Glenn Beck went on Neil Cavuto's Fox News show yesterday, and Cavuto, aftyer the usual niceties, rather bravely called out Beck on his fearmongering. (Though he put it a little more softly than that.) In return, Beck accused Cavuto of intentionally fluffing up his newscasts:
Cavuto: But when you -- and great show, of course I'm going to say that, because I love you dearly -- but you also bum me out. You bum me out, because you say in 2014, I think you said there will be like three people working and the Dow will be at 27.
Beck: Noooo. Neil, you know I have profound respect for you. Do you know that? You don't know that?
Cavuto: Well, I don't know, you scared me.
Beck: Listen to me. Neil Cavuto, I don't know if you know who this man really is. You may watch him on television -- do your homework on Neil Cavuto. You are an amazing man. Amazing.
Cavuto: That I know. [crosstalk]
Beck: You and I have a fundamental disagreement on something.
Cavuto: You think we're going to hell in a handbasket.
Beck: You believe that it is your responsibility to make sure that you say, 'Hey-hey-hey-hey everybody!' I believe you're playing music on the deck. I'm saying, 'Get into the lifeboats!'
Cavuto: No, no, no. I am a realist and I look at it -- No, no no no. You are scaring people. And here's what you're doing --
Beck: I'm not scaring! I am letting them --
Cavuto: I am a big enough appreciator of history to know that we always get through these things. Now the government cannot --
Beck: And I believe that too.
Cavuto: Then why are you doing this stuff in 2014 we'll all be eating lead?
Beck: [Looking skyward] Because when the market hit 14,000 I said, 'Get the hell out of the market!' And when --
Cavuto: You, you will say -- people watch you in droves. Your ratings are through the roof. You're radio rock star. So everything you say, when you say it, they're gonna say, 'Gee, well, Glenn just said, you know, we're all gonna be dead.'
... I just think that you're scaring people. I love you dearly, because you are a rock star. I'm just saying, I look at it, I watch it in my office as I'm getting ready for my Fox Business show ... and I watch, and I'm saying, 'Man, Glenn is scaring me.'
Beck: I watch you in my office. I watch you --
Cavuto: One night affected my appetite. I didn't get dinner. So you're actually good for me losing weight.
Beck: And terrible for me. I watch you and I get frustrated. Because I think you're putting on such a happy face.
Cavuto may be a corporate suck-up, but evidently even he can see some problems in where Beck wants to take us. After all, the torches-and-pitchforks crowds often go after wealthy Republicans too ...
