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Action Alerts
Take Action: Urge ABC to Reconsider Its Hiring of Glenn Beck
Posted on Friday January 19, 2007
ABC’s “Good Morning America” has recently announced that it is hiring anti-Arab rhetoric propagator Glenn Beck as a regular commentator on its program. During his tenure at CNN Headline News and as a talk-radio host, Beck has consistently fueled his commentary with vitriol and falsehoods aimed at stirring resentment towards Arabs and Muslims.
Beck has suggested that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism and that if they do not take action they will be “looking through a razor wire fence at the West.” You can read just a few of the blatantly prejudice statements he’s made on the show at the bottom of this alert.
The Arab American Institute (AAI), the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) have sent a forceful letter to ABC News and Good Morning America requesting that they reconsider Beck’s hiring.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
ABC News has initially responded to our letter, which is promising, but we need your help in order to encourage positive action on the part of ABC regarding this matter.
We are asking supporters to call and email ABC News and voice their concerns about Good Morning America’s decision to hire Glenn Beck.
Call ABC News
Phone calls are an extremely effective tool for action! Take just a few minutes to call the ABC switchboard in New York at (212) 456-7777 and urge ABC to reconsider.
When you call ABC, be sure to mention the following points:
If you are a GMA viewer, let them know!
Politely but firmly convey your concern that adding Beck to the GMA staff would weaken the show’s journalistic integrity and jeopardize its reputation as a fair and objective news program.
State that by giving Beck such a prominent platform to spread dishonest and hurtful statements, ABC is perpetuating fear of Arab and Muslim communities and is inciting hatred toward Arab and Muslim Americans.
Ask ABC to reconsider its hiring of Beck.
Email ABC News
If you are able, please supplement your emails with a phone call to ABC’s switchboard! You can use the points listed above to write an email, or feel free to send the following:
As an Arab American and ABC News viewer, I am concerned by your recent decision to hire Glenn Beck.
Glenn Beck has used his radio and television shows to spread false and hurtful statements about the Arab and Muslim American communities, and his dangerous language helps perpetuate fear and prejudice toward Americans like me. I believe that he will use Good Morning America to spread this rhetoric to an even broader audience.
I am also concerned that that his addition to Good Morning America will weaken the show’s journalistic integrity and jeopardize its reputation as a fair and objective news program.
I urge for you to reconsider your hiring of Glenn Beck. Thank you for your consideration.
Email your comments to netaudr@abc.com. Be sure to copy aaimedia@aaiusa.org in your email so we know that you took action!
Thank you for taking action and helping to ensure fairness and accuracy in reporting about issues of importance to Arab and Muslim Americans!
Several Disturbing Comments Highlight Beck’s Blatant Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Bias
On August 10 and September 5, 2006, Beck stated that Arab and Muslim Americans are apathetic to terrorism—completely ignoring the positive contributions of the community, especially in regard to national security—and warned that Muslims “who have sat on [their] hands the whole time rather than “lining up to shoot the bad Muslims in the head” will face dire consequences. One of those consequences being that Muslims will be “looking through a razor wire fence at the West.”
On November 14, 2006, Beck interviewed then Congressman-elect Keith Ellison and asked him to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies simply because of Ellison’s religious affiliation.
On November 15, 2006, Beck said he was surprised by an American criticizing Al Qaeda because “the man who wrote it is a Muslim.”
