It's possible that Glenn Beck is insecure about his fans, or just that he's actually silly enough to take Newsbusters seriously. Either way, he's totally off the mark in this clip from today's show:

Reacting to a Washington Post story about conservatives attending conservative classes on the U.S. Constitution, Beck claims that the Post said you were only studying constitutional studies if “you're a fringy Glenn Beck fan.” But the story didn't say that at all. Not even close.

Two years ago, Taylor, who is president of the National Center for Constitutional Studies, made about 35 trips to speak to small church groups and political gatherings. This year, he has received so many requests that he enlisted 15 volunteer instructors, who are on pace to hold more than 180 sessions reaching thousands of people.

“We're trying to flood the nation . . . and it's happening,” said Taylor, 63, a charter school principal.

If a “tea party” event is where the disaffected go to protest the present, his classes are where they go to ponder the past. Participants include members of “9.12” groups inspired by conservative commentator Glenn Beck, Republicans, home-school groups and people affiliated with militias.

Now, while some may believe - with reason - that some of the groups listed are “fringy,” the Post did not characterize them that way. Newsbusters, however, wrote “Students in Constitution Class Are Probably Fringy Militia Types, WaPo Implies.” As we've shown time and again, Newsbusters often imputes thoughts on to the writers of journalism they disagree with and -- as in this case -- often neglect to cite any hard facts to make their point. It's lousy media criticism, and when Beck just appears to regurgitate it, the result is an accusation without basis in reality.

Even worse, Beck made it sound as if the article was discussing just standard-issue constitutional studies, when in fact the classes in question clearly share Beck's inclination towards a mangled version of American history (it's unclear if they, like Beck, recommend the writings of anti-semites or not). But even then, the article didn't make the value judgement Beck and Newsbusters accuse it of.

This is Beck (and Newsbusters) getting something completely wrong. Again.