Beck Demolishes Huffington: She's 'Media Matters After a Few Drinks'

February 2nd, 2010 11:28 PM

Glenn Beck on Tuesday addressed recent attacks by liberal publisher Arianna Huffington and in so doing thoroughly demolished the proprietor of the Huffington Post on national television.

Beck did such a good job that even the left-leaning website Mediaite took his side.

As NewsBusters reported Sunday, Huffington went on ABC's "This Week" and accused Beck of "inciting the American people" to commit violence against Obama by talking about "people being slaughtered."

The Fox News host, after calling her "Media Matters after a few drinks," walked viewers through specifically what he said on the "Glenn Beck" installment in question, and exactly how wrong Huffington was (video embedded below the fold with transcript):

GLENN BECK, HOST: Good news - the left is getting desperate. When they throw out ridiculous attacks against you or me - usually when it's about me I don't ever bother responding on this program. But sometimes, it's just kind of fun. And I know they just do it to get attention and I kind of feel bad for them. I think they need it.

If I may show you, these are the ratings - these are the ratings of this program against its competition. Here is where the GLENN BECK PROGRAM started. Remember a year ago? Uh-oh. This is one is CNN. I like Wolf Blitzer. He is a nice guy.

And here is the other network. I love that. Kind of flat-lining there - you know what I mean? If you notice the hard core left-wing network, some might say this show is slaughtering them. But if I did, I'd want to point out I didn't mean "slaughter" literally. After all, you can't kill something that is already dead.

Bit that being said, Arianna Huffington, a.k.a. - I like to call her Media Matters after a few drinks - went on national television answer claimed that we are saying on this program that President Obama is going to slaughter people. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON, FOUNDER, "HUFFINGTON POST": Aren't you concerned about the language that Glenn Beck is using, which is, after all, inciting the American people. There is a lot of suffering out there, you know. When he talks about people being slaughtered, about who is going to be the next -

ROGER AILES, CHAIRMAN FOX NEWS NETWORK: Well, he was talking about Hitler and Stalin slaughtering people. So I think he was probably accurate -

HUFFINGTON: No, he was talking about this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: She went on, "He was talking about this administration." I actually had to look this up. I didn't think I had said anything. But she was so offended by this that she went on television to talk about it again, on the same network. May show?

The same network that had the flat-line - this one right here. So nobody watched it, so we are giving them a public service announcement right now. This network - they just had a guy compare the Republicans to the genocidal government of Cambodia just the day before she went on. So that's classy.

Now, she bases this claim on one TV segment. Now, remember, I want the play this segment for you. This is a serious point. This is no joke. I want to show you the segment here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): I told you yesterday buckle up your seat belt, America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OK. Wait a minute. I want you to know I don't actually mean - I'm not talking about buckling a literal seatbelt here. I'm saying get prepared because we're in for a bumpy road on the economy. Next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): Find the exit. There is one here, here and here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OK. I want you to know - I should point out here - not literally talking about exiting the country. We're talking about exiting the economic path we're headed on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): Find the exit closest to you and prepare for crash landing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Oh, boy. Please, Arianna, I want you to know I'm not actually talking about a plane crashing here. I'm talking about a downturn in the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): Because this plane is coming down because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Oh, my goodness. I have want to point out here I'm not actually talking about Barack Obama literally, you know, going to pilot school and becoming a pilot and loading Americans onto a plane and intentionally crash it into trees. No, no.

I was talking about the president intentionally implementing policies that are putting us on an unsustainable economic path. But watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): Most likely, it will happen sometime after Christmas. You're going to see this economy come up - we're already seeing it. And now, it's going to start coming back down again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I should point out economies don't actually go up or down. They're not objects affected by gravity. Who knew? "Up" and "down" are terms describing the typical economic measures, expansion and contraction.

Now, just to review the topics that we've covered here so far, because we haven't gotten to this thing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) - we've talked about the economy. Then the economy. The economy. The economy. And again, the economy. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): And when you see the effects of what they're to the economy, remember these words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

I'm going to speak slowly. This sentence signifies that the words to follow refer to the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): We will survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

We're not talking about heart function here. We're not talking about all of us collectively continuing to breathe. No, no, no. We're still talking - don't want you to be confused - about the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(on camera): We'll do better than survive. We will thrive as long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: There is the gotcha moment. Now, some would say that by introducing this last sentence, by saying, "When you see the effects on the economy, remember these words," that this last sentence might also be about speaking of the economy as well.

No. With 30 plus years of broadcast to pick from, Arianna Huffington makes this her main point. She is claiming that it's a reference to literal slaughter being carried out by our president.

So what she is saying in a nutshell is that we made this point. Let's first talk about the economy. Then the economy. Then the economy. Then the economy. And then I seamlessly moved to genocide without any kind of warning. Genocide by our president without any kind of transition or notice.

Now, if I were that talented of a TV host, I think I'd be winning by 20 times - back to the truck, please. I think I'd be winning by 20 times, instead of the measly 13 times that we're currently winning by.

The left is so desperate because you're winning. They're annoyed that they can't shut you or me up. Bask in it for a moment. All of this is a very, very good sign.

You know what else is a good sign? Even the liberal website Mediaite, after watching this segment, agreed with Beck:

Professor Beck took to the instant replay to explain to Arianna - whom he likes to describe as "Media Matters after a couple of drinks" - that what he was actually talking about was the economy, which is somewhat more evident if when read the entire quote below (though the video version is obviously far more entertaining). Two things here. One, I suspect Arianna doesn't actually watch Beck; this may be an obvious observation, but for all his hyperbole Beck does not ever call for violence. Two, when it comes to hyperbolic statements HuffPo may not exactly be in the same league as Beck, but they are not pillars of objective journalism either...Arianna knows where her shocking headline bread is buttered for sure (also the reason I have no doubt Arianna did ask Beck to write for her...I wouldn't be surprised if the offer still stands actually).

Hey Arianna: if the folks at Mediaite think you're all wet, you might consider reaching for a towel and a blowdryer!