Smallscreen News

Chris Matthews Show features Time writer accusing Right of seditious behavior

By April MacIntyre Apr 19, 2010, 19:01 GMT

A counter protester holds a sign at a Tea Party Rally where Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin spoke on Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts, USA 14 April 2010. Event organizers say they want to promote more limited government and lower taxes. The name \'Tea Party\' is a reference to the historic Boston Tea Party of 1773, a protest by American colonists against taxation by the British government. Protesters back then dumped tea into Boston harbor. EPA/MATTHEW CAVANAUGH

Journalist Joe Klein, who writes for Time magazine, appeared on The Chris Matthews Show on NBC April 18 and suggested the vocal right pundits that include Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck are guilty of possible seditious behavior.

On NBC's April 18 "The Chris Matthews Show," Time columnist Joe Klein suggests that GOP vice-presidential nominee and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, along with FOX personality Glenn Beck of inciting sedition.

The Chris Matthews Show featured Klein, John Heilemann, New York magazine; Kathleen Parker, the Washington Post and Norah O'Donnell on Sunday.

"I did a little bit of research just before this show - it's on this little napkin here. I looked up the definition of sedition which is conduct or language inciting rebellion against the authority of the state. And a lot of these statements, especially the ones coming from people like Glenn Beck and to a certain extent Sarah Palin, rub right up close to being seditious."

Klein cited the Obama presidency, the fact he was "African-American," and had "Hussein" as a middle name, along with the "scary" economic crisis as the reason for the rise in contempt from the right.

"Two are two things going on here and one thing is certainly that," Klein said. "One thing is he is African-American, but that his name is Barack Hussein Obama. The other we've had a very scary economic crisis. And when people get scared, they get defensive and they get a little crazy."