Alinsky Still Alive and Well at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

Marion Algier – AskMarion

Every year the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, or nerd prom as it has been dubbed, is held in Washington D.C. where the President is supposed to display his entertaining side opposite a major comedian who is asked to more or less host and either make or break his or her career. Over the weekend for 2013 it was Conan O’Brian, who attacked CNN, Fox News, the Washington Hilton and Mitt Romney but pretty much soft-balled the President, who broke tradition and chose to enter to rap music instead of the traditional “Hail to the Chief”… too stuffy for our too hip president and his Hollywood pals. In fact the Correspondents’ Dinner has gone so Hollywood that Tom Brokaw (and others) said ‘no thanks’ to attending this year’s White House Correspondents' Dinner. “That dinner, as it has been constituted for the past several years, is saying, ‘We’re Versailles. The rest of you eat cake.’, said Brokaw.

In reviewing the 2012 White House Correspondents’ Dinner I wrote Alinsky Alive and Well in the White House. And although a bit more subdued this year, the Obama format followed the Alinsky primer, Rules for Radicals. President Obama used Alinsky’s Tactic #5  to perfection: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”.

In 2012 the AP wrote:

It’s not often that we get to see the most powerful man in the world tell jokes about eating dogs, craving cigarettes and imposing his rumored “radical socialist agenda” on the country. And yet, last night in Washington, D.C., we were treated to just that…

This year the most poignant example was Obama’s comment: “I’m Not The Strapping Young Muslim Socialist I Used To Be”!

“Sniff! Our Marxist Islamist is getting old…”  TMH, the NoisyRoom

President Barack Obama poked fun at the media, especially Fox News; the History Channel; his critics: including Congress, Sheldon Adelson, Rush Limbaugh, Sen.Mitch McConnell, Rep. Michele Bachmann… and himself using the Alinsky model

Some Obama highlights:

"I know Republicans are still sorting out what happened in 2012, but one thing they all agree on is they need to do a better job reaching out to minorities," Obama said.

"And look, call me self-centered, but I can think of one minority they could start with. Hello? Think of me as a trial run, you know?" he said.

"These days, I look in the mirror and I have to admit, I'm not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be," Obama said. "Time passes. You get a little gray."

"I'm also hard at work on plans for the Obama Library, and some have suggested that we put it in my birthplace, but I'd rather keep it in the United States," he said.

“Did anybody not see that joke coming?”  (Show of hands.) “Only Gallup? Maybe Dick Morris?”

"One senator who has reached across the aisle recently is Marco Rubio, but I don't know about 2016. I mean, the guy has not even finished a single term in the Senate and he thinks he's ready to be president," Obama joked. "Kids these days."

"I know CNN has taken some knocks lately, but the fact is I admire their commitment to cover all sides of a story, just in case one of them happens to be accurate."

"Some of my former advisors have switched over to the dark side. For example, David Axelrod now works for MSNBC, which is a nice change of pace since MSNBC used to work for David Axelrod."

“The History Channel is not here. I guess they were embarrassed about the whole Obama-is-a-devil thing. Of course, that never kept Fox News from showing up. They actually thought the comparison was not fair — to Satan. “

“I still make rookie mistakes. Like, I’m out in California, we’re at a fundraiser, we’re having a nice time. I happen to mention that Kamala Harris is the best-looking attorney general in the country. As you might imagine, I got trouble when I got back home. Who knew Eric Holder was so sensitive?”

“Some things are beyond my control. For example, this whole controversy about Jaz-Z going to Cuba — it’s unbelievable. I’ve got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one.That’s another rap reference, Bill. I’ll let you know.”

“I'm taking my charm offensive on the road – a Texas barbeque with Ted Cruz, a Kentucky bluegrass concert with Rand Paul, and a book-burning with Michele Bachmann.”

“Groucho Marx once said — and, Senator Cruz, that’s Groucho Marx, not Karl. That’s the other guy. Groucho Marx once told an audience, “Before I speak, I have something important to say.”

One of the funnier more light-hearted moments of Obama’s routine came near the beginning of his turn at the podium. Mr. Obama remarked that the presidency can take its toll on anyone, and he realizes he’ll need a burst of energy and some new approaches to energize his second term. He and his aides have talked about that, he said.

“We were willing to try anything. So we borrowed one of Michelle’s tricks,” said Obama.

Video: President Obama at 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)

Transcript of Obama's remarks at White House Correspondents' Association dinner

Conan O’Brien Blasted Drudge, Bush, Romney, CNN, the NRA And Chris Matthews at the Correspondents Dinner but tip-toed around the Pres.

Video: Conan O'Brien remarks at 2013 White House Correspondents' Dinner (C-SPAN)

My take has not changed and is still that Obama played it cool and delivered a perfect Saul Alinsky Speech. If you are concerned about America and want to help turn things around or if you are politically unaware or uninvolved and you want to get a better handle of what is going on, if you haven’t already, you need to read Saul Alinsky’s: Rules for Radicals plus understand the Cloward and Piven strategy; both major parts of Obama’s playbook. Mix in a little George Soros string pulling and you are headed in the right direction. Then do a little reading and digging into who BHO’s family and friends are and who he is connected to and everything will come into focus!

