September, 21 2009, 03:00pm EDT
WASHINGTON
Today, in response to
conservative host Glenn Beck encouraging his listeners to make Yom Kippur
"a day of Fast and Prayer for the Republic," Media Matters for America issued the
following statement:
"Yom
Kippur is a day of atonement, prayer and fasting," Ari
Rabin-Havt of Media Matters said.
"Glenn Beck's attempt to
politicize this holiest of days with his far right agenda is not only
disgusting, but shows a profound disrespect for the Jewish people."
BACKGROUND:
As Media Matters noted,
Beck posted the following on his Twitter page:
On September 21 on his radio show, Beck elaborated:
BECK: By the way, I just thought I would put this out
there, and what you do with it is your own business. But, this weekend, I put
out a tweet on Twitter that September 28th is the Day of Atonement for the
Jewish faith, and I thought it would be a good day for all of us to fast and
pray, you know. And I got this idea from Thomas Jefferson. After they put
together the Continental Congress, the first thing they did was put together a day
-- a national day of fast and prayer, and I thought the Day of Atonement would
be a good day to do it.
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
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