Harlem Choir Pulls Out of Beck Broadcast

About-face follows lobbying by anti-Beck Color for Change
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2009 4:31 AM CST
Harlem Choir Pulls Out of Beck Broadcast
The Harlem Gospel Choir performs at the 4th Annual JAMMY Awards at Madison Square Garden in New York City.   (Getty Images)

Anti-Glenn Beck group Color for Change claimed a major victory yesterday when the Harlem Gospel Choir canceled a planned performance with the bombastic right-wing poster boy. The choir withdrew from a simulcast which will accompany Beck's Christmas Sweater opening in theaters this week shortly after being sent excerpts from Beck shows in which he calls President Obama a racist. "We wanted to make sure they understood who Beck was," said a Color for Change spokesman. "Their mission is about promoting harmony, and Beck is the antithesis of that."

Choir directors, apparently singing from a different sheet, say the cancellation was purely for financial reasons. "We don't take a political stance," the choir's manager tells the New York Daily News. "This is America. Glenn Beck can believe and say what he believes. He has a good forum for him to do that and God bless that. It was just a slight confusion when the booking was made." (More Harlem stories.)

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