I think Alinsky would have been proud!

“Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see that my father’s model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday.” – Letter from L. DAVID ALINSKY, son of Neo-Marxist Saul Alinsky

Obama helped fund ‘Alinsky Academy’: “The Woods Fund, a nonprofit on which Obama served as paid director from 1999 to December 2002, provided startup funding and later capital to the Midwest Academy…. Obama sat on the Woods Fund board alongside William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization…. ‘Midwest describes itself as ‘one of the nation’s oldest and best-known schools for community organizations, citizen organizations and individuals committed to progressive social change.’… Midwest teaches Alinsky tactics of community organizing.”

Hillary, Obama and the Cult of Alinsky: “True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism, Alinsky taught. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Alinsky viewed revolution as a slow, patient process. The trick was to penetrate existing institutions such as churches, unions and political parties…. Many leftists view Hillary as a sell-out because she claims to hold moderate views on some issues. However, Hillary is simply following Alinsky’s counsel to do and say whatever it takes to gain power.

“Obama is also an Alinskyite…. Obama spent years teaching workshops on the Alinsky method. In 1985 he began a four-year stint as a community organizer in Chicago, working for an Alinskyite group called the Developing Communities Project…. Camouflage is key to Alinsky-style organizing.

While trying to build coalitions of black churches in Chicago, Obama caught flak for not attending church himself. He became an instant churchgoer.” (By Richard Poe, 11-27-07)

The Alinsky Tactics (and of course they can be combined) from the Progressive Bible Rules for Radicals:

“Tactics are those conscious deliberate acts by which human beings live with each other and deal with the world around them. … Here our concern is with the tactic of taking; how the Have-Nots can take power away from the Haves.” p.126

Always remember the first rule of power tactics (pages 127-134):

1. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”

2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people. When an action or tactic is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear and retreat…. [and] the collapse of communication.

3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.”

5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”

7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time….”

8. “Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.”

9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”

10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.”

11. “If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through into its counterside… every positive has its negative.”

12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”

13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. In conflict tactics there are certain rules that [should be regarded] as universalities. One is that the opposition must be singled out as the target and ‘frozen.’…

I think Alinsky would have been proud of Obama’s Correspondence Dinner speech… of his whole presidency.

Using Alinsky’s Tactic #5 to perfection “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon: It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage”, President Obama took everything that his opponents: the right in general, patriots, the GOP, people paying attention, etc. are fighting, bringing to the forefront and trying to educate the American people on and ridiculed them by ridiculing each point one by one through making it a joke… thereby making it look silly to the low and uninformed that anyone would question something that was so trivial that the President himself would make fun of.

In 2012 Obama belittled the topics of eligibility; the hot mic incident where he essentially told the Russians to wait until he was re-elected and would have unbridled power to do what he wants; made light of eating dogs; threw in his digs at Romney for being rich and an elitist, at Gingrich for losing the GOP Primary and Hillary for drinking and partying in Cartagena; high-fived all his Hollywood celebrity friends; and basically told us to hang onto our hats for a radical second term… including reinstating ObamaCare if it was struck down and that it would be raining men during his next term (interpreted by most in the know as paratroopers and other military, including UN troops, on American soil).

In 2013 Obama hit the topics of his purported Muslim faith, missing college transcripts, and questionable birth certificate from several angles as well as his socialistic agenda and dislike for the conservative media and conservatives in Congress.  He also made fun of the issue of his friends Jay-Z and wife Beyoncé travelling to Cuba on a special visa, when Americans have been prohibited from going there for decades, as well as his campaign to make the results of Sequestration as painful for the public as possible while blaming it on the Republicans using a reference to the White House Easter Egg roll.

Obama is the master… he told us in 2008 and wrote in his books (Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance and The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (Vintage) (as well as in books about him) all that he was planning to do but most of America wasn’t listening and like with Hitler (in Mein Kampf (German Edition)… nobody read his books; now several like Dreams from My Father (try to borrow an vintage copy to read)have been edited and re-written. But again, Barack Hussein Obama’s weekend comedy routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was generally only funny to those who have not been paying attention or who have continued to drink the Kool-Aid.

