Month: October 2010

Washington Post: Glenn Beck Isn’t Saying…

Posted by on October 2, 2010 at 1:48 pm. 6 Comments :

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank has a cute article posted today that illustrates how Glenn Beck gets a point across by pretending he isn’t making any such point. He simply says that he isn’t saying it:

“I’m not saying that Obama has an enemies list, but I wouldn’t put it past him, either.”

“I’m not saying that we have a bunch of mullahs or some star chamber running the country.”

“I’m not saying that we’re like Russia. I’m not saying Obama is going to kill anybody.”

“I’m not saying being poor in America is sweet.”

“I’m not saying to shoot anybody.”

“I am not saying that Barack Obama is a fascist. I’m not saying the Democrats are fascists.”

And who could forget…

“I’m not saying that he doesn’t like white people. I’m saying he has a problem. He has a — this guy is, I believe, a racist.”

Detect a pattern? Well, just for the record, I’m not saying that Glenn Beck raped an murdered a young girl in 1990.

Did CNN Fire Rick Sanchez? Or Was It You Know Who?

Posted by on October 2, 2010 at 2:19 am. 15 Comments :

Memo to CNN news hacks: Don’t fuck with Jon Stewart.

I’m not saying there is any connection, but the last time a CNN anchor went toe-to-toe with Stewart he also found himself out of job. Today Tucker Carlson is an Internet peddler of borrowed stories and Rupert Murdoch’s fluffer on Fox News.

When Rick Sanchez agreed to be interviewed today to plug his new book he probably had not planned to end his career, it was just one of those things that happens. We’ve all been through it. He just got caught up in the excitement of spewing anti-Semitic stereotypes and thought he could one-up Mel Gibson. Here is what he said:

“Everybody that runs CNN is a lot like [Jon] Stewart. And a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like Stewart. And to imply that somehow they – the people in this country who are Jewish – are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”

So Sanchez thinks that Jews are not victims of discrimination, and they are in control of the media. And he feels perfectly at ease expressing that opinion aloud. That is certainly justification for terminating a network anchor, but I am somewhat skeptical that that’s how it happened.

Generally it takes some period of time for a gaffe like this to build up a head of steam and accumulate some outrage from offended parties. But Sanchez got the boot before most of America even knew he had screwed up. What’s more, CNN has a new chief, Ken Jautz, who is not known for being controversy-averse. Jautz was the man who hired Glenn Beck at Headline News. With all the crap that Beck has said, we are now supposed to believe that Jautz was suddenly shocked by Sanchez’s remarks? Beck said that he hated the 9/11 victims’ families while he was working for Jautz. Then there was the time that Beck asked Keith Ellison, a Muslim member of Congress, to “prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.” Yet Jautz didn’t rush to call security and have Beck removed from the studio.

Beck has continued his reign of error at Fox News, famously saying that President Obama was “a racist with a deep-seated hatred for white people.” Yet Fox keeps him on the payroll, as they do Liz Trotta who joked that Obama should be “knocked off” along with Osama. Fox contributor Michael Scheuer opined that the only hope for America was for Bin Laden to hit us again with a WMD. And Ralph Peters, another Fox contributor, advocated military strikes on the media.

There doesn’t seem to be an outer limit of acceptable behavior for Fox. Which makes it a great place to work for bigots and psychopaths who won’t have to worry about saying something totally insane. On the other hand, MSNBC has David Shuster on an indefinite suspension for having done a screen test for CNN. And they canceled Don Imus for making racially insensitive comments about a women’s basketball team (he now works for, that’s right … Fox). CBS fired Jimmy the Greek. ESPN canned Rush Limbaugh. And now CNN shows Sanchez the door. Fox may not have a crossable line, but every other network seems to.

