Remember when Glenn Beck told everyone that it was completely by accident that his self-aggrandizing Restoring Honor event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was to be held on the anniversary of Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream Speech,” but that was okay because he's a modern-day reincarnation of Dr. King? It was quite the remarkable coincidence, and you'd think the odds of something so fortuitous ever happening again would be so high as to be impossible.
Well, think again.
As you're probably aware, Beck and Sarah Palin are set to reunite in Alaska on September 11 to put on a show for anyone willing to pay $75 - $225 for the privilege of their august company. Some people got it in their heads that holding a for-profit event on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history was unseemly, as it gave the appearance that they were, as Gawker put it, “counting their blood money.”
But that's not at all the case, according to event promoter Christopher Cox, who insists that the event's inauspicious date is purely coincidental. According to the AP:
The show originally featured only Beck, a popular Fox News Channel personality, according to Christopher Cox, the Anchorage-based promoter of the event. Cox later thought of adding the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, and she agreed to it, he said.
Cox said the date of the event is a coincidence. Cox originally was eyeing Sept. 4, but did not want to compete with the Alaska State Fair, and moved the date to a week later, which worked out better for Beck as well.
Well thank goodness for that, and for the sensibilities of Mr. Cox, whose concern for the Alaska State Fair's attendance clearly outweighed worries that his clients might appear to be exploiting the deaths of 3,000 Americans for financial gain. Also, Cox's story doesn't really stand up too well when you consider the fact that Palin has been promoting the event on Facebook by writing that she “can think of no better way to commemorate 9/11 than to gather with patriots who will 'never forget.' ”
But that's all just a scheduling quirk. I mean, Glenn Beck would never use 9-11 as a publicity tool to further his own ambitions, right? Okay, well maybe there was that one time... and that other time... and all the other times too. But this one really is a coincidence. Honest.