Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
My friend Chris Rodda has been having some fun with Glenn Beck, who has begun devoting his Friday shows to spreading misinformation about the founding fathers -- with the help of David Barton, of course. She's begun putting out a series of videos called "No, Mr. Beck" where she debunks the false claims made on those shows.
The first installment corrects the claim that Congress purchased Bibles with tax money for use in schools. Here's the video she put together on that claim:
No, Mr. Beck, Congress Did Not Print a Bible for the Use of Schools from Chris Rodda on Vimeo.
The second one debunks a claim I'd never heard before, the claim that John Adams believed that all governments had to be led by the Holy Spirit in order to be legitimate. Here's the video:
No, Mr. Beck, John Adams Did Not Think Governments Must be Administered by the Holy Ghost from Chris Rodda on Vimeo.
And the third debunks the claim that Thomas Jefferson dated his documents "in the year of our Lord Christ." Here's the video:
No, Mr. Beck, Jefferson Did Not Date His Documents "In the Year of Our Lord Christ" from Chris Rodda on Vimeo.
Politics
Comments
I've made the following argument several times without getting much if any traction. I consider myself a free speech absolutist, however I also believe Americans should have easy access to the civil courts when a wrong has occurred. I'd like to see Americans have the right to sue people in civil court who lie in the public square where juries have broad powers to set punitive damages. This afford us protections from liars well beyond the protections afforded via our current slander and libel statutory laws.
These videos are perfect examples of why I think a group who works to educate the public on American History should be able to take Misters Beck and Barton to court. I'd like the same right I think we already possess defended via access to the courts when it comes to electoral candidates or officials who purposefully lie. I think a mere handful of crippling punitive damage awards would expeditiously transform our collective enabling of purposeful lying where liars would instead be ostracized or accepted within a tribe with an ever-shrinking cocoon rather than celebrated and become rich and powerful.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 1, 2010 10:00 AM
Michael Heath - How would you guard against people being silenced merely by the cost of defending these suits? Also, if something like this were to happen, a better punishment would be to make the person publicly admit he was wrong - in the same venue where he made the original statement.
Posted by: Taz | July 1, 2010 10:13 AM
Michael Heath | July 1, 2010 10:00 AM:
I think Heath's suggestion is worth thinking about. However it's more important that laws not enable what happened to Simon Sing.
(More here.)
Posted by: llewelly | July 1, 2010 10:54 AM
I presume that Chris Rhoda is talking to us, the people, and not to Glenn Beck. For it's a sure thing that his keepers do not let him see anything that would make him think.
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | July 1, 2010 10:56 AM
I only had time to watch the first two, but I noticed something. Both times, she introduced the topic, then referred to a previous video she had made. Apparently once isn't enough for people to get the message.
Posted by: psweet | July 1, 2010 11:10 AM
psweet @5: Apparently once isn't enough for people to get the message.
When you're dealing with ignoramuses, no. In fact, you can rebut all their ahistorical tripe with actual facts, as Rodda has done over and over, and Barton and his marionette, Beck, will still babble the same tripe. Rodda is being a good teacher, and repeating herself for the benefit of her class -- the people who listen to "Edgar" Barton and "Charlie McBeck-y."
Posted by: wheatdogg | July 1, 2010 11:24 AM
... I know someone will jump on this ...
Yes, Charlie McCarthy was not a marionette. He was a ventriloquist dummy. You get my drift anyway, I hope.
Posted by: wheatdogg | July 1, 2010 11:27 AM
Re wheatdogg @ #7
In addition, Edgar Bergen moved his lips when speaking as Charlie McCarthy or Mortimer Snerd.
Posted by: SLC | July 1, 2010 11:43 AM
Chris Rodda ought to get a segment on The Daily Show...
Posted by: Owen | July 1, 2010 12:15 PM
@1&2&3
I would say that the size and necessity of legal fee's and counsel is really a huge barrier to the courts, so I would say that making it more affordable is one of th eways to make it more accessible.
Posted by: Casey | July 1, 2010 12:48 PM
The shame here is that Chris Rodda, with facts and intelligence behind her doesn't have a thousandth the audience that Beck & Barton do with their lies and ignorance.
