Is Fox’s Glenn Beck Today’s Version of Father Charles Coughlin?
Is Fox News host Glenn Beck our own Father Charles Coughlin, the “radio priest” who railed against Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s? That’s become a common refrain among liberals, who hear echoes of Coughlin in Beck’s attacks on President Obama. Conservatives recoil at the charge, of course, noting that Coughlin vilified Jews. No matter what you think of Beck – who joined Fox in January and already draws more than two million viewers every evening – he’s no anti-Semite. But he’s also no Coughlin, whose attacks on poverty amid plenty would surely earn him the label “leftist” – or even “socialist” – on Fox News today. Indeed, before he descended into Jew-baiting, Coughlin’s chief target was economic inequality. And that’s what’s missing from the rants of Glenn Beck and his fellow commentators on Fox, who have managed to make me nostalgic for the days of . . . Father Coughlin. Let’s be clear: Coughlin was a kook, not just an anti-Semite. He claimed the Great Depression was caused by a c
