Glenn Beck Targets Female Professor: Death Threats

[lakhota]

Glenn Beck Target Frances Fox Piven Gets Death Threats

A campaign has begun to defend a longtime professor and activist from the frequent attacks of Glenn Beck—and the death threats that the attacks have brought with them.

Frances Fox Piven, a 78-year-old professor and political theorist, has been the subject of harsh criticism by Beck for years. Now, the Center for Constitutional Rights has written a letter to Roger Ailes, CEO of Fox News, asking for his "immediate help in stopping false accusations by Glenn Beck that are putting Professor Piven in danger."

Beck has cast Piven—who is now a professor at the City University of New York—and her late husband, fellow academic Richard Cloward, as the architects of the economic crisis and key influences behind what Beck sees as Barack Obama's drive to break down and radically transform the American government.

In one broadcast, Beck described Piven and Cloward as "the people who you would say are fundamentally responsible for the unsustainability and possible collapse of our economic system." Piven is also a frequent target on Beck's news site, The Blaze; one headline on a recent article reads, "Frances Fox Piven Rings In The New Year By Calling For Violent Revolution."

As recently as Monday, Beck devoted over seven minutes of his TV show to Piven, repeatedly calling her an "enemy of the Constitution" due to an article she wrote for The Nation in which she praised the demonstrations and civil disobedience that occurred in Britain and Greece in the past few months.

He also included her in a pledge that he asked members of Congress to sign following the Arizona shootings. In it, he compared her to a violent, far-right militia whose members are now in jail for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government.

"I denounce violent threats and calls for the destruction of our system - regardless of their underlying ideology - whether they come from the Hutaree Militia or Frances Fox Piven," Beck's statement read.

The main source of Beck's continued ire is an article Piven and Cloward wrote in 1966, which called for a movement to overwhelm the public welfare rolls in an effort to bring about a guaranteed national income.

Since then, Piven has remained a high-profile political sociologist. She was a chair of the American Sociological Association and was instrumental in getting a law passed which allowed people to register to vote at DMV's. In the past few years, though, she has received multiple death threats as a result of Beck's attacks on her, as she told The Progressive magazine:

"I got e-mails that said, 'Die You C-nt,' and 'May cancer find you soon.' And people are posting my address on the Internet with their messages that are really crude and ugly and violent."

In its letter, the Center for Constitutional Rights ran through some of the violent comments that readers of The Blaze have left on articles about Piven. They include:

"Maybe they should burst through the front door of this arrogant elitist and slit the hateful cow's throat."

"We should blow up Piven's office and home."

"Big lots is having a rope sale I hear, you buy the rope and I will hang the wench. I will spin her as she hangs."

CCR asked Ailes to "order Mr. Beck to cease and desist."

Watch Piven respond to Beck's campaign against her on 'Democracy Now!': www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/21/glenn-beck-target-frances_n_812268.html

The New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/media/22beck.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=

[ed1066]

Wow, HuffPo is getting really desperate. Were there no anti-Semitic stories to run that day?

[workpublic]

apparently death threats are a dime a dozen. the author of Tiger Mother gets them too.

[jkapp]

How do they know it is all people that like Beck making those threats? It could be left wingers trying to get Beck silenced...

[dmsm]

Jan 24, 2011 13:55:46 GMT -5 jkapp said:

How do they know it is all people that like Beck making those threats? It could be left wingers trying to get Beck silenced...

His own words sink him...That is what I find amusing is that people will try to blame someone other than the one who spoke the words. It is called putting your head in the sand. I would respect more republicans if they condemned the hate speech from Beck and the rest. And you do know that Becks fakes his tears? He said it himself. Like I said his words say it all.

[ed1066]

And you do know that Becks fakes his tears? He said it himself.

You know what else? I heard that Arnold Schwarzenegger isn't really a robot from the future! He faked it for the movies! He said it himself! I'll see if I can find the link...

[fairlycrazy23]

Jan 24, 2011 14:26:33 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

"There are some people, who if they saw a dead body at Nixon's feet and Nixon standing over the body with a smoking gun would run up to him and say, 'Dick, who put that gun into your hand?'"

It seems like that would be the left...trying to blame someone other the one who did the deed.

The deed in question is the threats, and Beck most likely has not made any death threats, at least not that I know of.

[ed1066]

"There are some people, who if they saw a dead body at Nixon's feet and Nixon standing over the body with a smoking gun would run up to him and say, 'Dick, who put that gun into your hand?'"

I like that. It describes the blind, fundamentalist Obama apologists to a "T"...

