Howard Kurtz points out the hypocrisy by those on the right and at Fox News who had a hissy fit over Alan Grayson calling a lobbyist a whore, but ignoring Glenn Beck calling Mary Landrieu a prostitute. The guy from The National Review's answer killed me.
GERAGHTY: I think I expect more out of a member of Congress than the 5:00 p.m. hour of FOX News.
Well, so do I but that doesn't excuse Glenn Beck for that pile of dung he calls a television show. I also don't think it's is a fair comparison. Grayson didn't call the lobbyist a street walker like Beck did Landrieu. He used the term whore which can also mean "a venal or unscrupulous person".
KURTZ: You know, a few weeks ago on this program, I talked about why I thought that CNN and MSNBC and other news outlets should have devoted more attention to something that Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson said. He called a lobbyist a "K Street whore."
FOX News went wild on this story. I thought it was underplayed elsewhere.
Now we have Glenn Beck using a similar term on FOX News. Let me play that for you and we'll come back on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN BECK: Well, I'm sorry. So we know you're hooking, but you're just not cheap. It's $300 million...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: OK. He's talking there about Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, who did get a provision in order to get her support for breaking the filibuster on the health care bill, $300 million for Louisiana.
He said she was hooking. He basically called her a prostitute.
Let's go back a couple of weeks to what Sean Hannity and Michelle Malkin were saying on FOX News when the Alan Grayson "whore" comment was made.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN HANNITY: What would be the reaction if it was a Republican?
MICHELLE MALKIN: Well, you know, we would be strung up by our toes. Imagine if you had said something like this, Sean, about a lobbyist on Capitol Hill or any other Democratic public figure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KURTZ: Bill Press, I didn't hear anyone else on FOX criticizing Glenn Beck for essentially calling Mary Landrieu a prostitute.
PRESS: Neither did I. I have to tell you, look, I'm a talk show host, I am totally for talk show hosts almost getting away with almost anything they say, on the radio particularly. But I'm amazed at how much FOX lets Glenn Beck get away with. I think he is a ticking time bomb, and one day he's going to explode in the face of Roger Ailes, and they're going to be sorry they gave him that television show.
KURTZ: Jim Geraghty, did Beck go too far in his language?
GERAGHTY: Well, it was a little bit crass, but nobody elected Glenn Beck to Congress -- yet.
KURTZ: All right, so you're saying there should be no standards for what people say on television?
GERAGHTY: I'm saying I think it's not unnatural to expect more from a member of Congress or elected official...
(CROSSTALK)
KURTZ: Oh, I see. So you're saying it's OK -- I mean, Grayson should be held accountable because he's an elected official, and Glenn Beck is in the gasbag business like many of us on television.
GERAGHTY: I think I expect more out of a member of Congress than the 5:00 p.m. hour of FOX News.
