Beck's attack on Tea Party racism report: all smears, no substance http://mediamatters.org/research/201010220002 Glenn Beck launched into a series of ad hominem attacks against the authors of a study that highlighted national Tea Party organizations' ties to racism and nativism. At no point did Beck refute -- or address in any way -- any of the actual findings in the report. Ad hominem abuse: Beck makes no attempt to challenge substance of report Beck launches a series of attacks against report's authors, completely ignores substance of their findings. On his October 21 Fox News show, Beck said of a report -- reportedly commissioned by the NAACP -- "Now, would it shock you to hear that the NAACP found in their intensive investigation that there is racist, bigotry, nativism, and even white supremacy within the Tea Party?" He added, "Who saw that one coming?" At no point during the segment he devoted to attacking the report's authors did Beck challenge the accuracy of any of the information it presented. Report documents Tea Party orgs' links to racism, nativism Report: "[A]ll of the national Tea Party factions have had problems" with racism and nativism. The introduction to the report, written for the NAACP by Devin Burghart and Leonard Zeskind of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, states, "It would be a mistake to claim that all Tea Partiers are nativist vigilantes or racists of one stripe or another, and this report manifestly does not make that claim. As this report highlights, all of the national Tea Party factions have had problems in these areas." In addition, the introduction stated, "Five of the six national [Tea Party] factions have" birthers "in their leadership." From the introduction: The leading figures in one national faction, 1776 Tea Party (the faction more commonly known as TeaParty.org), were imported directly from the anti-immigrant vigilante organization, the Minuteman Project. Tea Party Nation has provided a gathering place for so-called birthers and has attracted Christian nationalists and nativists. Tea Party Express so outraged the public with the racist pronouncements of its leaders, that other national factions have (recently) eschewed any ties to it. Both ResistNet and Tea Party Patriots, the two largest networks, harbor long-time anti-immigrant nativists and racists; and Tea Party Patriots has opened its doors to those aiming at repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment and the direct election of United State Senators. Report: 1776 Tea Party founder Robinson carried N-word sign, sent emails depicting Obama as a pimp, promoted anti-Semites on radio show. Burghart and Zeskind reported, "The 1776 Tea Party, also known as TeaParty.org, is the one national faction most directly connected to the Minutemen Project and the anti-immigrant movement." According to Burghart and Zeskind, "The organization's founding president is Dale Robertson." From Burghart and Zeskind's report: On February 27, 2009, Robertson attended a Tea Party event in Houston with a sign reading "Congress = Slaveowner, Taxpayer = Niggar." He's also sent out racist fundraising emails depicting President Obama as a pimp. Robertson also has a history of promoting anti-Semites on his 'Tea Party Hour' radio program. [See the chapter "Racism, Anti-Semitism and the Militia Impulse" for more.] Both incidents increased the negative publicity surrounding the 1776 Tea Party, but its notoriety did not stop two leaders of an anti-immigrant vigilante group, Minuteman Project, from stepping in to run the 1776 organization. Report: Leaders of anti-immigrant groups active in ResistNet; group itself partners with birthers and nativists. According to Burghart and Zeskind's report, "Many leaders of state and local anti-immigrant groups," such as local Minutemen chapters, "have become active with ResistNet," a Tea Party group. Burghart and Zeskind further reported that ResistNet has partnered with the We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education; the foundation, Burghart and Zeskind reported, ran a full-page ad in the Chicago Tribune questioning Obama's citizenship. Burghart and Zeskind also reported: Another ResistNet partner organization is TakeAmericaBack.org, a website launched in April 2009 to publish anti-immigrant propaganda. One article claimed that "multiculturalism" demands that "Americans learn to speak Spanish so illegals can take over America with foreign cultures." Another article on this site concluded that "a Kenyan, Communist, son of a terrorist, as our wannabe president, who has not only expressed his hatred of America, but is also an avowed Muslim..." Tea Party Nation convention hosted birthers, anti-immigrant extremists. According to the report, a February Tea Party Nation convention in Nashville, Tennessee, "built bridges to nativists and so-called birthers," including at least two speakers pushing birther conspiracy theories. Burghart and Zeskind reported: Joseph Farah, of the website WorldNetDaily, gave the convention's Friday evening keynote speech. Farah spent nearly half his time cooking up a Biblical basis for his obsession with Obama's birth certificate. Some of the convention leading figures did not like this kind of "birther" conspiracy talk, however. Andrew Breitbart, for example, privately criticized him for it. Nevertheless, the issue of whether or not President Barack Obama is a natural-born American continued to percolate in Nashville. For example, Miki Booth, an Hawaiian-born woman who's also a member of the Route 66 Tea Party, announced her candidacy for the Oklahoma 2nd District Congressional seat from the convention floor. Holding up a copy of Obama's birth certificate, she said "this piece of junk is what you get when you don't have one of these," she finished, holding up a copy of her birth certificate, to raucous applause. When Orly Taitz, the California resident who has pressed the birth certificate issue the most loudly, made an appearance at the convention, she was warmly welcomed and continually stopped for autographs. Although the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pulled out of the convention as discussed earlier, several of FAIR's allies still addressed the Tea Party Nation crowd. Phil Valentine, a Nashville radio talk-show host that has featured FAIR on his radio program numerous times, spoke at the convention. During a 2006 town hall meeting broadcast with FAIR staffer Susan Tully, Valentine advised Border Patrol Agents to "shoot" undocumented immigrants. Convention sponsored by Tea Party Patriots featured Geller; local group leader linked to KKK. Burghart and Zeskind reported that the Tea Party Patriots organization was a sponsor of the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition Convention, held in May in Gatlinburg. The report states: "Notable among the workshops were presentations by Pam Geller, an anti-Islam agitator. As Media Matters has documented, Geller regularly pushes hateful rhetoric about racial and religious minorities. Additionally, the report states: Wood County Tea Party is lead by Karen Pack, who describes herself as a "A Christian, a Tea Party Member, a Constitutionalist and a Patriot." Missing from that description, however, is Karen Pack's history with the Ku Klux Klan. Documents obtained by IREHR show that Karen Pack of Winnsboro, subscribed to the "White Patriot" tabloid, and that Thom Robb's Knights of the Ku Klux Klan listed her as an "official supporter." |
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