Glenn Beck apparently doesn't buy into the adage that all press is good press. On Friday, the conservative host described a “Good Morning America” segment on the Lincoln Memorial rally he's holding Saturday — on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” address at the same site — as a “hatchet job” and compared it to Nazi propaganda. ABC's Claire Shipman is one of many journalists who have reported on the criticism of Beck holding his “Restoring Honor” rally on the anniversary of the King speech. Beck says the timing is coincidental. Civil rights leaders and activists including the Rev. Al Sharpton will hold a countermarch and demonstration in Washington on the same day. Beck, along with his radio cohorts, took issue with a few parts of Shipman's report, including her saying that it “wasn't so long ago” that Beck called President Obama “a racist” on Fox News. (Beck made the inflammatory comment in late July 2009. Beck also later apologized for the comment.) Beck, who has criticized the rally backlash, was also bothered by ABC quoting him as saying that “blacks don't own Martin Luther King.” Beck says ABC edited the quote selectively, failing to mention he also said that “whites don't own Abraham Lincoln” and that both men are “American icons.” “That's what Goebbels did,” Beck said, referring to Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister. “The truth didn't matter.” (A transcript of Beck's criticism is on his website.) Beck, like other cable news and talk radio hosts, gets paid millions while making over-the-top statements. But Beck is more likely than most to reach immediately for a Nazi comparison when trying to prove a point. The Washington Post noted in July that Beck often refers to the Third Reich on his Fox News show, counting 202 times since Obama's inauguration that Beck had referred to Nazis or Nazism and 147 references to Hitler. And he mentioned Goebbels 24 times during that period. Beck says that his rally, which will feature Sarah Palin and raise funds for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, is nonpolitical. The Restoring Honor website describes the event as a chance to pay tribute to service personnel and individuals who “embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.” added by: onemalefla
