{"id":5264,"date":"2011-07-01T02:15:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T09:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=5264"},"modified":"2011-07-01T02:15:45","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T09:15:45","slug":"beck-removed-from-the-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2011\/07\/01\/beck-removed-from-the-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Beck: Removed from the Theatre!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is a day for celebration.  Glenn Beck, whose violent rhetoric has inspired criminal acts, is no longer broadcasting from the Republican Ministry of Propaganda, aka Fox.  Boycotting his advertisers and calling for his removal has finally paid off.  In this process, Republicans have accused me and others of wanting to deny Beck his free speech rights under the First Amendment.  That is false.  The right to free speech is not absolute.  One may not yell \u201cfire\u201d in a crowded theatre.  I defend Beck\u2019s right to say whatever he wants to say.  By taking away his TV network spot, we have not interfered with that right.  Instead, we have effectively taken him out of the crowded theater<\/em>.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"1BeckHat\"Goodbye to the big blackboard. Goodbye to the turn-it-on tears. Goodbye, too, to the suppertime serving of anger, conspiracy and the coming apocalypse.<\/p>\n

Glenn Beck \u2014 populist ranter, Barack Obama scourge, self-described \u201crodeo clown\u201d \u2014 stepped away from his biggest stage Thursday. After a volcanic rise and a muddled denouement lasting just 30 tumultuous months, the host ended his run on the Fox News Channel, going out with what sounded almost like a threat: \u201cFor those members of media who are celebrating [his departure] . . . you will pray for the time I was only on the air for one hour a day<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beck\u2019s Fox finale was a vintage visit to what he once referred to as the \u201cdoom room.\u201d Like a teacher reviewing his lessons before the final, he offered viewers a last look at \u201cThings We\u2019ve Learned\u201d \u2014 a synopsis of fear \u2014 on his ever-present blackboard. On the lengthy list: the Fed, Woodrow Wilson, ACORN, the caliphate\u2026 [emphasis added<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Among those celebrating was one of the people most responsible for the demise of Beck\u2019s TV career: Keith Olbermann of Countdown<\/a>.<\/font><\/p>\n