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Defending Glenn Beck, Fox News Asserts Color Of Change Co-Founder Van Jones Has ‘Ties To A Terrorist’

After incendiary Fox News host Glenn Beck called President Obama “a racist” who “has a deep-seated hatred for white people,” the African-American advocacy group Color of Change launched an advertising boycott of his show. Since the campaign began, 36 companies — including AT&T;, Johnson & Johnson, UPS, and Verizon Wireless — “have now committed not to support Beck’s show.”

Last night on his Fox program, Beck attacked Color of Change co-founder Van Jones, who is currently a White House adviser on the environment. Beck aired an entire segment wondering, “Who is Obama’s green jobs czar, Van Jones?” In the piece, Beck called Jones a “self-proclaimed communist” and a “full-fledged radical,” citing Jones’ involvement in a group called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), which Beck says “held study groups in the Marxist and Lenin teachings.”

Fox & Friends continued the attack on Jones this morning. Teasing an upcoming segment with Beck, host Gretchen Carlson said Jones has “ties to a terrorist” (a claim that was never revisited). Later, a seemingly ultra-paranoid Beck claimed Jones is part of a secret communist cabal inside the Obama White House to transform the American government:

BECK: [Jones is] basically a community organizer inside the framework of our republic. That’s what’s happening. When Barack Obama said, “I am going to promise you fundamental transformation of our nation,” this is what’s happening. We are bringing community organizations and community organizers and we’re embedding them inside of the system to build a new framework. This guy in particular, and he’s not the only one, and you’ll see more tonight, this guy in particular is an avowed communist, communist!

When host Brian Kilmeade asked Beck what “STORM” stands for, Beck replied, “I can’t remember.” Watch it:

Beck’s communist attack is based on this 2005 profile of Van Jones, in which he describes his own political evolution from a “rowdy black nationalist” to “social entrepreneur.” “Why is it that such a committed revolutionary has made it so high into the Obama administration as one of his chief advisers?” Beck asked on his Fox program last night.

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Attempting to calm Beck’s paranoia, White House Council on Environmental Quality spokesperson Christine Glunz noted that Jones’ entire focus as White House environmental adviser is on “building clean energy incentives which create 21st-century jobs.” “Glenn Beck is trying to change the subject,” said James Rucker, executive director of Color of Change, “The issue is his baseless fear mongering.”

Color of Change reports that it mobilized its members last week to place thousands of calls to those companies that had yet to pull the plug on Beck’s program. “By the end of the week, three of these companies — Clorox, Lowe’s and Sprint — had pledged not to run additional ads; Red Lobster and Vonage have not yet responded,” a Color of Change press release stated.