Commentary by Captain Paul Watson

A few years ago I made an observation that in the modern media, politicians and corporations demonstrated that if you don’t know a fact, a statistic, then make it up on the spot. I was actually citing former President Ronald Reagan as an example of this approach. Now my observation has been twisted and spun to suggest that it was myself who invented this approach to media.

Ironically I was accused of this, this very week by the biggest right wing bullethead presently polluting the airwaves - Glenn Beck. Ironic because to underscore his condemnation of me he made up a couple of fabricated facts.

“And remember those whale protestors who actually attacked and rammed into a Japanese whaling ship? (ADD moment, your honor) Whales? I mean, they're great and everything, but when you are risking life and limb to stop someone from catching a whale, wow. Who's daddy didn't love them? Anyway, the boat that sunk the Japanese ship is from Paul Watson's organization.” - Glenn Beck

Amazing! The man spun the actual incident around completely. Although the Sea Shepherd ship Ady Gil was deliberately rammed by the Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru #2 and later sank, Beck managed to accuse Sea Shepherd of ramming and sinking the Japanese whaling ship.

Beck went on to say;

“Watson's a great guy, a progressive. He's the guy who was featured in that "Whale Wars" reality show, where he routinely resorts to physical violence against humans to save an animal. He has reportedly said that if you don't know an answer, a fact, a statistic, then... make it up on the spot. And "there's nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the history." - Glenn Beck

The fact is that neither Sea Shepherd or I have ever injured a single human being, we have never been convicted of a felony nor we have never even been sued. Yet he makes an accusation that I routinely resort to “physical violence” against humans to save an animal. As it happens our campaigns are not designed to “save an animal.” The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an anti-poaching organization and our objective is to uphold international conservation law against illegal activities. We don’t protest, we intervene.

Beck then adds that I made the statement that “there’s nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win. Then you write the history.” I did say this but in quite a different context than Beck would have Americans believe. I said in a lecture that history is not to be trusted because the winners write the history and their version does not favor the losers. Thus Sir Winston Churchill would have been condemned as a terrorist if Hitler had won the war and “terrorists” are not “terrorists” is we agree with them. "One man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter.” It’s a valid observation and does not mean that I have ever advocated terrorism.

“Attacking a civilian boat, ramming a bill through, voting 10 times in Massachusetts they can spin it in the history books. They saved the whales. They achieved health care for all. They fundamentally transformed America.” - Glenn Beck

Beck goes on to make the accusation again that we attacked a civilian boat when the evidence demonstrates just the opposite, the most damning piece of evidence being that it is a Sea Shepherd ship on the bottom of the ocean and not a Japanese vessel.  The bizarre thing is that he mixes our campaign to defend whales from poachers in Antarctica with the Massachusetts Gubernatorial elections and health care in America as a spin for the history books suggesting there is some sort of weird left wing conspiracy to protect whales and to provide health care for Americans. Beck, a reformed alcoholic, is probably having psychotic flashbacks to the good old days when he saw pink elephants tap dancing on the rim of his whiskey glass.

Beck, the self appointed super American patriot, goes on to say;

“Americans are starting to wake up to it, even Democrats, even Democrats in Kennedyville. They know something isn't right. And that something is the uber-left. The Van Jones, communist-loving radicals. The Chairman Mao admirers in the White House, like the Ron Blooms of the world, who says he agrees with Mao about power coming from the barrel of a gun.”

“I don't believe the majority of Americans think like these people do. But they don't care. If you don't believe these radicals think they are superior to you, that they will run you over if you get in the way of their do-gooding for greater good, then you don't understand history.” - Glenn Beck

I’m actually not a left-winger. I’m a conservationist and that automatically makes me a conservative. Sea Shepherd’s objectives are simply to uphold existing international conservation laws.  Suddenly according to Glenn Beck, defending whales against Japanese poachers is now part of the “communist conspiracy”.  I’ve always held the view that Chairman Mao was a mass-murdering tyrant. History has proven however that power comes from the barrel of a gun. Ask the original Native Americans. The one fact that has never changed throughout history is that “might makes right.”

The problem with people like Glenn Beck is that he does not like people who make observations about psychology, history, science or anything else. To Beck, making an observation means that the observer is now advocating that which was observed. He would have us choose to simply not observe or think at all.

And many of his mindless minions will now believe a Japanese whaling ship lies on the bottom of the Southern Ocean because a Sea Shepherd ship rammed and sank them. There is no reason for them to look up the facts. Glenn Beck made up some facts for them. No need to You Tube the video of the ramming and sinking because Glenn Beck has made it clear that the “violent commie whale huggers are not to be trusted.”

Maybe a little enticement may be in order to motivate a few couch potato Beck bums to look up the “facts” for themselves. Towards this end I will personally award one million U.S. dollars to any person who can back up Glenn Beck’s absurd claim that Sea Shepherd rammed and sank a Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean during this campaign.

If their boy Beck is right as many believe him to be, then a million big ones can be theirs for the asking.

Glenn Beck may not be the dumbest hysterical drama queen on right wing television, after all there is a great deal of competition, but he certainly does come close.

 Click Here to view the original transcript from the Glenn Beck Show on January 19, 2010