Rachel Maddow Cherry-picks Glenn Beck To Call Him A Liar

February 13th, 2010 1:29 PM

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Friday cherry-picked statements from Glenn Beck's radio show to accuse him of lying about global warming.

In a brief segment on the MSNBC program bearing her name, Maddow said the Fox News star claimed the snowstorm that hit the East Coast this week disproves Al Gore's favorite myth.

Unfortunately, Maddow conveniently left out the part when Beck said "one storm does not prove anything."

But that didn't stop the MSNBC host from making the accusation (video embedded below the fold with transcript):

RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: And next up, a correction, not for something I said or something a guest said on this show said, but for something someone said about something a guest on this show said.

On his increasingly - radio show today, Glenn Beck played a clip of our show from Wednesday in which I spoke with Bill Nye, the science guy, about people saying that climate change - global warming - couldn`t possibly be real because it was snowing on the east coast in February. Mr. Beck played the clip and then mocked Mr. The Science Guy.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, HOST, "THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM": All right. Go ahead, Bill.

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY": There`s more energy in the atmosphere and this is stirring things up.

BECK: Oh, boy -

NYE: If you want to get serious about it -

BECK: Seriously.

NYE: These guys claiming that the snow in Washington disproves climate change -

BECK: Nobody`s saying that. Stop! Stop! Stop!

NYE: Are almost unpatriotic.

BECK: Oh, boy! Hit the Tim Robbins - I`m sorry the Mr. Sarandon bite again.

TIM ROBBINS, ACTOR: A chill wind is blowing in this nation.

BECK: Oh, it`s un-American. Unpatriotic. Unpatriotic to claim - first of all, who has claimed that this snow storm is proof that global warming doesn`t exist?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

Stop the tape!

Want to know what the VERY NEXT THING was that Beck said? Here it is:

How many times have I said both for hurricanes and no hurricane, this doesn't, one storm, one storm does not prove anything?

That's right from the transcript posted at Beck's website. For some reason Maddow and her crew decided not to share that sentence, and instead continued under the pretense that Beck was using this snowstorm as proof that global warming doesn't exist:

MADDOW: Who`s claimed that? Dude, you have. A lot.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

BECK: Well, the snow is hammering Washington, D.C. again. I believe God is just saying, "I got your global warming here, eh? You want a piece of global warming?"

(END AUDIO CLIP)

Sounds like a pretty good joke, doesn't it? Obviously missing the humor, Maddow continued:

MADDOW: Same radio show. Same guy and it`s not like that was a one- off occurrence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: I don`t think it takes a genius to see through the "more snow is proof of global warming" claim. Sixty-three percent of the country is now covered in snow. And it`s breaking Al Gore`s heart because the snow is also burying his global warming theory.

Sounds like another good joke, doesn't it? Again missing the humor, Maddow decided to -- for some reason! -- bring Sean Hannity into the picture.

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, "HANNITY": It`s the most severe winter storm in years, which would seem to contradict Al Gore`s hysterical global warming theories. Rumor has it that another storm could be headed this way next week. Global warming, where are you? We want you back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Who has claimed that the snowstorm is proof that global warming doesn`t exist? Who has claimed that? It is one thing to be totally outrageously wrong about facts in science. But the price of that is getting made fun of for it and getting called out on it by, boom, Bill Nye the Science Guy.

On climate change, new rule - you lie, you must pay the Nye. This message totally not at all authorized by Bill Nye, the Science Guy.

Beck lied?

Certainly not. I think what he did was make a couple of great jokes at Gore's expense, and Maddow just can't have that.

In the end, no one is claiming that one or two snowstorms disprove the theory of global warming. Instead, when folks that don't believe Gore's nonsense cite isolated weather events, it's to mock him and his sycophant followers who tie seemingly every heatwave, hurricane, drought, wildfire, tornado, and even SNOWSTORMS to climate change.

Unfortunately, much as Maddow demonstrated Friday evening, these folks just don't get the joke...which makes it even funnier!