ANOTHER REASON TO LIKE GEERT WILDERS

There is another reason to like Geert Wilders and even Glenn Beck would seemingly have to agree with this one. If you remember, Beck implied on his March 8th television program that Wilders is a fascist. If one considers that putting words in Beck's mouth, he at the very least said that the election of Wilders as Prime Minister in the Netherlands would signify that country's turning toward fascism. However, Beck has done little, if anything, to clarify what he meant. In fact, Fox News had the video of that segment pulled from YouTube (video below courtesy of eyeblast).

According to Radio Netherlands, Wilders is calling for the closing of two Public Broadcasting channels along with shutting down the source of this story, Radio Netherlands:

The three public TV networks should be reduced to one, and Radio Netherlands Worldwide, the country's international broadcaster, should be abolished altogether. The party argues in its election manifesto that these measures are necessary to free up the financial means needed to pay for health care.

Forgive my skepticism but would a fascist call for reducing the government's media influence? Moreover, if Geert Wilders was filling a fascistic void, would he be concerned about government waste? On the contrary, Wilders is sounding like quite the capitalist - a principle that Beck espouses loudly on a near daily basis.

This story takes on an interesting degree of salience in light of the fight over internet regulation here in the United States and the recent court ruling that said the FCC has no grounds to do so. Beck is vehemently opposed to the effort - being spearheaded by Robert McChesney, a professed Marxist. Based on Wilders' calling for the elimination of Public Broadcasting channels in his own country - as a politician running for office, no less - he likely cheered this decision as loudly as did Beck.

To clarify, this isn't a matter of two people - Beck and Wilders - coincidently sharing a small slice of common ground by agreeing on something inconsequential, with one of the two men implying the other is a fascist. Wilders is championing something that is at the very core of Glenn Beck's arguments - freedom from government control, specifically the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in this instance. Wilders is also doing so at a time that is not at all politically expedient for a sitting politician running for higher office and facing jail time if convicted of the charges against him, which have to do with his being critical of Islam.

This tack being taken by Wilders - calling for the reduction of public broadcasting channels - is yet another example of him picking a fight with an entrenched government establishment. It is a fight Beck is supposed to revere. In fact, on the latter's April 6th television show, he wondered aloud why so many media outlets continue to refuse to help him in his valiant fight - a fight I too think is noble. So clearly, Beck should understand what Wilders is going through. However, on March 8th Wilders was thrown under the bus by the host of the most popular and controversial television talk show host who, by all accounts, should be an ally.

Here is the excerpt from the March 8th Glenn Beck program in which he demagogued a man he should be aligning with.