Apparently the day after whining about people picking on Palin's children, Glenn Beck decided it was a good idea to spend a portion of his show mocking Malia Obama for caring about the oil spill. Really Glenn? Picking on an 11 year old girl that you've probably never met or even really given a second thought to before yesterday when her father mentioned that she cares about him plugging the damn leak? I think the line that pissed me off the most was:
BECK: "Did you plug the hole yet, daddy?" Is that's their -- that's the level of their education, that they're coming to -- they're coming to daddy and saying 'Daddy, did you plug the hole yet?' " Plug the hole!
Really Glenn? She's fucking 11!! And I'm willing to bet that at a mere 11 years of age, she's far surpassed your level of maturity AND intelligence.
"That's the level of their education"? Seriously? I mean the whole little bit that they posted on the Huff Post is pretty damn bad/pathetic, but to insult their level of education? That makes me wonder Beck's level of education. I'm quite sure that if someone insinuated that PALIN'S non-public figure kids were idiots, Beck would be having a heart attack.
See, a couple of days ago, Beck interviewed sometime-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and he took what appeared to be a principled stand on the matter of how people should treat the families of public figures. Speaking with Palin, Beck decried the tactic: "Leave my family, leave people's families alone...When it was Bill Clinton, you don't go after Chelsea Clinton. You don't talk about the Bush kids. Now, the minute they get into politics, that's a different story. You leave the families alone."
If you're going to be against talking bad about people's children that ALSO applies to President Obama's children. Mind you, President Obama has never said a bad word abotu anyone's children.
So Fuck you Glenn Beck! To call him an asshole would be insulting to assholes everywhere.
Update [2010-5-28 16:12:14 by Muzikal203]: For those wondering if the Traditional Media is going to comment on this, I just heard Elliot Spitzer tease it for the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC. I hadn't listened to the audio yet (the transcript was enough for me), but the little bit they played for that teaser just pissed me off all over again.
Update [2010-5-28 16:39:57 by Muzikal203]: I think you can call this an apology. . . maybe:
In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism, I broke my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates. The children of public figures should be left on the sidelines. It was a stupid mistake and I apologize--and as a dad I should have known better.
h/t punditician
And again, using children to shield criticism? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Palin uses her kids as sheilds all the time, just more hyporcrisy. I think Punditician was right, a sponsor must have jumped down his throat. I wonder if he'll cry about this on his show tonight. And yes, as a dad he SHOULD have known better.
IF he really means he was wrong, then he needs to take the advice of a little quote hanging in my grandma's kitchen "Engage brain before opening mouth." That segment went on a little long, so I think (at least at the time) he not only thought it was okay, but that others would think it was okay as well.