Following a spate of violence associated with the extreme far-right fringe, Glenn Beck has made a point of portraying the 9-12 protesters and those who sympathize with them as peaceful, civil Americans who are simply engaged in a substantive, issues-based disagreement with the Obama administration.

Yesterday on his Fox program, he made that point again, dismissing the idea that racism or violent thoughts had anything at all to do with the conservative opposition to the progressive agenda or the White House. Here's how he put it:

BECK: Do you want -- do you want to call somebody a racist? If you do, you better have some facts to back it up. But in today's America, does anybody even care? Does anybody even ask you, why would you say that? Is anybody asking, why -- how is he suddenly a racist?

NBC did this report last night on the tea party out in Washington, D.C., where people were hugging, singing -- singing national anthems, “Star Spangled Banner,” hugging, peaceful, no arrests, zero, no arrest. And yet NBC does this thing of a growing violent crowd. What? Can you back that one up, Brian Williams? Help me out on that one, will you?

Beck's ignorance is deliberate and willful. He is choosing to ignore what is going on at his own events. Consider the following signs from the 9-12 rally, photos courtesy of NineTwelvePhotos on Flickr:

Not to mention the warm welcome that birther Orly Taitz received:

If Beck refuses to see the violence and racism in front of his nose, it's because he doesn't want to acknowledge the true consequences of his work and others in the right-wing media.