Author who has schooled Beck for weeks responds to his dismissal of her work

Written by Karl Frisch

Published

For several weeks now, Media Matters has been highlighting the work of Chris Rodda -- senior research director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and author of Liars For Jesus: The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History -- and her “No, Mr. Beck” series debunking the historical revisionism of Beck and “Christian nationalist pseudo-historian” David Barton.

It seems Rodda was mentioned on the last edition of “Founders' Friday” and in vintage Beck fashion, the Fox News host couldn't manage to get his facts straight.

As Rodda notes in her latest post -- titled “No, Mr. Beck, That Wasn't 'Some Professor' -- That Was Me” -- Beck mentions her work in response to a question from the audience, this time made up of teenagers (my favorite part is in bold towards the end for emphasis):

Last Friday, on his "Rewriting Restoring History" show, Glenn Beck scoffed at one of my posts from my video series debunking the American history lies being told on his “Founders' Fridays” episodes and other shows. The particular post that Beck was referring to was one in which I debunked one of the lies told by his lovely assistant, and Beck University “professor,” David Barton -- that Thomas Jefferson dated his documents “in the year of our Lord Christ.”

Beck's audience for this show was made up of all teenagers, and Beck began by taking some questions from the audience. This one came from a student named Joe:

“I learned on your show that Thomas Jefferson actually signed a lot of his documents 'in Christ,' but a lot of people say that he was a deist, so is he a Christian or a deist?”

Barton, who was once again Beck's guest “historian,” responded by making his lie even bigger than usual, claiming that Jefferson dated “thousands” of documents in this way.

Beck: “David, I saw somebody write you up. Some professor wrote you up and said, 'Oh that David Barton -- just making that stuff up. That was that one document.' Was it that one document?

Barton: ”That one plus thousands of others, yeah."

Beck: “OK. But it is that one document.

Barton: ”Yeah, it is that one -- and a whole lot more."

For those who are new to my “No, Mr Beck” series, in my June 24 installment, titled “No, Mr. Beck, Jefferson Did Not Date His Documents 'In the Year of Our Lord Christ,'” I explained that Barton bases this lie on only one document -- a document that was nothing more than a preprinted form required to be carried by ships leaving the United States. These fill-in-the-blanks forms were printed in bulk, and every president signed big stacks of them, leaving all the information blank. The signed forms were then sent to the officials at all the ports to be filled out as needed. The reason these forms were dated “in the year of our Lord Christ” was because this was the language specified by an 1782 commerce treaty with the Netherlands, which was a Christian power. Jefferson did not choose this language, as Barton claims. Nor did he date any other documents in this way.

So, Mr. Barton, let's see some of those “thousands of others” that you claim Jefferson dated that way. I challenge you to show us all a few of them the next time you're on Beck.

And, just for the record, I'm not a professor, and have never claimed to be one, unlike Beck University's “Professor” Barton, who apparently thinks that his honorary doctorate from Pensacola Christian College qualifies him to use such a title. But, I guess that's acceptable at a university whose “chancellor” calls himself a doctor because of his honorary doctorate from Liberty University. Referring to me as some unnamed professor is just part of the Barton and Beck shtick. It fits their unceasing claim that it's those liberal professors at our colleges and universities who are rewriting history and destroying America. So, I can't be just an author and blogger. To properly demonize and discredit me, I need to be a professor.

Previously: