Fox TV’s Glenn Beck berates Detroit
Francis X. Donnelly, Detroit News staff writer
Three weeks after a conservative commentator lambasted Detroit on a national radio program, an even bigger pundit did the same on national television Monday.
On his Fox News show, Glenn Beck compared Motown with Hiroshima.
VIDEO: Glenn Beck berates Detroit on Fox TV
Guess which city came out better? Clue: It was the one destroyed by an atomic bomb.
He hailed Hiroshima for rebuilding itself by embracing entrepreneurship and the free market system.
As for Detroit:"The other (city) embraced progressive policies and corrupt government and unions," he said. "Bad policies and union deals helped rot this city from the core."
Beck wasn't any more charitable toward Detroit's Big Three.
He said Chrysler and General Motors were poorly run and should have been allowed to go out of business. But they were saved by progressive policies, which is his code name for liberal programs.
"They should have failed because they stunk on ice," he said. "They begged for a bailout and got one."
Beck said America is following the same path that led Detroit to doom.
The progressives' version of the American Dream is more akin to communism than capitalism, he suggested.
"We're embracing now a country that loves corruption, special favors, union deals, big unions and bailing out businesses that should have failed because they were run poorly," he said.
Detroit residents took exception to the remarks.
Gwen Young, 21, said Beck sounded like a broken record that keeps playing the same song over and over.
"We get it: Democrats are bad," said Young, who is a Democrat. "Say something new."
During his seven-minute screed, Beck sounded the familiar litany of problems in Detroit — high poverty, struggling schools, steep population loss. He showed the images of the usual eyesores, like the Michigan Central Depot.
In describing corruption, he stumbled several seconds before remembering the name of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. "This city did what our country is doing now, embracing all the policies that led to this," he said.
Fox News officials didn't return calls for comment Monday night and a spokesperson for Beck declined comment. Representatives for Detroit Mayor Dave Bing didn't respond to requests for comment.
Beck's rant followed remarks by conservative commentator Mark Steyn when the latter filled in for Rush Limbaugh.
