Glenn Beck, Anyone?

Alright. So I'm a conservative. I feel so priveledged to have been born in the United States, and I truly appreciate all of the freedoms we are afforded as her citizens. I appreciate our freedom from the government controlling our lives (more than they already do, anyway). I appreciate our freedom to succeed or fail based on our own efforts. I also appreciate our freedom of speech.

When I came upon this post from a contributor on the Care2 site, I was appalled. The author of this post, Kristina Chew, believes that Glenn Beck should be censored by FOX News because of his coverage given to Frances Fox Piven's article “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty."  

From Kristina Chew's post:

 'According to the New York Times the article proposed that if people overwhelmed the welfare rolls, fiscal and political stress on the system could force reform and give rise to changes like a guaranteed income. By drawing attention to the topic, the proposal “had a big impact” even though it was not enacted, Ms. Piven said. “A lot of people got the money that they desperately needed to survive,” she said.

In Mr. Beck’s telling on a Fox broadcast on Jan. 5, 2010, Ms. Piven and Mr. Cloward (who died in 2001) planned “to overwhelm the system and bring about the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with impossible demands and bring on economic collapse.” Mr. Beck observed that the number of welfare recipients soared in the years after the article, and said the article was like “economic sabotage.” '

Apparently, Ms. Piven has been receiving threats since Beck brought her article from 1966 into the spotlight. According to Kristina Chew, FOX News should censor Glenn Beck since he would be responsible if something happened to Piven. Really? When did it become acceptable to to pin the responsibility for someone's actions onto another person? When did it become popular to trash the first amendment in the hope that ignorant people would no longer do ignorant things?


She goes on to state:

'It is extremely unfortunate that Fox News has taken such an irresponsible stance. Even though the above comments were made on The Blaze, Beck's targeting of Piven began on his show on Fox News. By not requiring Beck to cease his attack on Piven, Fox News is tacitly condoning the threats of violence against her.

And there's nothing academic, or ethical, about that.'

I could not disagree more with Ms. Chew.