On yesterday’s episode of Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue, Beck wandered through his usual fairy wonderland of conspiracies against America and himself. He introduced his latest panic alert that he portrayed as a mobster-like scheme to take over the world somehow with carbon emissions trading. It’s a plot so insidious and covert that Beck never actually explained how it worked. He just spent an hour moving around pictures of people he doesn’t like on his blackboard and drawing arrows to the words Crime, Inc.
In the course of this sermon, Beck made an earth shattering admission saying, “I’m not the smartest guy in the world.” And if that wasn’t enough to alter the course of the 21st century, he also disclosed something that reflects more directly on his boss, Rupert Murdoch, and the Fox News network, than anything he’s said previously:
BECK: Who owns this network? Rupert Murdoch. Do you know how much money Rupert Murdoch is … you know he’s got all these things going on. Do you think he’s going to let a guy at five o’clock say a bunch of stuff, put this together, it’s completely wrong, and stay on the network? Do you think he became a billionaire because he’s stupid? No, so that’s not it. Because Fox couldn’t allow me to say things that were wrong.
First of all, let’s disabuse ourselves of the lunacy that Fox doesn’t allow their hosts to say things that are wrong. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re required to contractually. But the astonishing part of Beck’s assertion that whatever he says must be true or Murdoch wouldn’t let him say it, is that it implies an endorsement by Murdoch of EVERYTHING he says.
If Murdoch doesn’t disassociate himself with these remarks, then he cannot possibly claim to be unaligned with Beck’s dementia. He cannot dismiss what Beck says as “just his own opinion.” From now on, the fact that Murdoch continues to employ Beck is Murdoch’s personal certification of, and agreement with, Beck’s crackpottery. It is now officially Murdoch’s crackpottery. So let’s take a look at the some of the things that Murdoch must believe or he would have fired Beck:
- President Obama is a racist with a deep-seated hatred for white people.
- It is the eve of destruction in America.
- The climate cult is teaching your children that the earth is God.
- The current administration is full of nazis, socialists, communists, Marxists, and Maoists.
- Katrina victims are scumbags.
- Progressivism is the cancer in America and it is eating our Constitution.
- The founding of the United States, and the Constitution, were divinely inspired.
- If your church preaches social justice you must run from it as fast as you can.
- If we don’t face the truth right now, we’ll be dead in five years; this country can’t survive.
- The passage of the health care bill marks the end of prosperity in America forever.
- There are traitors in this government who are deliberately trying to destroy it.
- The only hope left for America is for Osama Bin Laden to attack again.
Remember, these are things that Murdoch believes because, if he didn’t, he would have taken Beck off the air. And this doesn’t even touch on Murdoch’s beliefs that can be assumed by his not having ditched Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Gretchen Carlson, Dick Morris, Neil Cavuto, and Sarah Palin. And because Murdoch is fully in support of the Insane Clown Posse he employs, it is a reflection on everything his “news” organization produces, including the Wall Street Journal. He is reigning over a diseased media empire that is ravaged with bias and falsehoods. He is the archetypical unscrupulous press baron. Which makes this pronouncement by Beck all the more intriguing:
“I don’t know what happened to our media. What are you, a bunch of cowards? Is that what you are?”
I almost expected Beck to start flapping his arms, make clucking sounds, and dare the media to cross a line that he drew with his foot. In the following sentence, however, Beck confessed that it is he who is afraid – of union thugs, or Obama’s henchmen, who must be lying in wait for him in some dark alley. Beck has a long history of suggesting that his adversaries are plotting his demise. Persecution is just another symptom of his Messianic complex.
But his question is actually a good one, and one I’ve asked many times. It is remarkable to me that the non-Fox media in America permits Fox to be so overtly dishonest and to mercilessly criticize them without bothering to fight back. Clearly they are afraid, but of what? They have as much (more actually) media spectrum as Fox to get a story out. And they have far more viewers and readers in aggregate. For Fox to get away with bullying them is like Pepsi getting stared down by Harley’s Sarsaparilla and Snuff. So I’ll ask the media the same question: What are you, a bunch of cowards?
That list of all the bad things is pretty impressive but they left of pirates, wild man of Borneo, and Klingons. Shouldn’t spazBeck be up to the “stab in the back” rehtoric by now. Gee, I sure hope Evil Rupert doesn’t end up like that magnate in the 80’s that just kind of fell off the stern of an ocean liner.
Since Murdock himself seems to always be distancing himself from the “editorial” part of FOX (whatever that means), Beck’s assertion does seem to be drawing a line in the sand and daring his boss to step over it. C’mon Rupert, what are you? A Coward?
Rupert is a coward. He’s afraid of how the Tea Baggers would respond if he criticized or canceled Beck.
Hmmm. Usually I’m with you on these kinds of things, but I think you’re making a rhetorical error. If Beck says lunatic things and Murdoch hasn’t taken him off the air that can’t be said to be an endorsement of or belief in Beck’s ravings, not while there are other issues to consider like, say, money or ratings. If then we can argue that Murdoch leaves Beck on the air for one of these other reasons but knows Beck is a lunatic than any given statement by Beck can’t be said to be a challenge to Murdoch. And in any event Beck’s invoking of Murdoch is posed as a Cavutto Loaded Question, there’s no definitive statement.
I certainly understand your point, but I don’t buy this as the smoking gun that compels Murdoch to respond nor does it represent an assertion as to what Murdoch believes.
Beck was crystal clear: Murdoch/Fox would not allow him to say things that are wrong and stay on the network. Ergo, since he’s still on the network, they don’t think he’s wrong.
Beck cited Murdoch by name saying that his decision to keep Beck on is “proof” that he’s right. If Murdoch disagrees and has other reasons for keeping Beck on, he needs to correct the record. By letting Beck’s statement stand, he’s validating it. Remember, this isn’t some political opinion we’re talking about. This is something Beck claimed about Murdoch’s intentions personally. This is Beck alleging that his boss agrees with everything he says. And his boss, so far, hasn’t objected.
How stupid are Beck’s fans? The Simpsons have been mocking conservatives, Fox “News” and even Murdoch personally for over a decade and they are in their 21st year on Fox network.