Related:

Nerdprom 2013: Inside The White House Correspondents’ Dinner Pre-And-Post Parties

White House Correspondance Dinner - 2008

White House Correspondents’ Association

Rolling Stone: Obama Jokes About His Legacy and Jay-Z at White House Correspondents' Dinner

Technorati Tags: White House Correspondents Dinner,BHO,Obamaland,WHCD,Alinskyite,Alinsky-style,Saul Alinksky,Socialist,Muslim,liberal bias media,radicals in the White House,smoke and mirrors,Cloward and Piven,Hollywood,events,Conan O'Brien,nerd prom

Glenn Responds to The View Debacle

Related Video  Glenn ambushed on 'The View'

GLENN: And so anyway, so I was just a little uncomfortable. I get home and I'm just sick as a dog. I'm running a fever. I get home. My wife tucks me in, we talk about the day, I tell my kids a story, I get up and I ride and I say, I just can't, I just can't go in to TV today or radio. I'm just, I'm too sick, but I'll honor the commitment to The View. Ooh, what a mistake that was . What a mistake that was. 

STU: They seemed to be ‑‑ look, they seemed to have a warm reception for you. 

GLENN: Yes, like hell? 

STU: That is, that's a warm place. 

GLENN: That's a very warm place. 

STU: That's a very warm place. They seemed to not have, like, an agenda or anything. They didn't seem to ‑‑ 

GLENN: Oh, I didn't sense an agenda there, did you? 

STU: They seemed to, like, want to let you get your side of the story out. 

GLENN: Yes, yes. 

STU: They seemed to be open to anyone disagreeing. 

GLENN: Liar! No, you know what? You know what, I will tell you this about Whoopi Goldberg. In the end Whoopi Goldberg came up to me and I said, you know, Whoopi, I was actually coming out to compliment you on what you said in the previous break. Because I don't remember what it was, and God forbid I misquote anybody on The View. But it was something along the lines of, you know, the Republicans and the Democrats, we just have to start telling the truth. We just all have to, you know, we have to put our differences aside. And I said, I was actually coming out to compliment you to say, you know, I couldn't believe that. That's great. That's going to ‑‑ and she said ‑‑ now see, again I don't know if I said that first or if she said what she said first. 

STU: Uh‑oh. 

GLENN: I don't want to mix up ‑‑ 

STU: Liar! 

GLENN: ‑‑ who said something first. But she said, you know, I would just ‑‑ this is in the past. I would just appreciate it if you would call me, you know, in advance before you would say something about me. And I said, okay, sure. And she said because, you know, we could disagree with things but we can be friendly and we can be friends. And she was actually very, she was actually very nice afterwards. After my head was in the basket, she was very nice.

STU: This is after on national television she called you a lying sack of dog mess. 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: You would say this is the ‑‑ 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: This is afterwards. 

GLENN: Uh‑huh, uh‑huh. 

STU: There was that moment on television. 

GLENN: She was very upset. I'm not sure ‑‑ 

STU: Then you're saying off air she was kind enough to say something like that.

More Proof?  Email records show Glenn wondering who would be on the train in the 'reserved seats'...

GLENN: Call me. Which I still don't have her number. So I don't know how to call her, but I'm sure people know how to call her people. 

STU: Yes. In all honesty, you look at someone like a Whoopi Goldberg, she probably ‑‑ maybe she, you know, feels like, you know, you had a ‑‑ you met her on the train, it was nice and then she thinks you're trashing her for whatever reason. 

GLENN: I think that's what it was. I think with Whoopi Goldberg, I think that it was that she thought maybe we had a nice moment. 

STU: Yeah. 

GLENN: I mean, maybe. 

STU: And then, you know, she sees this clip of you. She gets essentially like out of nowhere someone sends her a clip and you're talking about her. 

GLENN: Right. 

STU: I don't know what she thought exactly. 

GLENN: I don't know what Whoopi Goldberg believes and I wasn't afforded the time to ask what exactly I was lying about or reply or defend myself or anything. But so I don't know exactly what her deal is. I told the TV staff, call her, invite her on the show. I'd love to talk to her on the show. 

STU: But she seemed like a normal person afterwards, at least.

GLENN: Yes, yes. 

STU: Cool. That's good. 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: And you are not going to ruin Elisabeth for me, are you? Because you know I love her. 

GLENN: Elisabeth, I don't know what the deal was with Elisabeth. She was very nice but she wasn't ‑‑ she wasn't helpful but she wasn't hurting at all. 

STU: She wasn't allowed to talk. 

GLENN: I think she was just ‑‑ I notice, I watched it last night and I noticed that she was ‑‑ it really was, it was the two ends, it was Whoopi and Barbara Walters. 

STU: I saw Elisabeth a couple of times trying to say stuff. 

DAN: What's she going to do? It was a he said/she said situation that she wasn't in. 

GLENN: I'm not saying that she wasn't helpful intentionally. She was just ‑‑ but what is she going to do? She's not going to stop that train wreck. It was an absolute ‑‑ it was a setup. It was an ambush. I walked off the set and the producer ‑‑ and I'll tell you later, but the producer was getting an earful from Adam who I've never seen Adam ever upset. And my wife was giving an earful to somebody else as well. My wife wasn't even on the set. She was giving an earful to somebody else because Adam and my wife and Adam's wife were all there. And I walked off the ‑‑ because the green room is actually on ‑‑ this is enormous stage and so right behind the set of The View is the makeup room but it's not a separate room. It's, they're fake walls. And then right behind that is another fake living room kind of set and that is the green room. And everybody sits in the green room. And apparently Adam said the temperature dropped ‑‑ you know, he said it's like in the cartoons where you can just hear everything freeze and just, the ice go (crackling noises). He said, it got very cold and very, very quiet in the green room and at one point when I was walking out, Adam was at that walkout curtain. You know where the curtain is? He said, "I almost came out there myself." And I believed him. I've never seen him like that. I've never been treated more poorly than I was treated ever. And I've been treated poorly before. I'm used to going into places and being treated poorly. 

