Was Rick Perry on Glenn Beck's Show Yesterday? Why Not?

by: Phillip Martin, Progress Texas

Tue Apr 07, 2009 at 02:40 PM CDT

Summary: Governor Rick Perry was supposed to appear on Glenn Beck's show yesterday, but didn't. Instead, he appeared with President Bush at the ballpark in Arlington. The question, then, is why the switch? Is Glenn Beck so posionous -- from his hatred of 9-11 victims' families to his call to drive a stake through the heart of President Obama -- that Governor Perry would rather appear at a baseball game with President Bush than go on a Fox News show? Will Perry disinvite Glenn Beck from the San Antonio Tea Party on April 15? Or is Rick Perry still comfortable with Glenn Beck using his Fox News platform of fear to promote Perry's rejection of stimulus funds?

Has anyone seen any footage of Governor Rick Perry appearing on Glenn Beck's show? I checked all the Fox News pages, Glenn Beck's personal web page, his YouTube channel, Governor Perry's YouTube channel, and I don't see anything.

Yesterday, Perry announced he was going on Glenn Beck's show at 4pm. Here's his twitter update (link to jpeg in case it changes):

@GovernorPerry Be on Glenn Beck live today at 4PM...9:56 AM Apr 6th from TwitterBerry

Governor Perry "tweeted" that at 8:56am (it shows 9:56am b/c I'm an hour ahead over here on the east coast). Forty minutes later, I put up my post: Governor Rick Perry to Appear on 9/11 Family-Hating Glenn Beck Show Today. I wrote in that post:

Governor Rick Perry appearing on the show of someone who has vocally said he hates the 9/11 victims families. Anyone that wants to watch the train wreck, tune into Fox News at 4pm today as Perry appears on the Glenn Beck show.

What exactly did Beck say? Here's the quote, from September 9, 2005:

"...this is horrible to say, and I wonder if I'm alone in this -- you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims families? ...I don't hate all of them. I hate probably about 10 of them. But when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them."

The quote is excerpted from a recent broadcast Stephen Colbert did on The Colbert Report. A little while ago, Beck announced the "9-12" project, which is designed to rekindle that spirit Americans had on September 11. See, because even though Rudy Giulliani failed when he tried to distract the country screaming "9-11, 9-11, 9-11" at every campaign event, some manipulative Republican schmucks aren't done waving the flag in order to sell, sell, sell their show and boost their ratings.

And Governor Rick Perry, always the manipulator, is more than happy to show up and sit down and talk with someone who has stated that he hates the very people most directly affected by the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Rick Perry: failure.

Sometimes it is just scheduling errors...but normally a Governor won't just get "bumped" by a news anchor for something else. Especially when Glenn Beck has already shown that he likes Governor Perry -- since he links, on his 9/12 project page, to Rick Perry's refusal of stimulus dollars:

Yes, it would seem like that since at least March 13, 2009 -- when that post above was made and Glenn Beck, as part of his 9/12 project, thought to link his viewers to the Houston Chronicle article, "Perry rejects $555 million in federal stimulus money" -- Beck has had some admiration for Governor Perry. Beck is also coming to Texas on April 15, as part of the Tax Day Tea Party event in San Antonio:

Glenn Beck will be on hand for the San Antonio Tax Day Tea Party in front of the Alamo on April 15. Beck is tentatively slated as a main speaker for the tea party which is scheduled to start at 6PM.

According to a press release by PJTV, “Crowds of 5,000 to 10,000 are expected in multiple cities, including Atlanta, where Sean Hannity of Fox News will be broadcasting live, Sacramento, where Neil Cavuto will host his show, San Antonio, where Glenn Beck will broadcast, and New York City, where Newt Gingrich will be a featured speaker.”

The theme of the tea party is the repeal the federal pork spending and tax cuts. There are already more than 500 tea parties scheduled around the nation for tax day.

