I have to wonder what runs through the minds of the writers Glenn Beck hired for TheBlaze.com, Beck's latest ridiculous exercise in self-promotion. Do they actually believe that they're practicing some form of journalism and not being used to inflate the coffers and ego of their increasingly self-obsessed boss? Are they in on the scam and willing accomplices to Beck's self-serving manipulation of the media? Safe money's on the latter, but one still has to consider all options.

Take, for instance, this filing from Jonathon M. Seidl, TheBlaze.com's assistant editor, on a British Muslim's call to burn American flags in response to Pastor Terry Jones' Koran-burning publicity stunt [emphasis added]:

MUSLIM ACTIVIST CALLS FOR “BURN THE STARS AND STRIPES DAY”
Posted on September 9, 2010 at 7:33am by Jonathon M. Seidl

A Muslim activist and lawyer in the U.K. is calling on Muslims worldwide to burn U.S. flags outside American embassies on Sept. 11. The activist, according to CBS news, is considered a radical, and says his “international burn the Stars and Stripes Day” is in “direct retaliation” against pastor Terry Jones and his Florida church's plan to burn the Koran on the same day.

The man calling for the mass burning is Anjem Choudary, former leader of the banned hardline Islamic group Islam4UK. According to CBS, Choudary regularly organizes demonstrations in Britain calling for the implementation of Islamic law.

The report also says that the State Department has issued a warning to all embassies to prepare for possible backlash should the Koran burning take place as planned on Saturday.

General David Petraeus, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and others have spoken out against the planned Koran burning. Petraeus has said that it will endanger U.S. troops abroad, while Glenn Beck has said that “burning the Koran is like burning the flag or the Bible.”

Now, it's possible that Seidl just happened to think that Glenn Beck's opinion on the matter was as noteworthy as those of the Secretary of State and the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and the fact that he writes for a publication founded by Glenn Beck is just a happy coincidence. On the other hand, common sense and the fact that Glenn Beck-centric stories have thus far been the hallmark of The Blaze make it very difficult to believe such naïveté could actually exist.

Either way, it's shameful and sad.