STU: Yes, it's a hostile environment most times when you go on shows. 

GLENN: Yes, yes. I mean, I have done hostile shows before. I've worked in hostile environments before. I have never been treated in a more unprofessional, 4‑year‑old sort of way than I was treated at The View. And I tried to be ‑‑ I tried to be very nice. I tried to be a gentleman. I don't believe in going on into somebody's house and peeing all over their furniture. I've had other people do that on my set. You don't do that. 

STU: There was a point there I was ‑‑ I should have just whipped it out. 

GLENN: I considered it. I considered it. I'm glad I didn't because I think ‑‑ I mean, well, I don't know. I don't have any intention of making enemies, but I'm not going to also hold my tongue. I will say what I believe. This is what I do. 

You know, I mean, Barbara Walters, "So you call yourself an investigative journalist." No. Don't you ever do your own homework, Barbara? Don't you check your facts? No, I don't call myself an investigative journalist. I'm nothing of the kind. 

STU: In fact, in five million interviews you can read that exact quote, that you are not a journalist. 

GLENN: Right. And I'm not a journalist as a badge of honor quite frankly. 

STU: Even more after that interview. 

GLENN: I am a ‑‑ exactly right. I'm more of what Whoopi Goldberg does. 

STU: Right. 

GLENN: I'm a storyteller. I'm somebody who just kind of reflects on what happens in life. I tell you my point of view on what's going on. 

STU: Right. And she tried to get ‑‑ like it's typical media self‑congratulations as she says to you, "Oh, you are not a journalist?" 

GLENN: Don't use a voice on Barbara Walters. 

STU: You're not a journalist? 

GLENN: See, this isn't going to go well. 

STU: And you say no. And she says, well, then you don't check any facts? No. See, people who aren't journalists care about the facts, too. In fact, as I've learned over the years, sometimes a lot more than the actual journalists. 

GLENN: I wonder if the journalists like Barbara Walters called my office to check on my facts because I have four witnesses. No, no. No, she didn't. She didn't call to get my side of the story before she put me on national television and called me a liar. 

STU: That's so... that's so ‑‑ 

GLENN: But it's not ‑‑ see, this isn't ‑‑ but you know what? It's okay for her not to check her facts but to the apparently for me. And I'm sorry, and I apologize. And Whoopi, I told her at the end, she said, you know, if you have a ‑‑ if something like this happens again ‑‑ and I'm thinking to myself, I don't think this is going to happen again. "But if something like this happens again," she said, "You just call me. Just call me." And I wanted to ‑‑ 

STU: That's a rational response. 

GLENN: It is. And I wanted to say, "Okay, I don't have your number." And I didn't know ‑‑ I mean, it doesn't occur to me. These people who are in this ‑‑ I was thinking about it last night as, you know, Mary said, "My gosh, they just tore into..." Mary's my daughter, my 20‑year‑old. And I walked out of the room and I'm like, I've just been torn to shreds by a person that was in the movie "Ghost." You know what I mean? 

STU: Jumping Jack Flash was much better. 

DAN: Sister Act, too. 

GLENN: No, but what I'm saying is these guys are ‑‑ they are in those circles. I don't consider myself in those circles. I don't call Whoopi Goldberg up. You don't even consider that. 

STU: Just to follow Whoopi's logic here for a moment and again, you know, it's nice that she said something good to you off the air afterwards, after the interview but the ‑‑ 

GLENN: See, I think she was genuine. I could be wrong but I think she was genuine. 

STU: I'm legitimately serious because at least you can have disagreements on the air about something, you can scream at each other. You get off the air and you are actually civil, I think that's respectable. But to follow her logic, she could have called you before putting you on the air and accusing you of a liar. You know, she says ‑‑ 

GLENN: Right, exactly right. 

STU: She says call me next time. How about you call me? I'm the schlub here. You're the person who everybody knows. 

GLENN: How about Barbara Walters? Barbara Walters. I don't even know if they were accusing me of lying about who walked up to whom first. This is how stupid and ridiculous this is. 

STU: Oh, my god. 

GLENN: I mean, this is national television time. The dollar is falling through the ground. You know, we're talking about Gitmo and torture and everything else. I would have rather talked about American Idol who, by the way, the producer asked me prior to who's going to win, and I got it right. But we could have, we could have talked about that. Instead we talk about a stupid train on who approached who first. 

