Category: Commentary/Editorial, Politics || By

According to the large ad in Friday's Daily News, the paper's parent organization, Trib Total Media, is giving away a trip to see Glenn Beck's tea party rally on Aug. 28 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

In case you haven't heard, on the 47th anniversary of the day that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, Glenn Beck, the former "morning zoo" disc jockey, shameless huckster and serial prevaricator, is going to plant his feet in the same spot and spew more of his fact-free nonsense.

(In fairness, although the rally has the support of many members of various "tea party" organizations, it isn't specifically for any of them. Beck's instead labeled it a rally to "Restore America's Honor." Of course, this is the same Glenn Beck who once called a woman live, on the radio, to mock her for having a miscarriage, so I'm not sure what he knows about "honor.")

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Syndicated columnist Bill Press, a liberal, calls the Aug. 28 rally "outrageous," while Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, says it's a blatant attempt to "hijack" King's legacy for commercial purposes.

If there's any justice in the world, a stray thunderstorm will pass over the Lincoln Memorial while Beck speaks so that God can throw down lightning bolts. But I digress.

"Grand prize" in Trib Total Media's contest is breakfast with Beck and Sarah Palin, the half-term governor of a state with only about half the population of Allegheny County.

I assume that second prize is two breakfasts with Glenn and Sarah, third prize is three breakfasts, fourth prize is four breakfasts, etc.

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Maybe my real question is: Why are serious news organizations --- which exist to inform and educate, something which the Daily News and Tribune-Review generally do well --- associating themselves with what amounts to a carnival of ignorance?

Don't take my word for it. Read what U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis, a Republican from South Carolina, had to say this week.

Inglis is one of the most conservative members of the House of Representatives (he has a 93 percent lifetime approval rating from the American Conservative Union) but recently lost his bid for re-election to a Tea Party-backed candidate:

Now he's freely recounting his frustrating interactions with tea party types, while noting that Republican leaders are pushing rhetoric tainted with racism, that conservative activists are dabbling in anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nonsense, and that Sarah Palin celebrates ignorance...

Inglis lists the examples: falsely claiming Obama's health care overhaul included "death panels," raising questions about Obama's birthplace, calling the president a socialist, and maintaining that the Community Reinvestment Act was a major factor of the financial meltdown.

"CRA," Inglis says, "has been around for decades. How could it suddenly create this problem? You see how that has other things worked into it?" Racism? "Yes," Inglis says ...

What about Sarah Palin? Inglis pauses for a moment: "I think that there are people who seem to think that ignorance is strength." And he says of her: "If I choose to remain ignorant and uninformed and encourage people to follow me while I celebrate my lack of information," that's not responsible.

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And what does Inglis think of Beck, the star of the upcoming Aug. 28 travesty? Inglis calls him a "demagogue," which is someone who tries to gain power by appealing to people's prejudices, irrational beliefs and fears.

I like H.L. Mencken's definition of a demagogue. Mencken said a demagogue is someone "who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots."

Some people will read this and say, "Well, you're a liberal." And I am. (As Rachel Maddow recently pointed out, a "liberal" these days is someone who agrees with the Republican Party's platform ... from the Eisenhower administration.)

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But Inglis is no liberal, and objecting to Glenn Beck and this tea party nonsense isn't about being a "liberal" or a "conservative." It's about telling the truth versus shoveling pure, 100 percent B.S. that reinforces prejudice, ignorance and hatred.

Inglis, for instance, says his biggest objection to the "tea parties" and Glenn Beck stems from his Christian faith --- specifically, he can't rationalize breaking the Ninth Commandment to score cheap political points.

News organizations, whether print, broadcast or Internet, aren't supposed to bear false witness either, and they certainly aren't supposed to be merrily and blissfully associating themselves with people who do.

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If anything, reporters and news organizations are supposed to expose as frauds those people --- like Beck --- who appeal to prejudices and irrational fears.

Those are such obvious points I feel like an idiot even making them, but apparently, they need to be said.

As for me, I think I'm going to enter the contest. I could stand to lose a few pounds, and attending that rally would put me off my feed for several days at least.

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Update: And the hits just keep on coming!

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