More news from England's Upper Class Idiotarian Of The Year competition. Aging rock star reminds us of his reactionary tendencies by pulling a clapped-out stunt that was essentially already done 15 years ago by another rocker with follicular issues:

Saturday, CNN Headline News ran a repeat of Glenn Beck’s March 27 episode, which showed footage of some of the images that ran behind Elton John during his elaborate 60th birthday bash at Madison Square Garden that included a burning church. This is the same man who said that religion promotes hatred and “it’s not very compassionate.” Beck discussed the very tolerant and “compassionate” concert:

On Sunday, he performed -- it`s the lord`s day -- at Madison Square Garden with this image running behind him. Yes, that would be a burning church. Now, I know you`re at home thinking, "Gee, Glenn, isn`t Elton John the guy who said he`d ban all religion because it turns people into hateful lemmings?" Yes, same guy.

Beck discussed the images with Andrea Lafferty, executive director of the Traditional Values Coalition, who called the act a “hate crime.”

BECK: Tell me about the burning of the church on stage.

LAFFERTY: Well, you know, that`s against the law in America. That is a hate crime, a so-called hate crime. And, you know, although they want to use this upcoming hate crime law to silence pastors and Christians, but Elton doesn`t get it.

(CROSSTALK)

BECK: Hang on. There has got to be an attorney out there that says, "Oh, I`d like to file that as a hate crime." There`s got to be somebody out there that wants to take that on.

LAFFERTY: It`s hateful. But, you know, Glenn, a lot of us grew up liking Elton John.

BECK: I love him.

LAFFERTY: He`s no longer the Elton John that we knew. He`s a guy who has a personal agenda, who hates God, who hates Christians, who hates people of faith, and he`s going to use his money to spout this.

The traditional media that insist on selecting speech and images to label as intolerant, should at least be even-handed. Why haven’t they covered this example of religious intolerance or “hate speech,” particularly when it is perpetrated by a celebrity who frequently “speaks out” against hate speech and who is a vocal supporter of self-described anti-bigotry groups like Human Rights Campaign?

Let’s flip this around; if country artist Toby Keith displayed a burning mosque at a concert, it is highly unlikely that the media would be this indifferent. Comparing how the media treated the false story of the desecrated Koran at Guantanamo Bay perfectly illustrates the inequity in the portrayal of intolerance or hate speech.

The distinct disinterest in anti-Christian bias is evident in the media treatment of an incident which would be considered bigotry and perhaps hate speech if the image targeted any other religion or group.

(To really sock it to the bourgeois, try saying this in front of hundreds of millions of viewers.)