STU: I mean, and in all honesty, I mean, we can talk about how ridiculous it was the way they treated you, but there has never been a more pointless seven minutes of television. 

GLENN: No. It was ridiculous. 

STU: I'm talking you can include every Japanese game show and you'd still not come up with seven minutes of more pointless television. 

GLENN: And you don't even speak Japanese, yeah. 

STU: No. I still learn more. You are talking seven minutes about whether you properly characterized ‑‑ 

GLENN: Can I tell you something? 

STU: ‑‑ the order of introductions on a train trip. 

GLENN: Here's the thing. And you know, I don't really even ‑‑ I don't care because Barbara Walters made it very clear that I was not to make fun of her. 

STU: What did she say? Did she say that? 

GLENN: Stop. 

STU: But I wanted to ‑‑ 

GLENN: Stop. So I'm not making fun ‑‑ so I'm not going to make fun of her. Look, she is a woman who accomplished an awful lot in her life, in the many, many, many storied years of her life. She has accomplished an awful lot. She broke ground for women way, way, way, way back. 

STU: Yep, especially the wife of a particular senator she ‑‑ 

GLENN: So I'm not going to make fun of her. I am going to say this. I did have the feeling she was Norma Desmond. Now, if you don't know who Norma Desmond is, just remember this one line: I'm ready for my close‑up, Mr. DeMille. It was almost ‑‑ because it was creepy. It was creepy. She was extraordinarily hostile. When she asked me ‑‑ and we'll play this back. She was doing a stare‑down. Like she was like 8 years old. She was doing a stare‑down with me. And I thought to myself, what are you doing. And I felt, I actually ‑‑ in the end I feel bad because I feel like she ‑‑ maybe is she sensing that she's ‑‑ you know, I felt like Jerry Seinfeld: Do you even know who I am? You know what I mean? You know that moment with Larry King where you're like, hmmm, wow, are you ‑‑ hello?

Stu's 2 minute investigation

More Proof?  Email records show Glenn wondering who would be on the train in the 'reserved seats'...

GLENN: I think it was, I think it was that I said ‑‑ but I wasn't really even sure. I think it was that I said that I walked up to Barbara Walters. Because I remember I listened back ‑‑ what was it, three days ago, two days ago? I listened back to it on the air on this program. And I said, no, no, that's not exactly true; I didn't walk up to her. Remember? 

STU: Yeah, you were going into the investigation. 

GLENN: Oh, you have an investigation? 

STU: There's a full‑fledged investigation on this. 

GLENN: Oh, hang on just a second. We have an investigation. Hold on, Steve, this is good stuff. Go ahead. 

STU: Yes, this is another in a series of Stu's two‑minute investigations where I do approximately two minutes of work to prove an entire story false. 

GLENN: This is great because this is the two minutes that apparently the press won't ever do on stories. 

STU: Yes. 

GLENN: There was a big ‑‑ what was the big Internet scam that happened? Oh, it was on the tea parties. It was on the tea parties and the 9/12er that was like, hey, we should burn all the books. And nobody spent two minutes. So Stu, what he does is he caps himself: I'm only going to do two minutes of work on this. What did you find in a two‑minute investigation? 

STU: Well, first of all I had to answer the question the caller just asked which is what were they accusing you of lying about. 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: Two things that I came up with. Number one, that their seats on Amtrak were not reserved. Now, they were saying they were not reserved but the Amtrak employee was saying that they were.

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: Okay? Now, I am doubting that Whoopi Goldberg or Barbara Walters called 1‑800‑Amtrak or in Barbara Walters' case picked up a phone and waited for an operator to ask where they want to call and say Amtrak, please, that whole thing. But if they did not ‑‑ 

GLENN: "Hey, ring up the train." 

STU: Crank the phone. 

GLENN: Call the choo‑choo. 

STU: Right. So, you know, now I don't know how ‑‑ again we're going to go into this in a second, how exactly you knew before the stop that these were going to be reserved. But we'll get into that in a moment. 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: But let's go into the second lie because this is the more easy one to prove. 

GLENN: This is the one, I think this is the one that they were going after. 

STU: You said Barbara called you over and it was the other way around. This was the accusation of that, okay? 

GLENN: Yes. That she said that, "Glenn Beck, come hither" or whatever. And then I walked over to her. Which is not the way it happened. 

STU: Right. Now, if that were true, what difference would it make to the story, first of all? 

GLENN: No difference. 

STU: No difference. Has no relevance whatsoever. Was it some of the worst, most pointless moments on television? 

GLENN: Yes, it was. 

STU: Yes, it was. But the consensus is that you did say something wrong here. Even you conceded this point multiple times, on The View and on Fox last night. You conceded that you said something wrong. 

GLENN: And I also said it on the air before, I believe.

AS SEEN ON TV  The Insider Webcam, an exclusive feature available only to Glenn Beck Insiders. Learn more...

STU: Right. 

GLENN: Yeah. 

