Huffington, Beck in Clash of the Partisan Titans

Arianna Huffington and Glenn Beck are a bit like a grizzly bear and a great white shark: top predators that seldom clash directly. This week, however, that changed. On Sunday, Huffington grilled Fox News president Roger Ailes for supporting Beck's objectionable "language".

Beck struck back on his radio show Monday, mocking Huffington's voice ("Would you not think that's Zsa Zsa Gabor?") and challenging her to back up her claims ("I don't know if I've ever used the word 'slaughtered'").

Huffington took up Beck's challenge in a blistering reply on the Huffington Post. First, she used clips and transcripts from Beck's own show to prove her earlier point. "Not Stalin. Not Hitler. Not Mao," she snaps. "Not 'the truth' being slaughtered. YOU. 'They are taking YOU to a place to be slaughtered.'" After eviscerating Beck, she caps off with a scathing indictment of his modus operandi.

Beck preys on fear, political instability, and economic suffering, which, in turn, means that Fox News profits from fear, political instability, and economic suffering. The question I didn't get the chance to ask Roger Ailes is: you put Beck on the air -- would you want to live in a world in which Beck triumphed? In which his worldview won out? Is that a world you want your children to grow up in?