Glenn Beck

Roger Ailes Kept Glenn Beck On The Air To Irritate MoveOn And Media Matters

Posted by on March 21, 2013 at 2:25 pm. NO Comments :

Roger AilesThe new biography of Roger Ailes by his hand-picked fluffer, Zev Chafets, is getting some exposure in the press via reviews and excerpts. News Corpse recently reported that Ailes agreed to cooperate with Chafets in order to make a preemptive strike against a more critical look at his career by journalist Gabriel Sherman, whose book will be published in May. The New York Times published a scathing review that ripped Chafets for producing a book that…

“…reads like a long, soft-focus, poorly edited magazine article. For the most part Mr. Chafets serves as little more than a plastic funnel for Mr. Ailes’s observations […] he doesn’t ask his subject many tough questions about Fox News’s incestuous relationship with the Republican Party, its role in accelerating partisanship in our increasingly polarized society or the consequences of its often tabloidy blurring of the lines between news and entertainment.”

Now the New York Observer has posted another excerpt that reveals the lengths to which Ailes will go to annoy his enemies. Chafets writes that Ailes had already decided “he would have to get rid of Glenn Beck,” but he didn’t take any actions to do so for many months. This stalling occurred even though he was aware that “An advertising boycott organized by ColorOfChange.org hurt revenues, and Beck’s ratings declined.” This reference to the Color Of Change action is the first time that Ailes has admitted that Fox lost money due to the boycott. He previously made emphatic denials that there had been any impact on revenue. The reason Ailes gave for putting off Beck’s departure, according to Chafets, was that he “didn’t want to give MoveOn and Media Matters the satisfaction.”

So there you have it. The CEO of a news network had concluded that Beck’s rhetoric was divisive and “over the top,” but he permitted him to continue broadcasting his race-baiting, Nazi-inflected, conspiracy theories for several more months because he was afraid to give his critics something they might celebrate. Ailes would rather poison the airwaves (and the minds of his viewers) with lies and hatred than to let his ideological adversaries think they had scored a victory. That’s the true nature of Fox News and its philosophy of journalism.

It goes without saying that Ailes’ ego-driven decision-making was flawed from the start. Delaying the cancellation of Beck had zero effect on how his critics would respond. Removing Beck from the air was a victory whether it occurred in January or July. The only person whose “satisfaction” was affected was Ailes himself. Chafets never recognizes this fact and the excerpt irrationally concludes with him asserting that “Ailes was right again.”

Chafets further sucks up by saying that, as a result of his maneuvering, “Ailes could plausibly say that he had moved Fox safely away from the fringe.” Where he gets that notion from is a mystery. Particularly in light of Fox’s acquisitions since the election that include Mark Levin, Herman Cain, Scott Brown, and Erick Erickson (who once called a Supreme Court Justice a “goat-fucking child molester”). They join fringe all-stars Sean Hannity, Eric Bolling, and Steve Doocy, among others. This is not what most people would describe as plausibly moving away from the fringe, but it is the Fox way.

Glenn Beck Wants To Make YOU Pay For His Conspiracy Broadcast Network

Posted by on February 27, 2013 at 9:54 am. 3 Comments :

“They can take my job and they can take my wealth but that’s okay… 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!”

Those are the words Glenn Beck used to console himself when he came under attack while still hosting his old program on Fox News. As a consequence of calling the President a racist (and numerous other delusional ravings), Beck saw his advertisers and audience fleeing in droves. Yet he was adamant that if he were to lose the soapbox given to him by Fox he would rise on the third day and ascend to ever greater glory.

Glenn Beck

After nearly two years in the hinterlands of the InterTubes, Beck has changed his mind about television and the imaginary “thousand times more powerful” platform he espoused. He is now begging to be readmitted to the television tabernacle. He realizes that his public profile has receded, effectively making him a non-entity on the political landscape. To be sure, he’s making plenty of money by charging his flock to watch his sermons, but that isn’t enough for someone with Beck’s pathological egocentrism.

