If you are thinking about getting a net and a straight-jacket and trying to capture Glenn Beck so that he can be admitted to an asylum…..get in line.
For years Beck has been alienating even those who would be regarded as ideological allies. Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs denounced Beck as “an alcoholic, weeping, ranting, creationist talk show host who idolizes John Birchers and Ron Paul.” Eric Burns, formerly the host of Fox News’ News Watch said that he was glad that he does not “have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.” And former colleague Jane Hall said that Beck was a factor in her decision to leave Fox News.
But since his bizarre rendition of the events in Egypt earlier this week, Beck’s critics are rushing to disassociate themselves from him and his patently insane foreign policy delusions.
Here is just a sampling of the reviews:
Reason Magazine Senior Editor, Michael Moynihan:
This is seriously the dumbest thing ever broadcast on (non-cable access) television.
Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish Senior Editor, Conor Friedersdorf:
…Fox News Channel puts this man on the air fully understanding that large parts of his program are uninformed nonsense mixed with brazen bullshit.
U.S.News & World Report, Scott Galupo, former John Boehner aide:
The man has finally blown a gasket. His pattern-recognition machine is spewing smoke and shards of metal. In Beck’s bizarro world, the Ayatollah Khomeini and Abbie Hoffman are like the Ponch and John of anti-Americanism. All that rolling around naked in the mud at Woodstock was really a harbinger of Western women one day being forced to wear burqas.
David Frum, FrumForum:
Many people have suggested that since the crisis in Egypt began Fox News’ Glenn Beck sounds crazier than usual.
William Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard:
[H]ysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He’s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.
With all of these conservative analysts bailing out on Beck, it is notable that he still has the support of two very important people in his life: Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Ailes and Murdoch are toughing it out. They are amongst the last to still believe that Beck is a credible voice of conservatism. As such they must be regarded as agreeing with Beck’s fantastical theories of Muslim domination of Europe and America, and the worldwide implosion that is imminent. Remember, Beck has stated on several occasions that if anything he said was untrue, Murdoch would have fired him:
“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.”
Neither Ailes nor Murdoch have ever disputed that statement. In fact they have both affirmed their agreement with Beck. Consequently, they must not think that there is anything wrong with what Beck is saying. Therefore, it is as if they are saying it themselves.
So if Glenn Beck is crazy, as is apparent, what does that make Ailes and Murdoch?
[Update:] Joe Klein, Time Magazine:
“I’ve heard, from more than a couple of conservative sources, that prominent Republicans have approached Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes about the potential embarrassment that the paranoid-messianic rodeo clown may bring upon their brand. The speculation is that Beck is on thin ice.”
Joe Klein is not the most reliable source, but it is encouraging to hear nonetheless. Two questions spring up: 1) Who are the “prominent Republicans” Klein references? And 2) What about the embarrassment that Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes bring upon their brand?
Murdoch and Ailes know that Beck is nuts, but their desire to make money overrules their desire to reign him in.
You’re absolutely right. And may I add their egos won’t allow them to fire Beck, which would constitute a tacit admission that his critics have been correct all along.
I don’t agree with the money part (see comment below), but I do agree with the ego part.
I also think that there may be a fear factor. The Fox brass may literally be afraid of angering Beck’s unstable disciples.
of course you’re correct. As someone who scours the MM Beck advertiser list daily – complete with obscure ethics-challenged sponsors and promos to fill the holes – I don’t know what I was thinking.
I would say that Ailes and Murdoch are playing a long game with Beck- ie relying on his poisonous propaganda to accrue to their ultimate benefit – except that they must see as clearly as we do that Beck is about to crash and burn, and an on-air implosion is not exactly the kind of ratings bonanza they’re looking forward to.
I would agree with you except that I’m not sure Murdoch is making any money from Beck.
About 300 advertisers refuse to allow there ads on his program. That’s why you see only 3rd rate advertisers like Goldline and TaxMasters, while O’Reilly has Ford and Campbell’s Soup.
Also, Beck’s ratings have been cut in half in the past year. He used to be the #2 show on Fox. Now he is #5.
News Corp doesn’t release revenue data for individual shows, but I can’t see how Beck is making money.
Beck still has the tea potty crowd and they were/are very useful when it comes to the echo chamber. Without them and their noise distracting the rest of the media from real news and facts the GOP would of never retaken the House. They think they will need him and them for 2012.
Go to stopbeck.com and see all of the advertisers that have dropped his show. He has been running WITH NO SPONSORS in the UK for 9-10 months!
Link to StopBeck in the list to your right.
This is precisely why I think this man is remarkably stupid. His theories rest on the impossible premise that the protesters in Tunisia are part of a MASSIVE secret political group that is nod overthrowing the entire middle east in order to overthrow all of Europe and then us. Is it perpetrated by china? is that what he was getting at? that china is the most competent, most covertly powerful, most financially flexible force that are now in Egypt after overthrowing Tunisia? Or is it a covert Muslim conspiracy that is being assisted by the Chinese? I had no idea europe was ablaze with protests on the same level as Egypt and Tunisia. Oh right, they aren’t. The only connective tissue I saw this man point out is the fact that protests are happening in all these countries, so clearly it’s all one massive political movement that has one ultimate goal in mind. This retard’s theories are only believable if one uses SWEEPING generalizations and clumps everything together as if it’s all the same situation. THIS MAN IS NOT CRAZY! THIS MAN IS INCREDIBLY STUPID! I have never heard anything from a Glenn McCarthy BrainSoap consumer that made me think, “Wow, this person is very well educated! I’m impressed by this person’s intellect!” I instead find myself shaking my head and doing a double face-palm as I try to grasp how anyone can bypass all the obvious questions this man’s ‘explanations’ raise.
I’m worried about you, Des. If you face-palm yourself every time Beck says something stupid you’re gonna have an aneurysm.
yea, that’s why I took a little break there. it was for my health!
I mean ‘Don’t tease the panther’???? Ya know??? SERIOUSLY!! SO STUPID!!
Nice to see some of the better minds in conservative thought catching up to you Mark. Where have they been for the last three years, I wonder. Trying to hydrate after their brother’s wedding?
I predict he will literally eat his own sh@t on tv
like a crazed monkey at the zoon beck will one day reach in his pants pull out a turd and eat it live in front of the camer while mumbeling mumbo jumbo
He is that nutz