If you're a right-wing radio host like Glenn Beck, and NewsBusters -- home of people who think facts and “Democrat talking points” are the same thing and who believe the colors used in newspaper graphics demonstrate liberal bias -- thinks you've gone a bit too far, you've probably gone a bit too far.
On his radio show today, Beck and his crew went on a tirade over a report on this morning's edition of ABC's Good Morning America on Beck's “Restoring Honor” rally on Saturday, getting particularly incensed that the report reported Beck's statement that blacks don't own Martin Luther King without also noting that he also said that whites don't own Abraham Lincoln. Beck then took it further: “You know what? I'm gonna get a lot of heat for this, but stand in line. That's what Goebbels did. That's what Goebbels did. The truth didn't matter.”
Beck's Nazi reference prompted Scott Whitlock of NewsBusters -- an organization traditionally loath to criticize conservative radio hosts -- to respond: “Now, while ABC should be criticized for the dishonest editing job, it is over-the-top to play the Nazi card.”
Of course, the idea of Beck getting incensed about people taking others' words out of context is particularly rich, since he is no stranger to the practice. Just the other day, while attempting to rebut video Media Matters obtained of Beck in 2006 appearing to call Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf a “good Muslim,” Beck truncated the clip -- omitting relevant information -- while re-airing it on his radio and TV shows to bash us.
But Beck and crew weren't done. Co-host Pat Gray added: “These are the same people who had such a conniption fit, and they should, over Shirley Sherrod being Shirley Sherodded. These are the same people who are so indignant and angry over the fact that Shirley Sherrod was taken out of context -- which we did not do to her, by the way. We supported her from the beginning, and these are the same people doing it to you now. What hypocrites!”
Actually, as we've detailed, Beck did air the deceptively edited Sherrod tape on his radio show, meaning that, in fact, Beck did not “support her from the beginning.”
Will Beck's outrage over his words being supposedly taken out of context prevent him from doing the same thing himself in the future? Don't count on it.