Yesterday on his radio show, Glenn Beck went on a tirade about how the skincare company Nivea had purportedly “erased Israel” from a list of countries on its website, strongly suggesting that the company was anti-Semitic for doing so (never mind that Nivea has a Facebook page for its Israeli customers). After producer and co-host Stu Burguiere read a statement from Nivea explaining that the omission was because the company hasn't yet created a website for Israel and that numerous other countries also lack Nivea websites -- while Beck made numerous snarky comments -- Beck backed off his attack but didn't apologize.
You'd think that Beck -- who loves to complain when he is tagged as anti-Semitic, despite his history of promoting the work of anti-Semitic writers and using anti-Semitic stereotypes to smear George Soros -- would be sensitive to the danger of recklessly labeling others as anti-Semitic. But apparently not. Here's a partial list of people and things Beck has called anti-Semitic:
- Obama counterterrorism adviser John Brennan
- Members of the Obama administration
- "Fifty percent" of union organizers
- An article in Vanity Fair
- The progressive movement
On today's show, Beck didn't say a word about Nivea, even though the first thing he should have done is apologize for falsely impugning a company without having the facts first. Then again, he's refused to apologize for such things before, so it would actually be out of character for him to do the right thing now.