STU: So here we go. Upon further investigation ‑‑ this is again the two minutes. 

GLENN: This is two minutes. 

STU: Where I actually listened to what you said. 

GLENN: Okay. 

STU: We've come up with an incredible truth. This is Cut 4, Dan. You didn't say that at all. Never did you say anything like Barbara came over to me. Listen for it and listen very closely. When you hear this: 

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) 

GLENN: Now, as the train took off and Barbara said, Glenn Beck. And I said, yes, Mrs. Walters, how are you? I walked up, so you know, I walked up to Ms. ‑‑ because she was looking at me. And I don't know if she was just looking at me and thinking about somebody else or, you know, just ‑‑ you know how sometimes you'll just be staring at people and you just don't even know you're staring at them? 

STU: Right. 

GLENN: Okay, stop. 

(END AUDIO CLIP) 

STU: So this is the retelling of the story. 

GLENN: Which is before The View. 

STU: So you clarify it. But if you listen to the audio, Dan, if we could play the stuff they played on The View, then you can clarify. You clarified something you didn't need to clarify. At no point did you actually say that Barbara came up to you first. Listen to the audio. 

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) 

GLENN: And so there were four seats at this table and it was empty. So we get in and we sit down at the table and the lady says, no, no, no, no, you can't take those. Why not? They're reserve. They're reserved? I didn't ‑‑ you can't reserve ‑‑ no, no, these are reserved. 

Now, I'm thinking Joe "Amtrak" Biden is getting onto the train because you cannot reserve a seat on Amtrak. They don't do it. Well, all of a sudden the police enter. "Clear the path." It's Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg, oh, and Steve Kroft. How did they reserve seats on Amtrak when you can't reserve seats on Amtrak? Now, as the train took off and Barbara said, "Glenn Beck." 

(END AUDIO CLIP) 

STU: Okay, that's all you need to hear, but that's the whole point. So the train takes off and Barbara says something to you. 

GLENN: And she didn't ‑‑ okay. So here's the way it happened. She didn't say, "Glenn Beck." I said, "Ms. Walters, Glenn Beck." And she said, "Yes, you're going to be on The View coming up." That's what she said. 

STU: Why didn't you say what the Amtrak conductor said during that time? 

GLENN: Because he may have said, "Tickets?" He may have said that. 

STU: Now, is it because "Tickets" isn't relevant at all to the conversation? 

GLENN: Yes. 

STU: So what you are saying is you may have jumped in to a relevant point in the conversation. At no point did you say Barbara came over to me. You just said the train left and Barbara said this. 

GLENN: Right. 

STU: Not, and the worst part is in the very odd case that it may have implied that Barbara came up to you, for no good reason later on the radio, you clarified it, as we played earlier, and you said, oh, no, Barbara actually didn't come up to me; I came up to her. 

GLENN: I believe that Whoopi Goldberg does not think that those seats were reserved. I don't think she, I don't think she calls to have them reserved. I just, this is my speculation. We never got to this part. We never got to ‑‑ we never got to any of that. Any reasonable people would have sat around and said, "So wait a minute, they told you what?" And we would have laughed about it. As my wife said last night, "Women." And I said, what does that mean? And she said, do you think, Glenn, if you would have gotten on television, it would have been a bunch of guys, you would have said, what the hell was up with that? I didn't do that. It wasn't reserved. Really? Wasn't reserved? And you wouldn't have had a conversation about it. She said this is what women do. And I said, no, I just think this is what people with an agenda do. But so we never really had an actual conversation on this. I believe that Whoopi also doesn't believe that she had any kind of special treatment, that they didn't reserve those seats. 

STU: That was the point of the whole monologue. 

GLENN: Right. Somebody reserved those seats because we were not allowed to sit in them. They had them all covered with papers and we couldn't sit in them. When we got onto the train, they walked in. Steve Kroft did not sit with them. The police walked them up to those seats. Barbara said, "You want to sit here?" They sat there. But that's where the police were standing, standing right there. That's when the person who told us they were reserved took all of those papers up and moved them off. I mean, so now, does Barbara even know? This goes back to my point that Barbara has been living in such an elitist sort of world for so long and, you know, she's, you know ‑‑ and I think that she has now gotten to the point to where she doesn't even know. She doesn't even know. "I think that's the way I always, I just happened to find those seats there." Somebody called to reserve those seats and if it wasn't Barbara Walters and Whoopi Goldberg that were supposed to sit in those seats, who was it? Who was the celebrity that was supposed to ‑‑ now, I haven't done my journalistic , you know ‑‑ because I'm not a journalist. I didn't call Amtrak to find out who it was, what celebrity didn't sit in those seats. But the lady who said they were saved, for someone in New York and you would see when we got into New York who it was and you'd be all excited and then she looked at us and she kind of like went, huh? You know, I just thought it was ‑‑ it's at least who I believe the Amtrak lady thought was sitting there. 

