That was what Emerson's appearance on Bennett's radio show was all about, as Bennett flogged his listeners to donate to Emerson "Investigative Project on Terrorism."
Emerson depicted Americans as the victims of a radical Muslim plot to subjugate them. He also disparaged mainstream U.S. news organizations for objecting to the anti-Muslim racism that has pervaded the new, favorite right-wing "wedge issue" the planned Islamic community center two blocks from "ground zero" in Lower Manhattan.
Emerson postured as the voice of the common man standing up to "the elites."
"I've never seen in my entire adult life the arrogance and haughtiness of the elite mainstream media and Democratic leadership so far astray from the facts on the ground and the reality that this man, one, Imam Rauf is a radical extremist cleric who cloaks himself in sheep's clothing," Emerson said.
His voice rising, Emerson said he had just looked at Time magazine's Web site and "saw four articles in the span of two weeks all condemning anyone who opposed the Ground Zero Mosque as a racist. Mark Halperin " wrote an outrageously stupid, biased and moronic article claiming that if we stop the Ground Zero Mosque we're going to be creating new bin Ladens. This is the most outrageous argument."
As the interview wore on, Emerson grew even more truculent and more incoherent declaring, "While the elites -- the New York Times, the Time magazines, Bloomberg, MSNBC -- they're the elites and they think these [Islamic] groups are all fine and there's no radicalism and there's just the same percentage of radicalism in Islam than there is in Judaism and Christianity. "
"If stupidity and inaccuracies were crimes, the reporters of the New York Times most of them would be serving life sentences because they have been perpetrating the lies by radical Islamic groups that they are anti-terrorism when they're absolutely not. "
"The bad guys are considered legitimate moderates by CNN and NPR, when NPR is really an enabler of the deception perpetrated by radical Islam."
In language that bordered on threatening, Emerson boasted that his disclosure of the audiotapes would eliminate Rauf.
"Let me tell you, I don't think he'll survive the disclosure of these tapes," Emerson said. "They will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the guy is an apologist for radical Islam and justifies acts of violence that he basically blames on the United States, repeatedly.
"Never once in 13 hours of lectures did he ever blame the militants for waging a war against the U.S. He blames the U.S. for waging a war against Islam."
However, Emerson's statement is untrue even based on the few snippets chosen by Emerson. For instance, Rauf is quoted as saying that whatever violence has been done by the West against the Middle East, "it does not justify the acts of bombing innocent civilians" by Islamic terrorists.
Emerson also attacks Rauf's personality and mocks the cleric's frequent appeals to religious tolerance.
"This guy has an ego the size of Manhattan," Emerson said. "If you listen to his words, they're convoluted gobbledygook about interfaith stuff, and all of a sudden you see Jewish and Christian theologians falling all over themselves to say, "you're wonderful, you're the true face of Islam' and then you see him make these other statements. That's the reality. It's the deception."
Emerson's rant prompted a frightened "Bob in Cleveland" to call in and ask, "How can we possibly prevail in the long run " if they're militarizing and training armies and in our culture people are sitting around watching movies. Don't we need to militarize and beef up our defense forces?"
Emerson responded by demanding that the power of the U.S. government be turned on disfavored Muslims, like Rauf, including congressional hearings, which Emerson presumably considers more likely if, as many analysts expect, the Republicans gain control of Congress in November.
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