[ed1066]

The deed in question is the threats, and Beck most likely has not made any death threats, at least not that I know of.

It's very simple, if the OP will post a link to a video clip of Beck making a death threat on the air, the controversy is over!

Waiting...waiting...waiting...

[rockon]

If Piven admits she is a socialist and wants to transform our capitalist society that many of our forefathers died to secure for us and she encourages civil disobedience. Then why wouldn't we want a Beck to make sure everyone knows whats going on and that she has our Presidents ear? We should all be concerned enough to ask her and our President to explain and if it's true to send Beck a thank you note for letting us know about the infiltration.

[jkapp]

Jan 24, 2011 14:36:28 GMT -5 @toughtimes said:

Ed, he didn't accuse Beck himself of doing this, which would shut down his program. He did suggest Beck baits the lunatic fringe in a dangerous way and I do believe this is true, even though Beck has the right to do it.

It's no different the the left's constant attacks on the wealthy, Wall Street, Banks, etc. Even going so far as accusing them of somehow forcing people to take out loans they cannot afford to pay back!

[ed1066]

Yes and no. The tenor of political discussion has become increasingly strident and sound-bites have replaced careful consideration on both sides. It is much easier to make a cartoon-character out of one's opponent than to carefully listen and weigh the pluses and minuses of a position.

Are you suggesting political entertainment was ever different from this? Or are you, like most liberals on this board, somehow under the impression that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, etc. are elected officials rather than merely entertainers who talk about politics?

[workpublic]

It is much easier to make a cartoon-character out of one's opponent than to carefully listen and weigh the pluses and minuses of a position.

when do the candidates stop using sound bites and actually go into details regarding "their position"?

"no new taxes", "obamacare will save money" "i didn't have sex with that women"(and i'm pissed and scolding you for suggesting i did finger waggle)

and the biggest one of all - "hope and change"

[lakhota]

Glenn Beck's Ranting Sparks Death Threats Against 78-Year-Old Sociologist



Glenn Beck has been railing against 78-year-old CUNY professor Frances Fox Piven for weeks now, claiming she co-authored a devious plan to overthrow the government in the 1960s. Now, some of his fans are issuing death threats against her.

According to the New York Times, Piven has been receiving death threats after being villainized on Beck's show. "Somebody tell Frances I have 5000 rounds ready and I'll give My life to take Our freedom back," wrote one user on Beck's news site, The Blaze.

As a scholar, Piven is famous for her work on social movements. But Glenn Beck has become obsessed with one 1966 essay she and her husband wrote for The Nation, which argued for bringing about social change by overwhelming the welfare system. To Beck, the "Cloward & Piven Strategy" is sort of master plan by Liberals and the Obama administration to collapse the government--he even put her on his "nine most dangerous people in the world" list!

So, inevitably, the crazies started targeting Piven, whose work poses an enormous threat to American undergraduates trying to stay awake in intro sociology, and that's about it. Seems they think they can somehow prevent her from writing an article in a political journal in 1966 that maybe thirteen people outside of Glenn Beck fans have thought about since then? But it's a testament both to Glenn Beck's skill at making shit up, and his fans' ability to be crazy, that some Americans actually care enough about a sociology professor to threaten her.

tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/glenn-becks-ranting-sparks-death-threats-against-78-year-old-sociologist.php?ref=fpc

[skweet]

If the above article intends to show Glenn Beck's analysis as guiding or encouraging the deranged letter-writers then it does a poor job. If this is the connection that we are making to acuse talk show hosts of encouraging violence, then we are absurd, at best. Huffington post and Beck are both known for making some wild assertions, but what this article seriously lacks is a chalkboard with lines between facts and assertions, because all I see is assertions, no facts, no connections, no reason to believe it's credibility.

[lakhota]

Funny! If Huffington Post gives your heartburn, try this New York Times link:

www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/media/22beck.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq='fraces%20fox%20piven%22&st=cse

[ed1066]

If the above article intends to show Glenn Beck's analysis as guiding or encouraging the deranged letter-writers then it does a poor job.

Poor indeed It does nothing to promote any idea that Beck is somehow responsible anywhere other than in the (obviously biased) writer's imagination...

[rockon]

It appears his story is correct, she promotes socialism and Beck's story still doesn't come close to equaling our President's claim that George W. Bush single handedly ruined our entire economy and almost caused a depression during his 8 years in office. I wonder how much hate that repeated line has stirred up in this country.

[skweet]

Ok, the fact that deranged people exist in the world bothers me. The fact that so many liberals consider the spurious connections, that deranged people make, to have logical backing scares the hell out of me.