STU: Right. So as we look at this, we learned that when you say something that they said was wrong, they called you a liar, okay? Now, when you ‑‑ when they came out and said, "Oh, well, you kept saying Barbara came over here; that's a lie." By their own definition, they're lying when they say that. So you didn't ‑‑ we looked at the audio. You have not said that. We've listened to it all. So you didn't say the supposed lie they accused you of. They didn't do the fact checking of actually listening to the audio of what you said. Then they didn't do the fact checking of finding out if you had further clarified it on another radio show, which you had. 

GLENN: Aren't they journalists? 

STU: Why? Is it because no one sent Whoopi a link to that particular audio clip? That's the bottom line is no one happens ‑‑ 

GLENN: See, again I'll take ‑‑ I'll stand up for Whoopi Goldberg. 

STU: No, no, Glenn ‑‑ 

GLENN: Whoopi Goldberg is not a journalist. Whoopi Goldberg does exactly what I do. They talk about the thing. They talk about the things in life. Barbara Walters, however ‑‑ 

STU: Oh, exactly. 

GLENN: Is a different story. 

STU: So I don't know what they're doing. They're either ignoring or incompetently look looking for your, as it turns out, unnecessary clarification. So there are a couple of questions to ask Ms. Barbara Walters. 

STU: Yes. 

GLENN: And I think she said it best, when she said this! 

(AUDIO CLIP PLAYS) 

STU: I don't know, Barbara. Do we check facts, Barbara? 

GLENN: I don't know what kind of tree I'm supposed to be when I'm on your show. Am I a tree that doesn't check facts because that's not what trees do? But you instead, you check your facts but yet you don't check your facts? Wow. Good job, investigative reporter Barbara Walters.

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Glenn goes to Washington – White House Correspondence Dinner

Pictures from Glenn's trip to DC...

GLENN: So then the President arrives. He is positively robotic. I watch him because, you know, I was seated waaaay off to the side, which I was actually thankful for. I didn't want to be anywhere near the center where it was nothing but NBC and GE employees.

STU: Really?

GLENN: Yeah, I don't know if they were the new halogen green lights but they were all lit up and everything. What a bunch of anyway, so I'm off to the side. So I could see the President and the first lady, you know, off to the side of the stage as they're getting ready, and we weren't that far away. I mean, it was probably from here to the other studios away from the President and, yeah, I could see him backstage with the secret service, and he wasn't necessarily smiling. They introduced him, and the minute he hit that light, big smile came on his face, and the minute he stepped out of those lights or they stopped the cameras, the smile went away. He was taking pictures with kids and he's like, Mr. President, you've got to take a picture of the winners and he would smile, and stop. I mean, he was robotic. He was very, very good at his speech. He's an effective speaker, he's a very good speaker. I thought he was funny.

STU: See, I haven't seen him perform the comedy too well, but who

GLENN: I thought he was for a President I thought he did very I thought he did very well.

STU: I thought the funniest part was when Wanda Sykes went into that whole routine about Malia and she just went wrecking the President's daughter and was talking about

GLENN: No, no, she did that to Sarah Palin's daughter. No, it wasn't the President's daughter.

STU: Oh.

GLENN: You might have been confused because remember she did the whole routine on Joe Biden's daughter. You know, that

STU: Ripped her, ripped her.

GLENN: No, no, wait, she didn't. No, no, she did it on Sarah Palin's daughter.
STU: But I thought the funny part was when he was like, you know who I want to just die of kidney failure?

GLENN: Yeah.

STU: Is Rachel Maddow. I mean, that stupid

GLENN: No, she no, she didn't do that, no, uh uh. She did that on Rush Limbaugh. I tell you, when she did because Todd Palin was there and was sitting at a table behind me.

STU: Classy, classy.

GLENN: Todd Palin came up. He was very nice. He's a normal human being. And I said, Todd, don't destroy this is before. Don't destroy your family, don't destroy your family. Are you guys strong enough as a family to weather this slime? And he said, "I think so. I think so." And I said, just be really careful, man. This is just bad, this is bad stuff here. And he said, "Oh, I know, I know." But he was very optimistic and he was a good guy. And normal, just normal. And when she started in on Sarah Palin and, you know, abstinence, I thought, what are you doing? What are you doing? Is this changing the dialogue in Washington that was so promised? Is that what it is? Because this is a change.

I had a couple that won't be named because there were reporters, but a couple of journalists come up to me afterwards and said, you came on an interesting year. And I said, did I? And he said, yeah, you witnessed a new low and a new standard. He said, never has this happened like this before. Imus had done stuff, but it was again against the President.

STU: Yeah, because that's the tradition.

GLENN: That's the tradition.

STU: You are always wrecking, and even Colbert was but it was wrecking the President. And even though some people thought it went over the line, it was still

GLENN: Kidney failure? Kidney failure? Really?