Posted by: MikeMa | July 1, 2010 1:17 PM
Michael Heath | July 1, 2010 10:00 AM:
Posted by: llewelly | July 1, 2010 10:54 AM
I in no way support getting rid of the U.S.'s presumption of innocence for defendants, I instead celebrate that aspect of American jurisprudence. I also think it would be trivially easy to prove Mr. Barton, Mr. Beck, and their ilk are lying, the more challenging part of my argument is proving harm, who is harmed, and the measure of that harm.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 1, 2010 2:13 PM
Do any of you know of an online source (collection) of all the original documents mentioned in the videos? Something like that would really come in handy.
Posted by: the guy | July 1, 2010 2:13 PM
The problem is that the right has insulated themselves from reality. Try to correct anything false from the right and the truth is just liberal lies.
I was trying to discuss something with a friend of a friend online. I went to falsify her false talking point with a link to snopes.com. She just said that snopes was a liberal lie and came back with a link from Fox News to prove she was right. I thought it had to be Bizarro day. Now I know that any attempt to try to convince the right they have the facts wrong is pointless.
Posted by: Dexceus | July 1, 2010 2:29 PM
I'd like to suggest taking up a collection to buy Chris a USB microphone. Her wise words shouldn't be obscured by wobbly sound.
Posted by: Jody | July 1, 2010 3:54 PM
I didn't even know there was such a thing as a USB microphone. I just got a new laptop, and the picture from the web cam is much better than my old one. At least now I look like my skin is a color found in nature, and not the strange color that it was in my older videos (kind of a cross between John Boehner and someone with a dreadful liver disease). I'll look into getting a microphone and buy one if they're not to expensive.
Posted by: Chris Rodda | July 1, 2010 4:48 PM
Chris, $20-$40 will net you a decent headset/microphone at RadioShack, Best Buy, etc ...
Posted by: Alareth | July 1, 2010 5:23 PM
@Michael Heath #12:
That is of course an aspect common across our jurisdictions. The difference between jurisdictions is that once "guilt" is established on the part of the defendant - ie that s/he has made the defamatory statement - the claimant is entitled to a presumption that s/he is innocent of the wrongdoing charged by the defendant. I do not understand the attraction of a system where someone can put material defamatory of me in the public domain and force me to prove myself innocent of the allegations made, which is the way the US defamation laws seem to work.
If I am charged by the police, or Jeremy Paxman, with murder, I am entitled to the presumption that I am innocent; if I am charged by Glenn Bek with murder, the presumption is that I am guilty.
Posted by: Robin Levett | July 2, 2010 3:28 AM
Oops:
In #18 - read "The difference between jurisdictions is that once "guilt" is established..." as "The difference between jurisdictions is that on this side of the pond once "guilt" is established..."
Posted by: Robin Levett | July 2, 2010 9:30 AM
I'm surprised no one has pointed out some of the more obvious problems, ie, those relating to the dates mentioned.
The Aitken Bible was printed in 1782. The US Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. All the misinformation has its roots based on things based by the Congress of the Confederation, not the US Congress as we understand it today.
Posted by: David | July 2, 2010 1:37 PM
Chris, I'm a writer a filmmaker. I notice the 1001 little things people can do to make deep content slicker, so as to better compete with all that shallow-and-slick stuff like beck.
Much of it tends to be beyond what the average person, even the average concerned person like you, has time to do. But simple things like a microphone -- say a Blue brand Snowball microphone can really go a long way to increasing presentation quality of your work.
Making sure that you don't have any light sources directly behind you blasting into the camera is another, common mistake. Closing windows if it's noisy outside is yet a third.
If you have any questions, hit me up and I'll try to give you some simple suggestions.
Posted by: Jody | July 2, 2010 4:05 PM
"...a writer and a filmmaker." "...Beck."
Thankfully, I didn't claim to be a speller, too.
I also see that the html was stripped out from my post. Google "Blue Microphones." They make some very nice ones. If you have a Mac, they're often sold in the accessories section of Apple stores.
Posted by: Jody | July 2, 2010 4:09 PM