Eva Paterson (Huffington Post, 8/28/09), president and founder of the Equal Justice Society, has a response to Glenn Beck’s assertion that “I want to point out the silence; no one has challenged these facts” after having been “smearing White House special advisor Van Jones for days on his show.”
Being “the person who first hired Van Jones,” Paterson finds herself “in a unique position to know the truth.” And falling squarely in the fabulously unsurprising category is that “the truth is: Beck is fabricating his facts”:
For instance: several times on his show, Beck has said or implied that Van went to prison for taking part in the Rodney King riots….
This is what really happened. On May 8, 1992, the week after the Rodney King disturbances, I sent a staff attorney and Van out to be legal monitors at a peaceful march in San Francisco. The local police…stopped the march and arrested hundreds of people–including all the legal monitors.
The matter was quickly sorted out; Van and my staff attorney were released within a few hours. All charges against them were dropped. Van was part of a successful class action lawsuit later; the City of San Francisco ultimately compensated him financially for his unjust arrest (a rare outcome).So the unwarranted arrest at a peaceful march–for which the charges were dropped and for which Van was financially compensated–is the sole basis for the smear that he is some kind of dangerous criminal.
Paterson reminds you that “you don’t have to take my word for it,” since “arrests and convictions are all a matter of public record.” And of course, FAIR followers know all too well that “Beck is at best relying on Internet rumors or even inventing claims to boost his ratings.”
Read a recent article from FAIR’s magazine Extra!: “Glenn Beck Is No Howard Beale: He’s Mad Like a Fox, and Wants to Take Us In” (6/09) by Steve Rendall.
It’s great to look at both sideds of everything to get the bigger picture. Since Fox spins to support the right and the majority of the other channels spin for the left it leaves the poor concerned citizens to wade through all their doodoo. It’s very frustrating! Where in the world are the independents that were running for president?
Shame on both sides for using the good name of Ted Kennedy to spin their politics. Even at the funeral!
I have researched different perspectives and only find a few talking reality in America.
Our government servants (all parties) have broken our system. They have put American’s social security, medicare and medicaid TRUST FUNDS in the general fund. Health care reform money will also go in the GENERAL FUND to raid and leaving only deeper debt for future children to pay off (Almost a 100Trillion 2009 Debt.)
Does media have their eyes closed? Why? Not very hard to find out watching. If our government REALLY WANTED reform and to cut cost they would REFORM the Government.
REALITY:
* The people of America can not afford the majority of our “public servants.”
* Health Care Reform has nothing to do with health care for the masses but all to do about a new TRUST FUND = Cash Flow for governments DRAINED General Fund (for mad spending Congress/Senate and White House.)
AMERICANS are waking up. The spin on both sides are sickening and one day it will topple only because Americans themselves are losing their jobs, homes and are in deep debt themselves and have nothing more to give. http://usdebtclock.org/
Glen Beck’s main point with Van Jones is that he is an avowed communist! And that a communist is advising the president on “green jobs”.
Acquitted by some SF libs? I’ve got two words for you: ACORN! So there!
Poor wingnuts. Still haven’t gotten over your asskicking in November. Just keep yelling “communist” and “ACORN” whenever you’re confronted with the facts. It really impresses those of us with book learnin’!
Bottom line: People who watch or listen to Beck, Limbaugh, Gingrich, Hannity, Coulter, O’Reilly are, in a word IGNORANT!
“Acorn” is one word and “so there!” is two — looks like you had three words for us.
For those unaccustomed to sarcasm (or, like myself sometimes, trying hard to believe that people truly believe the right-wing talking points), my point was that it was inherently frustrating, and arguably pointless to reason with the insane. Logic and facts gain no purchase in the soil of Beck Nation.
The only “communists” Obama has anything to do with are the nominal ones to whom our gummint is a major debtor, and whose idea of “revolution” is to allow Western corps to exploit its population at slave wages and conditions.
In that, he’s no different from Slippery William – save the paunch – and Dear Leader – albeit with a measurable IQ.
So he can spell “proletariat” – but anything he might do for us won’t amount to a hill of beans.
Make that a hill of foreclosure notices, layoff letters and medical bills.
So, as the man said, there.
Sooooo….did Van Jones go to jail or not? YES, he DID go to jail/ THat’s what Beck said. So where’e the ‘lie’??
According to the article by Gabriel Voiles “Beck has said or implied that Van went to prison for taking part in the Rodney King riots….”
Now, according to the Broward County, Florida website: Jails are most often run by sheriffs and/or local governments and are designed to hold individuals awaiting trial or a serving short sentences (in Florida, inmates serving 364 days or less serve their time in jail).
Prisons are operated by state governments and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and are designed to hold individuals convicted of crimes.
So, Van Jones being arrested in San Francisco (not Los Angeles) he was held for a short time in a jail, he was not sent to prison. You are sent to a prison after being convicted of a crime.
Beck’s assertion about Van Jones was a lie, pure and simple. Anyone who believes a comment like this from Beck is not only being duped, but gullible. Beck is an “entertainer to the clueless”, who would rather believe the malicious drivel he spouts than find out what the truth is.
There’s a big difference between getting arrested and being convicted and getting incarcerated. It’s so easy to twist facts into lies.