Yes, Glenn Beck -- as part of the journalistic responsiblity he has at Fox News -- wants to joing the Republican bandwagon to help restart the American revolution. Governor Rick Perry, of course, will also be at such a Tea Party -- one here in Austin:

The Austin, Texas Tax Day Tea Party is taking place in conjuction with hundreds of similar events nationwide, on April 15.  

Ours is a coalition gathering being held at two different times to accommodate as many willing protesters as possible.

On April 15 at 11:30am, Governor Rick Perry will join Peggy Venable, Michael Quinn Sullivan, and Rep. Wayne Christian at Austin City Hall for a rally.

After that rally, citizens will be encouraged to go to the Capitol and visit with legislators about the so-called stimulus package. 

Governor Rick Perry is joining the ranks of right-wing reactionary Fox News reporter Glenn Beck and people who believe that there should be a revolution against the way America is handing out money to, you know, help fix schools, provide health care, improve worker conditions, and other fascist-based principles. And if the media industry and the government-sector weren't enough, the private business community is on board, too -- as you can see from this video from Empower Texas:

So if the Republican right-wing, cut-taxes-and-say-no-to-everything-else echo chamber is in full swing, why didn't Governor Rick Perry appear on Beck's show yesterday afternoon? Could it be that he realized (maybe by reading BOR) he was going to appear on the show of someone who has pronounced his hatred for the families of the victims of 9/11 attacks? Or maybe Perry really was bumped because of scheduling. What was Beck doing yesterday on his show?

Oh, that's right -- arguing against tactics of the American Revolution (like the Tea Party he's goin to attend), and defending himself for not being responsible for anyone that is crazy with a gun and thinks the government is out to get him. After all, Glenn Beck is just a TV guy -- he has no real responsiblities for what he says:

It sadly is not surprising that violence can result when Beck proclaims that our government is marching towards fascism, or when he salivates at the thought of the rising up of a militias, or when he warns that "we are a county heading towards socialism, totalitarianism, beyond your wildest imagination". Distrust and hatred of government are not unforeseeable results when Beck tells his audience that "everything" reported on by the traditional media "is a lie", or when he claims that the AmericCorps bill "indoctrinates your child into community service through the federal government". When Beck muses aloud about the various ways he could kill Michael Moore, or lashes out at the "the war against the American way", and when he claims that the president's budget is enslaving and "out and out evil" (more evil than extraordinary rendition, according to Beck), he cannot feign surprise if and when the seeds of hatred and panic he sows bear fruit.

When he flatly and unequivocally states that the "destruction of the West is happening", or when he shows photos of the president transitioning to photos of Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin and asks "is this where we're headed?", he is not merely playing the role, as he puts it, of the "rodeo clown."

Why wouldn't Governor Rick Perry want to appear on a show with someone who has equated President Obama to a bloodsucking vampire, then immediately said that the only thing that can be done is to "drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers."

Did Governor Perry really want to appear on the show of someone who is advocating that an ethically way to protest the government is to drive a stake through the heart of the President? Did he appear on that show? Or did he cancel his appearance, choosing instead to appear with someone a little less controversial -- like with former President George Bush for the first pitch at Arlington:

Gov. Rick Perry, and Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, formerly the top U.S. commander in Baghdad, were among those flanking the mound during Bush's ceremonial toss.

There's even proof -- Governor Rick Perry has a photo taken with Davic McNerney, which Perry linked to on his Twitter page. I only noticed the photo because normally -- as he has with every other event -- he announces he's going somewhere (like the Young Conservatives of Texas meeting, or a boxing match) then says how it went. And he could have done the interview from Arlington -- they do live TV interviews from baseball stadiums all the time. So why didn't he appear? Or did he, and I just missed it?

Is Glenn Beck so posionous that Governor Perry would rather appear at a baseball game with President Bush than go on his show? Is Perry going to disinvite the man who said we must drive a stake through the heart of President Obama from speaking in San Antonio about not paying taxes?

What is Rick Perry doing getting so close to Glenn Beck -- or is he trying to distance himself?