STU: Well, the thing is, though, it's a comedian and it's not like the President the President wasn't

GLENN: I was thrilled. If you saw because apparently I read a one reporter said that they cut to me and I was stone faced during that. I wasn't laughing. But somebody else, they saw me on C Span and they cut away and I was smiling, leaning over talking to my wife. I was smiling. I said, "These people are so stupid. They've just written my comedy tour."

STU: (Laughing).

GLENN: If this is the standard, oh, oh, I can't wait to go on and do comedy on stage. If this is the standard. Wanda Sykes, boy, I mean, I'm torn because I'd love you to be able to stand by my side and defend me when I list the people that I'd like to see get kidney failure.

STU: That would be hilarious. And Barack Obama would be laughing the whole time because he loves those jokes.

GLENN: Well, he might not hear it because I believe Barack Obama may be the 20th hijacker! (Laughing).
STU: Oh, you, oh, you, don't you do oh, my. Oh, my God because you know what? Liberals love when you call Barack Obama a terrorist. They love it!

GLENN: He's the 20th hijacker! He didn't show up because he was too busy embezzling money with ACORN!

STU: (Laughing).

GLENN: (Laughing). Oh, man, I hope Wanda Sykes gets kidney has kidney failure. So make sure you join us on our comedy tour, it's our Common Sense comedy tour. Tickets are still available. Be a lot of great jokes happening.

STU: Oh, it's going to be good, it's going to be really good.

GLENN: You know, but hey, make sure you join us. It's let's see. Denver's sold out, Phoenix, San Diego, Kansas City, Houston, and Richmond. Tickets are going fast. Grab them. Encore performance is happening on June 11th. June 4th we're going to be in over 450 movie theatres nationwide. Make sure you grab your tickets. Our Common Sense comedy tour. Be there. You know, unless you're wishing somebody was having kidney failure.

STU: (Laughing). That's unbelievable, how we were ever in a comedian that doesn't have a TV show anymore.

David Feherty shouldn't get pass for tasteless joke - but neither should Wanda Sykes

Double Standard - If a Conservative Made Jokes Even Half This Tasteless They Would Be Crucified By The Media!!

Simon/Pool

Comedian Wanda Sykes has President Obama in stitches as she performs at Saturday's White House Correspondents' dinner in D.C.

Mouths That Roared… Tastelessly!!  -  Since when are jokes about 9/11 and death okay??  It seems that the answer is when they are aimed at conservatives.

What did you think of the jokes made by David Feherty and Wanda Sykes?

Their comments were tasteless, and both should apologize.

Feherty deserves punishment, but Sykes' comments were fine considering the setting.

It was all in good fun - neither should be reprimanded.

Here is what David Feherty, a golf guy who poses no threat to the memory of Lenny Bruce, wrote in a Dallas magazine recently:

"If you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama Bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and Bin Laden would be strangled to death."

Not funny. An old joke, tastelessly retold. Feherty of CBS - who once wrote a book called "Somewhere in Ireland a Village is Missing an Idiot" - is drawing fire because of it. But you have to wonder how a similar joke might have played at the White House Correspondents' dinner on Saturday night, as long as it was about a Republican.

Because here are a couple of jokes Wanda Sykes wrote and then delivered to that crowd:

"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was just so strung out on OxyContin he missed his flight. ...

"Rush Limbaugh hopes the country fails? I hope his kidneys fail, how 'bout that?"

Somehow Ms. Sykes got laughs with this material, and draws no fire. It is all supposed to be about the setting, or so we are told. President Obama was there, the dinner is always the Washington version of a Friars Club Roast, just without the Sopranos language.

So Sykes, a comedian, gets a pass because of where she was, and whom she was talking about. And maybe who she is. David Feherty, who fancies himself a bit of a comic himself, doesn't, at least not so far. As always, the rules on all this change from day to day like baseball's strike zone.

This isn't about condoning what Feherty wrote. It sure isn't about running interference for Limbaugh. He has become the clown at the right-wing circus and has had the bully pulpit for a long time, not just banging away at people who think like President Obama - or Wanda Sykes for that matter - for a long time.

Limbaugh is another gasbag in this country who has gotten rich on meanness, and so if he is getting a taste of his own medicine now, prescription or otherwise, that is probably just swell with the people he has trampled on the way to the buffet table. Then the bank.

But what if Limbaugh, white talk show host, goes on the air and says that Sykes, black comedian, is about half-a-terrorist and that, oh by the way, he hopes she dies? Is he allowed to say he's just an entertainer, and tell everybody to lighten up?

Feherty? He has been condemned by representatives from Pelosi and Reid and even the PGA Tour. CBS issued a statement that said, "Feherty's column for a Dallas magazine is an unacceptable attempt at humor and is not in any way condoned."

A poll was taken by the Daily News… 68% of the participants said both Feherty and Sykes’ comments were tasteless and both should apologize!

Double Standard - If a Conservative Made Jokes Even Half This Tasteless They Would Be Crucified By The Media!!

Updated Monday, May 11th 2009, 8:34 AM