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Rep. Louie Gohmert wants to know why Comcast doesn't carry Glenn Beck's network, The Blaze. He wants to know this so much that he brought it up at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, ostensibly about the proposed Comcast-Time Warner merger, which is an actual issue that deserves attention.

Gohmert has a theory, as it turns out, as to why this has happened. Although Beck, and the Blaze, have previously entered into discussions of the merger — raising concerns about what the deal would do to the distribution of independent cable channels — that was not the issue Gohmert decided to discuss. "It was reported, of course," the Texas Republican began, "that Al Gore was pushing the sale of Current TV, and Glenn Beck, the Blaze were trying to buy it." He went on:

"And it was reported that Al Jazeera wanted to get their Sharia law push into the United States, and they were willing to pay big bucks....but they wouldn't do the deal unless Comcast was willing to keep them in its list of networks provided. So it was reported Comcast agreed, so Al Gore got all that oil and carbon based money. Then, that kept Glenn Beck off the air. Of Comcast."

"Then more recently, the Blaze has been trying to purchase another network," Gohmert went on, that was at least partially owned by Comcast. According to the elected legislator, "some" in Comcast felt so strongly about keeping Glenn Beck off the air that they refused to allow the deal. Gohmert's source for this startling allegation was an email from "somebody from whatever network it is," which Comcast's David Cohen later identified as RL-TV. That email, from which Gohmert read at length, accused Comcast of working super hard to keep Glenn Beck off of the air during the 2014 campaign cycle. "Why would Comcast want people to cling to God and their guns?" Gohmert asks.

After that exchange, Cohen strongly denied that his company is part of a conspiracy theory to keep conservatives off the air. Gohmert's rebuttal? "Cohen you're a smart man and apparently a smart attorney. You understand the consequences of not speaking truthfully before Congress?" Cohen answered, "I do."

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