Lawyers for Van Jones have taken a step that ought to have been taken long ago - by numerous people, for hundreds of offenses. Jones' representatives have notified Fox News that that he will no longer tolerate the lies and defamation that they have engaged in for the past couple of years. They have sent Fox a cease and desist letter and they appear to mean business.
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From the letter:
"For nearly two years, on programs broadcast on and by the Fox News Network, a series of sensational and inflammatory charges have been made against Mr. Jones. Each of these statements is demonstrably, unequivocally, and absolutely false, and each is clearly defamatory as set forth below."
The letter then proceeds to enumerate some of the instances wherein Fox maligned Jones by falsely asserting that he is a communist, a Marxist, etc. Additionally, Jones was accused of being a revolutionary, a convicted felon, a 9/11 Truther, a cop killer, and a racist. Just this morning, in a response to Jones' challenge to debate, Glenn Beck portrayed Jones as anti-American and an advocate of "The violent overthrow for a Marxist government."
All of these charges are false and injurious, and the letter gives Fox until June 24, to indicate their intention to "cease and desist from further dissemination" and to broadcast a retraction. Despite the documentary evidence to support an action against Fox, I do not expect them to comply. That's not their style. They will dodge and weave and resort to histrionic counterattacks.
In February of 2010, Jones assumed a forgiving stance, telling Beck that "I love you brother." I wrote at the time that I didn't approve because all Beck would do is continue to harass and lie about him. Now Jones knows what I knew then. He told Ed Schultz today that he has tried to be a "turn the other cheek" kind of guy, but that he only has four cheeks and he's running out. He noted that Beck has continued to stalk him even two years after he left the White House, and that he's had enough.
Glenn Beck Is Afraid To Debate Van Jones
Despite Beck's persistent harping, his act is a mask for his cowardice.
On Saturday at the Netroots Nation conference, keynote speaker Van Jones
spoke about the new movement to Rebuild the American Dream. In the course of his remarks he had a message for his old adversary, Glenn Beck:
Jones: "I issue a personal challenge to my beloved brother Glenn Beck. I will debate you anytime, anywhere, at any point. I'll give you an hour, you give me five minutes ... you got one week left before your show goes off. My phone is ringing. Call me! Call me, Glenn Beck!"
I hope Van is not waiting by the phone. There is about as much chance of this happening as there is of Michele Bachmann french kissing Rachel Maddow. Even though Beck is a relentless self-promoter and this debate could earn millions as a cable on-demand premium feature, Beck will decline. In fact, he already has:
Beck: "There's really not anything to talk about until you're honest and you say you want the overthrow of the government as you have in the past. The violent overthrow for a Marxist government. When you're honest, then people can have a debate."
That's like me saying that I won't debate Beck until he is honest and admits that he is a racist who would like to assassinate that ni**er in the White House. It's simply a dodge to insure that he will never debate Jones. It has nothing to do with whether Jones is honest (he is) or whether he's a communist (he's not). Beck's sole reason for dodging a debate is because he has a mortal fear of anyone who might engage him with intelligence, passion, and facts. That is Van Jones. And Beck is a quivering lump of cowardice who knows he would be taken apart were he to accept the challenge.
Jones is now escalating the challenge he delivered at Netroots. With the help of MoveOn.org, Jones has produced a commercial that he plans to place during Beck's show on Fox News.
I'm a little conflicted about whether he should actually pay Fox to air this ad. Ordinarily I would not even entertain the notion of contributing to Fox by purchasing ad time from them. However, in this case the ad would be placed on a show that has already been canceled, so it wouldn't be helping to advance the show's future prospects. And this might be the only way that Beck's viewers would ever learn that such a challenge has been issued, and that their frightened Messiah turned tail and ran away. Is this what Beck means by Restoring Courage?
