Maddow was responding to Beck's accusation on his radio show the previous day that she had intentionally omitted a key sentence of his during her attack on him last week.
During a nine minute segment designed to try to redeem herself in front of her tiny audience, Maddow refused to explain why she and her staff cut off an audio of Beck on Friday just as he was about to say something that would make her point totally absurd.
Instead, she filibustered ad nauseum with videos of previous programs without ever owning up to her shameful omission, after which she ridiculously concluded, "I didn't lie. Back off" (partial video and transcript below the fold):
RACHEL MADDOW, HOST: As little as I care about how other people who work in cable TV do their shows and make their arguments, Mr. Beck is supposedly the best they`ve got.
Mr. Beck is this phenomenon, right, who they`re keeping on the air for his ratings even as he lost so many sponsors. He`s supposedly the leader of a political movement, not just a TV host.
I get hate mail from all sorts of conservatives all the time. I always have. But it is the hate mail of self proclaimed fans of Mr. Beck that is most likely to contain death threats and threats of violence against me expressed as extension of the frenzied devotion his fans feel for him.
They think he is the second coming. And because of that, I just want to point something out here. What Mr. Beck is accusing me of - and he went on in his radio show to call me a liar and propagandist and all this other stuff because of it.
What he`s accusing me of is cutting out part of his quote. But did you notice what he just did? Just very short. Just watch his clip again. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: who`s claimed that? Dude, you have. It is one thing to be totally outrageously wrong about facts and science -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
What was that little the flip clip in the middle there? What happened there? Was there something that you cut out? To accuse me of making it up when I said Glenn Beck is among those who have claimed snow disproves global warming, he just edited out the part where I gave the evidence of him doing that, the part where I showed him and a bunch of other people on Fox saying that snow disproved global warming.
You showed no evidence because I`ve edited out the part where you did show the evidence. It`s incredible. Here`s what he edited out.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
BECK: First of all, who has claimed that this snowstorm is proof that global warming doesn`t exist?
MADDOW: Who`s claimed that? Dude, you have. A lot.
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?"
MADDOW: Same radio show, same guy. And it`s not like that was a one- off occurrence.
BECK: I don`t think it takes a genius to see through the "more snow is proof of global warming" claim.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: Glenn Beck is telling his viewers that I`m a liar and a propagandist for pointing out his cockamamie claim that snowfall disproves global warming. He has in fact made that cockamamie claim a lot, no matter how much he denies it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: It doesn`t snow very much in Virginia. And it looks like it`s going to be the worst snowfall in the state in about 20 years. And the reason I bring this up is because -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, global warming first of all.
BECK: First of all, Al Gore is full of crap. I promise now I`m going to idle my SUV 24 hours a day, seven days a week to make sure it doesn`t snow again in May in Virginia.
If we don`t find Al Gore by 5:00, I`m starting an AMBER alert. I don`t want to panic anyone, but it is strange that he has just disappeared in the largest snowfall in Washington, D.C., history.
But you`d have to think, "Wow, I really wasted my life, haven`t I? Wow, everything that I worked on seems to be a miserable failure."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: "Because my global warming contention is disproven by this giant snowfall." I commend Mr. Beck for his success. I wish his giant audience all the best. He has made a lot of people very afraid about a lot of things. And that tried-and-true strategy has reaped big financial reward for him and for Fox News.
I think it`s between you and your God or you and your conscience as to how much you`re willing to stir up Americans` fear and prejudice for profit. But it`s between you and me when you accuse me of lying. I didn`t lie. Back off.
Interesting defense, wouldn't you agree?
After all, Beck's point Monday was that Maddow and Company stopped the audio from his radio program last week just as he was going to demolish their entire premise by saying, "How many times have I said both for hurricanes and no hurricane, this doesn't, one storm, one storm does not prove anything?"
Beck's challenge to Maddow therefore was to explain WHY this audio was cut off at PRECISELY the moment her point about him would be discredited.
Instead of doing so, she defended HER omission by saying that HE didn't play the entire tape from her Friday show.
How preposterous.
This battle began when Maddow accused Beck of telling his audience that last week's snowstorms disproved anthropogenic global warming. Beck responded by demonstrating that in the very program Maddow was citing, he said he didn't believe that was the case.
As a result, he called her a dishonest purveyor of propaganda.
As such, the onus was on Maddow to explain why she and her crew cut off the audio just as Beck was going to discredit her entire point.
Alas, Beck, her tiny audience, and we are still waiting for an answer.
Readers are advised not to hold their breath.
Post facto aside: The reason the entire video and transcript of this segment were not reproduced here was due to the first five minutes largely being clips from Maddow and Beck's previous shows on this subject. I chose not to repeat what has already been covered. Then I'd be participating in Maddow's silly filibuster, which is really ironic because she lately has been complaining about this senatorial practice.
Someone cue Alanis Morissette.