Still, I have to wonder what precipitated Sanchez’s departure. Could it really have been a revulsion of his clearly offensive remarks? Or did he walk out indignantly after being reprimanded? Perhaps Jautz wanted the schedule cleared for some new programming he is developing. Who knows? It just seems like there is more to this than has been made public. We may not know the answers for a while, or until Sanchez tweets. But just for old times sake, here are a couple of occasions where Sanchez did some work for which he could actually be proud:

~~~

This will actually be a good opportunity to find out what kind of programmer Jautz intends to be. Will he fill Sanchez’s slot with his next Beck-like discovery? Will he shoot for more tabloid sensationalism? Or will he develop a show that has journalistic ethics and standards and returns CNN to its original mission of producing honest news?

For the record, I had a suggestion for a new CNN program when Campbell Brown left the network: Replace Campbell Brown With The Daily Show. The idea still works. A man can dream, can’t he?

Halloween 2010: Threat Out The Vote: Glenn Beck Shows His Bloody Hand

Posted by on October 1, 2010 at 5:28 pm. 7 Comments :

With just one month left before the midterm elections of 2010, politicos of all stripes are about to gear up for the most important part of any campaign: Get Out The Vote (GOTV). After all the backyard barbecues, the bus tours, the thirty second ads, the hand kissing and baby shaking, it comes time to ensure that your supporters actually make the trek from porch to polling place.

Different candidates employ different methods of doing this. Some recruit phone-bankers to call every supporter and remind them of the need to cast their ballot. Some send mailers. Some spend less time motivating their own supporters than they do demoralizing those of their opponent. And some just try to scare the shit out of you with gruesome tales of the end of days and Satan’s imminent domination of your immortal soul.

The latter is the approach favored by notorious fear monger, Glenn Beck. It seems appropriate that election day is just two days after Halloween because Beck wants to make sure that you are as frightened as deer in a headlight factory. He has turned “Get Out The Vote” into “Threat Out The Vote,” and if you aren’t trembling by the end of his show your veins are pumping ice water. This is a call to arms on the part of Fox News who is initiating perhaps the biggest and most partisan voter drive ever attempted by a media organization. The following is from Beck’s TV program on 9/30/2010:

BECK: This is their shot. They have been waiting and building since the 1960’s. Well, if you’ve just been agitating and everything, you’re not good at ruling, and we’ve seen that right? We’re on to them. We know who they are. This is a nightmare. But they’re about to go back to agitating, because once they lose control of the House they have to. That’s what they’re good at.

It is important to know that the “they” to whom Beck is referring is the President, the Democratic members of congress, and their progressive allies in unions, churches, and advocacy groups, particularly those involved with the One Nation Working Together rally on October 2nd. He spent much of his program prior to this segment disparaging them and the tens of thousands of Americans who are expected to show up on the mall tomorrow in Washington.

Beck believes that these folks have been agitating for fifty years to reduce America to some sort of third world Marxist ghetto. Since Obama, and likely the majority of the other agitators, aren’t even fifty years old, Beck must view this as an inter-generational plot by subversives who have been shut out of power until only recently and have no experience governing. Not surprisingly, Beck’s facts fail to align with reality. For the past fifty years Democrats have had control of the House for all but 12 of them. And they even held the White House for 40% of that time. Nevertheless, Beck is on to us. He knows who we are. And he is predicting that we will erupt in some nightmarish fashion when we lose control of the House this November, as he predicts. So his prescription is…

BECK: You must overwhelm them in numbers. Get out and vote this November. Get someone else to vote. I don’t care how they vote, just get them to vote. Get off your couch. Get your neighbors off your couch. Be pro-active. You just make sure – are you registered to vote yet? Register to vote. Make sure people in your neighborhood are registered to vote. Get them out in droves and then stand peacefully arm in arm because I fear the trouble is just about to begin, and it will only get worse.

Who does this clown think he’s kidding? He spends hours and hours, day after day, castigating liberals as evil, as cancers that must be “cut out,” and now he pretends not to care how you vote? Let’s be clear, Glenn Beck cares very much how you vote. He just knows that if he gets his audience to the polls they will vote exactly as he has trained them to. So he is free to make ludicrous and disingenuous assertions that he just wants everyone to vote, without putting anything at risk. And then he can reassert what he regards as the real risk:

BECK: The “Sting” I believe happens maybe after January. If I’m right there’s not gonna be a lot of people in Washington that will offer peaceful leadership and the streets will not be peaceful. They will start protesting and agitating again. The peaceful leadership role will fall, unfortunately I believe, on your shoulders. Be ready to accept that challenge.

Beck is fond of forecasting future calamities. Last year at this time he warned that the stock market was going to collapse “sometime after Christmas” (it’s up over 12% since that prediction). In this case it involves some imagined conflagration that will erupt early next year after Democrats lose congressional power and take to the streets to wage war.

And therein lies the heart of Beck’s voter participation crusade. He is not seeking to motivate citizens to fulfill their civic duty and elect the candidates that best represent their views. He is terrifying them with monstrous bedtime stories about how they will be become tragic victims of evildoers who thirst only for blood. He is adamant that you turn out “in droves” and vote as if your life, nay your soul, depends upon it. Do you want to go to Hell?

And how does he want you to vote? Well, he says he doesn’t care. Were that true he would be conceding that it’s fine with him if you vote for the Satanic forces he feverishly opposes. That would be insane and obviously isn’t true. He very desperately wants you to vote, and to vote for Republicans only. He has stated clearly that he wants the Democrats to lose control of congress. He and his viewers know that there is only one other party that can achieve that end. This should finally put to rest his dishonest portrayal of himself as non-partisan. He is fanatically pro-GOP and the next time you hear him deny it you’ll know that he is lying, a skill he has mastered.

I’m not sure I’ve ever before seen this massive and undisguised amount of partisan pressure to coerce voters to the polls emanating from a major “news” network. Fox News is placing itself firmly in the electoral battle and they have decided that getting out the vote is a first tier priority that deserves Beck’s unique and unnerving attention.

With a month to go it is imperative that Democrats match this Fox News effort and mobilize their voters with at least as much enthusiasm. We don’t have network to assign to the task so we must use more traditional tools. If you have never been part of phone bank, consider volunteering for one now. If you have never walked precincts, call your local Democratic party office and sign up. Organizations like MoveOn and Democracy for America are presently recruiting people for their GOTV projects.

Do it NOW! Because that ogre under your bed will get you if you don’t. (OK, I’m not quite as good at the fear mongering as Beck, but you should still do it).