People For the American Way today offered its warmest congratulations to civil rights leader and PFAW Board Member Dolores Huerta after she was attacked by television host Glenn Beck.  Huerta was singled out for her work protecting undocumented workers from exploitation by employers.

“Dolores Huerta has dedicated her career to ensuring that all people are treated with respect,” said Michael B. Keegan, President of People For the American Way.  “To be attacked for being a part of a ‘creepy circle of radical 60s types’ by Glenn Beck is a wonderful 80th birthday gift for an iconic activist. We could not be prouder of her on the occasion of this attack.

“I’m surprised, though, that Beck would expose this level of vitriol just a few days after his massive effort to cloak his ideology in the legacy of Martin Luther King.  Last weekend he spent an enormous amount of energy portraying himself as a moderate, positive conservative—it sure didn’t take long for him to revert to his usual habit of pushing ugly, angry, dishonest smears.  With lightening speed he moved from co-opting the legacy of one civil rights icon to bashing another”

As the target of Beck, Huerta joins the distinguished company of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Harvey Milk, churches fighting for social justice, and then-11-year-old Malia Obama, all of whom have earned Beck’s scorn.

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