Friday, November 06, 2009

Is Glenn Beck Being Treated By SEIU Nurses?

THINK PROGRESS

One of right-wing TV host Glenn Beck’s most frequent targets is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Beck has in the past repeatedly referred to SEIU members as “thugs” involved in radical leftist conspiracies, even going as far as to say that SEIU president Andy Stern is trying to re-create the Bolshevik Revolution. “When you start to figure out who SEIU is and what they want, you’re not really comfortable,” Beck said last month.

In recent days, Beck has been hospitalized for appendicitis. As Alternet’s Alexander Zaitchik points out, the staff treating the ailing pundit is likely under the auspices of SEIU nurses:

The security-conscious Beck has not disclosed the name of the facility, but it’s a safe bet that it is staffed by proud members of a storied union: New York’s Local 1199, aka United Healthcare Workers East, which belongs to the Service Employees International Union. The SEIU has organized all of Manhattan’s major hospitals, including every facility to which Beck could have conceivably been sent.

Beck certainly isn’t complaining about being treated by nurses who were organized by the union he regularly demonizes. On his Twitter account, he praised the staff that is attending to him:

becktweet1

If it does turn out that Beck’s “amazing” nurses happen to be members of the SEIU, will he retract the statements he has made condemning the union or will he continue on his McCarthyite tirade?

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