Actually, I think Beck said he was an avowed communist, not that he currently was one. The definition of avowed is "openly declared as such" (first google result, and typical). I.e., I can be an avowed communist and anti-communist if I have avowed to both opinions in the past. "Avowed" explicitly refers to the past: it makes no sense to ask "is he still [a self-avowed communist]?" as the politifact page does.
That said, from the quotes, it isn't clear that the guy isn't still a communist. When Beck says he is a communist (if he did say it, I don't know), I would take it as him expressing his opinion based on the available facts.
I can always tell when a nasty politician is a Democrat because the slashdot summary neglects to mention his party affiliation... but if it is a nasty republican it is mentioned. Funny, huh?
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Actually, I think Beck said he was an avowed communist, not that he currently was one. The definition of avowed is "openly declared as such" (first google result, and typical). I.e., I can be an avowed communist and anti-communist if I have avowed to both opinions in the past. "Avowed" explicitly refers to the past: it makes no sense to ask "is he still [a self-avowed communist]?" as the politifact page does.
That said, from the quotes, it isn't clear that the guy isn't still a communist. When Beck says he is a communist (if he did say it, I don't know), I would take it as him expressing his opinion based on the available facts.
I can always tell when a nasty politician is a Democrat because the slashdot summary neglects to mention his party affiliation... but if it is a nasty republican it is mentioned. Funny, huh?