Mark this day on your calendars: Glenn Beck admitted he was wrong about something. On Tuesday, Beck got into it with billionaire philanthropist George Soros. Back in November, Beck called Soros a Nazi collaborator, which raised the ire of the Anti-Defamation League. So then Beck became an expert in Judaism. “Most people who are not Jewish don’t understand that there are the Orthodox rabbis and the Reform rabbis,” he said. “Reform rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like radicalized Islam in a way where it’s less about religion than it is about politics.”
This did not make the Anti-Defamation League happy. “Glenn Beck’s comparison of Reform Judaism to radical Islam demonstrates his bigoted ignorance,” said a statement from the organization. “Despite his feeble attempt to suggest that he was not equating Reform Judaism with Islamic extremist terrorism, the simple fact that he would mention them in the same breath is highly offensive and outrageous.” So today Beck apologized.
“I was making a point about political activists and I started to talk about the difference in rabbis,” he said. “Someone has called me ignorant for what I said on Tuesday and I think that’s a pretty good description of what I said. I was wrong on this,” he said. “I also apologize for it … I’ve always told you to do your own homework and in this case I didn’t do enough homework.” Finally, something we agree on.
Glenn Beck apologizes for comparing Reform Judaism to radical Islam; says it was a bad analogy [NYDN]
