A defiant Glenn Beck fired back this week at a group that organized an ad boycott to his show on Fox News Channel for a racially charged comment a month ago, noting that the co-founder of the group is a White House environmental advisor and a self-described "rowdy black nationalist."
Beck on Monday did not mention the boycott itself, which was organized by Color of Change in response to his calling President Obama a racist -- prompting dozens of companies to pull their ads from his show -- but instead trained his sites on Van Jones, who co-founded the group.
With a piano line underscoring his commentary for dramatic effect, Beck painted Jones as a radical who showed up for his first day at Yale University in combat boots "and holding a Black Panther book bag."
Beck framed the show as an expose on the Obama administration, which he portrayed as being aligned with radical "czars."
"There are nearly three dozen of these czars; they don't answer to anybody. ... They don't go through the confirmation process," he said, yet "they are advising our president. Who are they?
"Today we're going to start highlighting one of our czars," Beck added, referring to Jones.
Color of Change's current executive director, James Rucker, told the LA Times Beck is "trying to change the subject," and noted that Jones hasn't been involved with Color of Change in almost two years.
Meanwhile, Beck's ratings are as strong as ever. In the past month his average viewership increased to 2.25 million from 2.05 million viewers in July.
In late July, Beck said he believes Obama "is a guy ... who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people or the white culture -- I don't know what it is," he said.
When Fox host Brian Kilmeade countered that 70 percent of Obama's staff is white, Beck responded: "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people; I'm saying he has a problem -- this guy, is, I believe, a racist."
This week, Color of Change announced that a total of 36 companies had pulled their ads or pledged not to advertise, including Campbell Soup Company, Clorox, Farmers Insurance Group and Johnson & Johnson. But some companies -- such Procter & Gamble and AT&T -- told the LA Times they hadn't advertised on the show to begin with. The other companies switched their ads to other time slots on Fox, meaning the network didn't lose any money.
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