The Washington Postcolumist Dana Milbank has a few words to say about Glenn Beck and his new-found affection of civil rights.
Civil rights’ new ‘owner’: Glenn Beck
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, August 29, 2010
There is a telling anecdote in Glenn Beck’s 2003 memoir about how the cable news host was influenced by the great fantasist Orson Welles. To travel between performances in Manhattan, Beck recounts, Welles hired an ambulance, sirens blaring, to ferry him around town — not because Welles was ill but because he wanted to avoid traffic.
Most of us would regard this as dishonest, a ploy by the self-confessed charlatan that Welles was. Beck saw it as a model to be emulated. “Welles,” he writes, “inspired me to believe that I can create anything that I can see or imagine.”
I was reminded of Beck’s affection for deception as he hyped his march on Washington — an event scheduled for the same date (Aug. 28) and on the same spot (the Lincoln Memorial) as Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic march 47 years ago. Beck claimed it was pure coincidence, but then he made every effort to appropriate the mantle of the great civil rights leader.
Jon Stewart is going on vacation again for 10 days. grrrrrrr
Before he leaves, however, he did handle some important business. Jon’s humor is biting on this one. He rips Glenn Becks’ civil rights/restoring honor rally.
Beck, a popular figure among tea party activists and a polarizing Fox News Channel personality, is headlining the event, and Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a potential 2012 president candidate, will be a prominent speaker. But Beck told his television audience again on Thursday that it’s not about politics.
The event’s website says the rally is to pay tribute to America’s military personnel and others “who embody our nation’s founding principles of integrity, truth and honor.” It also is to promote the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which provides scholarships and services to family members of military members.
The website urges citizens to attend and “help us restore the values that founded this great nation.”
How can anything featuring Sarah Palin not be about politics? She is the embodiment of politics.
I don’t doubt for one second that there are people out there gold bricking, but to make sweeping generalizations? I know of several people who just haven’t been able to get a job. Perhaps there are better people to attack than the jobless.
Much of the unemployment situation depends on location. Those of us living in Northern Virginia are fortunate. We haven’t been hit as hard as other localities.
Was Beck lacking sensitivity? Is it fair to attack people for being unemployed after 99 weeks?
On his Monday radio show, Glenn Beck highlighted claims that before he started targeting a little-known, left-leaning organization called the Tides Foundation on his Fox News TV show, “nobody knew” what the non-profit was.
Indeed, for more than a year Beck has been portraying the progressive organization as a central player in a larger, nefarious cabal of Marxist/socialist/Nazi Obama-loving outlets determined to destroy democracy in America. Beck has routinely smeared the low-profile entity for being staffed by “thugs” and “bullies” and involved in “the nasty of the nastiest,” like indoctrinating schoolchildren and creating a “mass organization to seize power.”
As Media Matters reported, the conspiratorial host had mentioned (read: attacked) the little-known progressive organization nearly 30 times on his Fox program alone since it premiered in 2009, including several mentions in the last month. (Beck’s the only TV talker who regularly references the foundation, according to our Nexis searches.)
So yes, Beck has done all he can to scare the hell out of people about the Tides Foundation and “turn the light of day” onto an organization that actually facilitates non-profit giving.
And guess what? Everybody in America would have found out about the Tides Foundation last week if Byron Williams had had his way. He’s the right-wing, government-hating, gun-toting nut who strapped on his body armor, stocked a pickup truck with guns and ammo, and set off up the California coast to San Francisco in order to start killing employees at the previously obscure Tides Foundation in hopes of sparking a political revolution.
Fox News loves to tout that it was the only news(sic) station to air certain events. According to Glenn Beck, Fox News was the only station to show Israeli commandos being clubbed on the flotilla. Jon Stewart takes him to task. It seems that many other stations showed the identical footage. Will Beck apologize? Will his wife call him out over this ‘non-truth?’
Fox News has developed a reputation for being foot loose and fancy free with the truth. This anything goes with accuracy of facts is hurting their reputation and making them very much the laughing stock. It is one thing to take an alternative opinion, but that news organization needs to tell the truth, then take issue.
From Beck’s radio show. Note, he has apologized and said he broke his own rule about attacking people’s children. Too little too late. Totally nasty, in my opinion. This almost makes me sick to listen.
Beck and his sidekick make fun of President Obama’s daughter for asking about plugging the oil spill. They leave no stone unturned in the nasty and degrading department. There are some things you just can’t apologize for. the hateful laughing in the background pushed his behavior into the no redemption department.
Is this even funny to anyone? Is there any nadir to which Fox News will not sink?
Is it just me or does Jon Stewart’s spoof make more sense than Glenn Beck?
I have decided Beck is just dangerous. His audience is too wide and there are just too many people who buy into this crap. Is this a cult?
I am sure Glenn Beck is disappointed that there just wasn’t more red meat out there. But as Jon Stewart says, he got a new sign off slogan. I liked the dog best.
And on another score, I feel like I have been wasting my time trying to establish dialogue on issues that people are talking about or want to talk about. Interesting, that Elena and I can be insulted at the drop of a hat, and if we so much a speak back, the self righteous start in on us again about our manners. That’s not going to work any more.
I don’t feel like swimming through a sea of partisan politics and sound bites only to be insulted. I don’t feel like spending the day defending one lone person who comes through the blog on his way to work and throws a poke at the Tea Party. Not meaning to be Gospel Moonie but, “First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
I do hope this subject doesn’t have to be revisited. Enjoy Jon Stewart. He is funny in this video and I am simply too tired to look for anything more stimulating.
