Glenn Beck: Firefighters Right to Let Home Burn

Liberals and conservatives are in a standoff over the firefighters who let Gene Cranick’s home burn down because he hadn’t paid a $75 fee for fire services. Glenn Beck weighed in yesterday—mimicking, for a moment, Cranick’s Southern accent—and he’s on the firefighters’ side, ThinkProgress reports. The argument about Cranick’s case will go “nowhere if you go onto ‘compassion, compassion, compassion, compassion’ or well, ‘they should’ve put it out, what is the fire department for?’” Beck said. “No, what is the $75 for?”

After all, he points out, “if they did put the fire out and make an exception for your house and you didn’t pay,” then “would anyone pay their $75?” (His producer helped Beck along in his explanation by mimicking Cranick’s accent for nearly the entire segment.) The fee is “to pay for the fire department to have people employed to put the fire out,” Beck continued, and to use fire services without paying the fee “would be sponging off of your neighbor’s $75.”
(More Glenn Beck stories.)