With Glenn Beck running loose spouting all sorts of crazy-talk, you just knew at some point he'd say something to cause enough of an uproar that the Fox News brass would have to address it. Beck finally did that today.

The incident in question occurred this morning on Fox & Friends when Beck made his weekly drop-in on the folksy vegetables who host that show. In the course of discussing the controversy surrounding the arrest of Henry Louis Gates and Barack Obama's subsequent comments on the matter, Beck said that Obama has a "deep-seeded hatred for white people and white culture...I'm not saying he doesn't like white people...this guy is, I believe, a racist."

So in response to the uproar over this, Fox News gave the following statement to TV Newser this evening:

During Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions.

So in other words, Fox News said this: Glenn Beck is free to use our airwaves to say whatever the hell he wants, no matter how baseless and irresponsible the things he says may be, and will you now please leave us the hell alone.

Contrast this with the way CNN handled the ridiculous Lou Dobbs' Birther story-pushing, which was to basically tell Dobbs to shut the hell up and stop being an irresponsible prick by working America's vast dipshit population into a frenzy (UPDATE: As a commenter below pointed out, CNN caved on their stand). Well, at least we all now definitively know where Fox News stands on their village idiot: He can do and say whatever the hell he wants, they don't really care as long as he continues to bring the ratings.

Here's the clip of Beck's Fox & Friends visit this morning in case you missed it.





FNC Responds to Glenn Beck Calling Obama a Racist [TVNewser]