Glenn Beck's Most Disgusting Trick Yet

So, yes, Glenn Beck is crazy and a race-baiter and all the rest of it.

But now he's deliberately editing audio of the president -- I mean, wholesale reconstruction of the president's thoughts about the Constitution in order to make it sound like the president hates that founding document.

This could be Beck's lowest moment. He's spent many months deceiving his ignorant viewers, but this is easily his most egregious and obvious deception. Media Matters fully documents the fraud, but here's the shorthand:

What Glenn Beck aired:

OBAMA: The original Constitution [edit] I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time. [edit] I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture [edit] and that the framers had that same blind spot. [edit] It also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

What the president actually said in 2001 (cut lines noted):

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it's a remarkable document. I think --

HOST: Which one?

OBAMA: The original Constitution, as well as -- as well as the Civil War amendments, but I think it is an imperfect document, and I think it is a document that reflects some deep flaws in American culture -- the colonial culture nascent at that time.

African-Americans were not -- first of all, they weren't African-Americans. The Africans at the time were not considered as part of the polity that was of concern to the framers. I think that, as [program co-panelist] Richard [John] said, it was a nagging problem in the same way that, these days, we might think of environmental issues or some other problem that, where you have to balance, you know, cost-benefits, as opposed to seeing it as a moral problem involving persons of moral worth.

And, in that sense, I think we can say that the Constitution reflected a enormous blind spot in this culture that carries on until this day, and that the framers had that same blind spot. I don't think the two views are contradictory to say that it was a remarkable political document that paved the way for where we are now, and to say that it also reflected the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

The president was speaking about the 3/5 Compromise -- an embarrassingly racist line in the Constitution that defined African-American slaves as 3/5 of a person. John Santore at Media Matters writes:

Does Beck really believe that such original elements of the Constitution should not be considered imperfections -- imperfections that were indeed the product of a cultural "blind spot" shared by the 18th century individuals who authored it?

So now there are millions of wingnuts going around thinking the president hates the Constitution. And Glenn Beck can just do this and get away with it, and the people who ought to be seriously offended are the wingnuts who are tricked into believing it.

Remember in the 1950s when Congress investigated fraud in the quiz shows? That was awesome.