Joe Scarborough: Glenn Beck Now Worse Than the Dixie Chicks
The MSNBC host wasn’t in the studio today when his show’s pundits pulled apart Glenn Beck’s remarks that President Obama is a “racist” with “deep-seated hatred for white people.” (Beck also smeared “green jobs czar” Van Jones as a “communist.”) But he’s tweeting about it:
Scarborough has some credibility here, because he wasn’t always so sanguine about the Dixie Chicks “controversy.”
At a 2003 concert in London, the Chicks’s lead singer/songwriter Natalie Maines said that they were “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.” That controversy coincided with the opening weeks of the former congressman’s first show, “Scarborough Country,” and Scarborough pounded the country singers relentlessly for having the audacity to attack George W. Bush. From the March 14, 2003 edition of the show:
“„It appears the are short on southern hospitality when it comes to their southern president. They told fans in England they were ashamed of the president and now their fans ashamed of them.
“„It’s just the latest incident where celebrities are offending their fans by spouting anti-American agendas. And we’ve seen a parade of Hollywood elites take to the airwaves to dis the war.
“„But tonight, a refreshing change. You know my next guest, actor Eric Braeden, as Victor Newman from the CBS daytime drama, “The Young and The Restless.”
It went on for weeks. From the April 24, 2003 edition of the show, attacking the singers for appearing on the cover of “Entertainment Weekly” in the nude:
“„Natalie, we ain’t so proud of you. The Chicks’ outrageous squawk sent their No. 1 single “Travelin’ Soldier” traveling right off the charts. And sales of their album dropped like a lead egg. Radio stations boycotted the Chicks’ music. And they began molting under the commercial pressure. First, they released a boilerplate statement acknowledging that they were disrespectful. But they kept after President Bush for his so-called rush to war.
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