Glenn Beck Laughs About Death Threats to Academic
This weekend, the New York Times’ Brian Stelter reported that 78-year old City University of New York professor Frances Fox Piven has been receiving death threats at her website and through email.
The reason for the threats is Glenn Beck’s construction of an elaborate conspiracy theory that casts Piven as one of the nine worst enemies of America and humanity, based on one article she wrote 45 years ago about a radical plan to help poor people — a plan that was never used by anyone.
Piven was a rather obscure academic until Glenn Beck singled her out for demonization. And as usual, the right wing blogosphere parroted Beck’s conspiracy theory across thousands of websites.
Beck himself has never advocated violence against Piven, let’s be clear. But he has been repeating his incendiary and false accusations against her for dozens of Fox News broadcasts and radio shows, leading to many thousands of vicious, disturbing comments directed at her on The Blaze, Fox Nation, and other right wing sites.
And Beck obviously has no intention of stopping the incitement. Here’s a clip from his radio show today, in which he mocks the New York Times and Frances Fox Piven, and laughs like a goon about the threats she’s received.