Glenn Beck Taking Heat For Malia Obama Comments

By Alex Weprin 

Update: Beck calls the comments “a stupid mistake.”

Original post: Fox News’ Glenn Beck is facing some heavy (and justified) criticism following comments he made about Malia Obama. HuffPost’s Jason Linkins has a thorough rundown of what transpired, but here is the short version:

Just a few days after Beck spoke out against mocking the children of public figures in an interview with Fox News contributor Sarah Palin, he proceeded to mock President Obama’s daughter Malia on his radio show.

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Liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America has the audio, which we are embedding after the jump. In the clip, Beck does an impression of Malia, while co-host Pat Gray imitates President Obama.

Writes Linkins:

So, to revise the central tenets of Beck’s “leave the families alone” credo, people should only criticize the children of public figures of people whom Glenn Beck doesn’t like, including the ones who are stillborn.

And Mediaite’s Jon Bershad:

While the rest of the segment mocked Obama (Who certainly deserved it. Using your kids as a political ploy is trashy when Palin uses it and it’s definitely trashy when the president does) with lines like “Daddy, I know you didn’t plug the hole yet but did John Podesta? ‘Cause he’s the guy with the real power, daddy. Mommy told me,” the education line is making fun of the Obama daughters specifically.

The clip, and Beck’s response late today, after the jump…

> Update, Beck responds: In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism, I broke my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates. The children of public figures should be left on the sidelines. It was a stupid mistake and I apologize–and as a dad I should have known better.

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