me responsible for what I say. They make sure that it's right and it's accurate. They do that. They - If I was inaccurate, they would have fired me long ago. Long ago.”
- Beck: “If I get out of control and start leveling baseless charges ... guess what happens? I'm fired.” On June 14 edition of Beck's Fox News show, Beck stated, “If I get out of control and start leveling baseless charges that can't be backed up, guess what happens? I'm fired. I lose my job. If Congress does the same thing, you lose your freedom.”
Below the fold is a sample of baseless or demonstrably false claims Beck has made on Fox News:
- Beck claimed Chris Coons is “a Marxist”
- Beck falsely claimed Soros advocated “scrapping the free market in favor of failed socialist or Marxist policies”
- Beck baselessly linked Soros to NPR's firing of Juan Williams
- Beck falsely claims Rep. Patrick Murphy illegally solicited “absentee ballot[s]”
- Beck falsely suggests Ginsburg supports “cleansing” America of “unwanted populations”
- Beck falsely claimed Phoenix has more kidnappings “than any other city in the world” except Mexico City
- Beck pushed conspiracy theory that drilling moratorium was a plot to enrich Soros
- Beck says he had “never” talked about Obama's family before May 28
- Beck falsely claimed CRA “led to all of the things that we're now having to bail banks out for”
- Beck falsely claimed proposed capital gains tax increase “affects every single” investor
- Beck falsely claimed Obama wants to ban fishing by executive order
- Beck falsely claimed the New England Journal of Medicine said one-third of doctors will quit if HCR passed
- Beck falsely claimed Obama told tea partiers to “get out of the way”
- Beck falsely claimed Phil Jones said late 20th century warming “was not unprecedented”
- Beck falsely claimed Obama's 2011 budget includes revenue from cap and trade legislation
- Beck falsely claimed that most of Arctic ice has returned since low point in 2007
- Beck falsely claimed that under health care bill, “You don't get a single benefit until 2014”
- Beck falsely claimed $1.4 million in stimulus spent on doors, which actually cost $246,100 to repair
- Beck falsely claimed Obama administration “privately concluded that the cap-and-trade law” would cost families $1,761 a year
- Beck falsely claimed Cass Sunstein “believe that everyone must be an organ donor”
- Beck claimed Obama's “civilian national security force” is “what Hitler did with the SS,” “what Saddam Hussein” did
- Beck claimed Obama has “a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture” Beck later said “it's not racism. It's anti-colonialism ... it's liberation theology.”
- Beck falsely claimed Chamber of Commerce “represents 3 million businesses”
- Beck falsely claimed Iowa marriage ruling “is actually about going into churches”
- Beck falsely asserted that U.S. does not fingerprint foreign visitors or collect rapists' DNA
- Beck falsely accused Van Jones of being a “convicted felon ... who spent, I think, six months in prison after the Rodney King beating.”
- Beck falsely claimed average UAW worker makes $154 per hour
Not convinced that Beck should be fired by the standards he says Fox holds him to? Here are 40 more.