In the weeks since Glenn Beck lost his Fox News megaphone he has steadily receded from public view. His melting into the fringe oblivion occurred despite his prior declaration that if Fox were to throw him overboard him he would…
“…only be stronger for it. I will use American ingenuity and my ingenuity to pull myself up, and I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful!”
The ingenious platform that Beck landed on was the Internet. With the launch of GBTV, Beck is pretending that he is now a some sort of mogul set to dominate the media. But no matter how loudly he insists, GBTV is not television and it is not a network. It is a web site. Period.
This week Beck announced that GBTV will be producing content for children. I’m not entirely sure how it will be different from anything else he has done on TV and radio for the past couple of years. His shtick has always been been aimed at a childish demographic with diminished capacity for complex thought and the inability to distinguish fact from fantasy.
The “program” will be called “Liberty Treehouse,” and will continue in Beck’s tradition of perverting history to the point where it is nothing more than his idealized delusion of the Founding Founders and an addendum to the Bible that explains how God created America on the eighth day.
There is some irony that will certainly escape Beck and his disciples in that he has been fiercely critical of President Obama for merely speaking at schools. Beck denounces these appearances as attempts to indoctrinate America’s youth with subversive messages like “pay attention to your studies,” “work hard,” and “believe in yourself.” But it is Beck who is overtly seeking to implant false doctrine into the minds of the spawn of his current disciples (because surely no other kids will watch this dreck). He is hoping to shape the next generation of conspiracy theorists who will pass on the legends of satanic leftists and their Islamic cohorts.
Upon his departure from Fox, Beck said that the reason he was leaving was so that he could reach out to the youth. It’s true that his Fox program skewed older than any other show on cable news, but that’s only because his rhetoric has a limited appeal that only registers with curmudgeonly Dark Agists. He is frequently disparaging of youth, calling them “useful idiots” and denouncing them for participating in public life. How he expects to win them over now is a mystery.
For Beck to launch a site for kids is surprising for another reason. Recall that a couple of months ago he compared scores of murdered children in Norway to the Hitler Youth because they attended a camp that taught them about government and civil service. And all the while he was a sponsor of similar camps (except with a more dangerously ultra-conservative agenda).
It’s that sort of content, combined with episodes of 1950’s television shows like “Ozzie & Harriet,” that will make Beck’s web site a must see destination for demented rightist families across America. I just feel sorry for the kids who will have to undergo years of therapy to relieve the paranoid anxieties that Beck’s fear mongering will poison them with.
Well, I do not see the problem in parents letting their kids look at Glenn Beck’s website, so long as they put it in the proper context.
“See kids. See that fatty lump spewing bigotry, prejudice, and racism. Cartman is not just a cartoon character on South Park; he is real.”
Beck Jugend? Maybe he will offer them straps and daggers.
One can mock but Glenn is right. The Norwegian Liberal Party had a political summer camp for youth. It was not all basketball and campfires. I would have used the example of Russian Komsomol. The kiddies with the red scarves. The senior folks did have straps but no daggers. As an honor they guarded WW2 monuments with PPsh submachine guns(most likely unloaded lest this cause apoplexy).
Glenn Beck was right???
That’s nuts. He compared those dead children to the Hitler Youth. How disgusting. The camp simply taught kids about government and civil service. It had no activist agenda or propaganda. It was about being a good citizen.
Beck, as usual, was not only wrong, he was repulsive. And it doesn’t help when you post a comment saying that he was right.
I can’t believe your readers put any credence in a review of something you haven’t even seen. And yet it’s the Glenn Beck fans whom you see as simple minded and unable to differentiate between fact and fantasy. Hah!
Also, had you ever watched his fox show you would know he sees children as the most important demographic there is and we have a responsibility to ensure they learn the historically accurate “truth.”
Try reading this again. It is not a review, it’s analysis based on having watched his TV show and listened to him on radio. He is commonly disparaging of young people and believes they should shut up and be obedient. And his history lessons are as far from accurate truth as fairy tales.
In a strange twist of irony, she actually made your point!