Karl Vincent Frisch

Los Angeles Times

Glenn Beck’s comments draw a rebuke from one media watchdog group, whose spokesman calls them ‘heartless.’

By Andrew Blankstein
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

With at least 1,000 homes destroyed, two deaths reported and more than a quarter-million people ordered to evacuate, the wildfires ravaging Southern California have been as indiscriminate as they have been devastating.

But the images of charred residences, grieving homeowners and valiant firefighters apparently were not enough to move conservative talk radio host Glenn Beck, who told his listeners on his nationally syndicated show Monday that those suffering losses “hate America.”

“I think there is a handful of people who hate America,” Beck said. “Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”

Beck then tried to backtrack, saying he didn’t think those who hated the country were Democrats. “I think there are those posing as Democrats that are like that,” he said.

The comments came as Beck criticized Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for urging GOP presidential candidates to capture the political center in the 2008 election by focusing on healthcare reform and education.

Just before Beck’s comments on the fire, he said, “We’re all one America” and “just because I disagree with you doesn’t mean you hate America, and I love America.”

On his website, Beck says listeners who tune in to him on more than 200 radio stations across the country are drawn to his “quick wit, an informed opinion, and a unique ability to inspire others to experience their full potential with an open heart.”

Karl Frisch, spokesman for the progressive Washington, D.C.-based media watchdog Media Matters, called Beck’s comments “heartless and wholly inappropriate.”

Media Matters called today for CNN, which airs Beck’s cable TV show, to “distance themselves from his comments or risk being seen as endorsing them.”

Frisch, whose parents live in the Santa Clarita Valley, which has been ravaged by the Buckweed fire, also said Beck “owed all Southern Californians an apology.”

A producer for Beck responded today: “To most rational people, ‘unfortunately’ still means ‘unfortunately.’”