Beck has launched a campaign to recruit his disciples into a lobbying force aimed at pressuring cable providers to add his webcast to their channel lineup. But if cable operators were to succumb to this effort it would be an unprecedented breach of trust that would force every cable customer to subsidize Beck’s right-wing conspiracy mongering. Depending on the terms of the agreement, content providers providers are generally paid a per-subscriber fee by the cable operator for the rights to their programming. That fee is due whether or not anyone watches the channel. Therefore, if your cable company carries Beck’s webcast, they pay him royalties derived from your cable bill even if you never watch him.

In his appeal to his followers Beck makes the weak argument that extracting such involuntary financial support is comparable to what is currently being done with MSNBC. However, no matter what one thinks of MSNBC’s leanings, they are a bona fide news enterprise and there are massive differences between that and Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue and Holy Huckster Sideshow. Despite Beck’s assertion that “Adding TheBlaze will ensure that you and your family have a source of news and analysis that you can trust and that doesn’t betray your values,” the obvious truth is that his programming will only contribute to the garbage heap of fear peddling that permeates rightist media. And this statement in his own promotional piece exposes the dishonesty of his intentions:

“If we succeed then we change the media. If we change the media, we control the debate. If we control the debate, we change politics. And if we change politics, we change the country.”

That is not the sort of mission statement issued by a credible news organization. Beck is forthrightly declaring his intention to proselytize his Tea-vangelism, and that makes his “channel” an inappropriate selection for a cable operator who would pass on the costs to unwilling subscribers. We should not be forced to make up for his business failures.

Amongst Beck’s defenders there will be those who will deny that Beck is having any problem generating revenue with his webcast. But here’s financial breakdown: He is presently charging between five and ten dollars per month to subscribe to his programs online. If he does secure cable carriage that programming will be available for free to all of the current cable subscribers on the system. Consequently, they would no longer need to pay for the Internet access. If the Internet subscription model was working for him, Beck wouldn’t risk cannibalizing his online customers by offering them the same content for free on cable. But he doesn’t care about his web audience because he knows that with cable penetration comparable to what MSNBC has, Beck could triple his earnings.

The bottom line for Beck is that he is upset because no one is paying any attention to him. So he wants to wedge himself back into the TV community and make you pay the bill. This would be a good time to say “NO!” And you may as well use his own web site to do so. Beck has thoughtfully compiled a directory of the Facebook pages for the cable providers he is soliciting. There is no reason why you couldn’t use those same links to let them know that if they add Beck to their lineup you will cancel the service, because you don’t want to line the pockets of someone who is so brazenly dishonest, divisive, and hateful. We successfully exiled Beck to his current island in the Internet ocean once before. Let’s not allow him to sneak back in at our expense.

Gun Nuttiness Royale: Refusing To Sell Guns To Police In Pro-Safety States

Posted by on February 25, 2013 at 3:23 am. 13 Comments :

So exactly how deep is the vein of idiocy that runs through the NRA gun worship crowd? Just have a look at this item from Glenn Beck’s TheBlaze (and associated wingnut media): 44 Gun Companies Have Stopped Selling To Law Enforcement In Anti-2nd-Amendment States.

Blaze - Guns

This is the sort of thing you expect from lie factories like Fox Nation. But the evil genius in this meticulously plotted protest is not readily apparent at first glance. However, if you let it sink in for a minute it becomes hilariously inept. In fact, it’s rather astonishing how they could get so much wrong in one short headline. Let us count the ways:

1) No states are anti-2nd Amendment.
The gunnies are trying to portray any state that dares to seek solutions to rampant gun violence of the sort that took the lives of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut, as contrary to the right to keep and bear arms as stipulated in the Constitution. However, reasonable regulations and background checks have been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court and are supported by majorities of the American public, and even by majorities of NRA members.

2) There’s no evidence that any of the listed vendors were ever state suppliers.
The article on TheBlaze lists 44 munitions vendors who are taking an oath to refuse to sell their products to law enforcement agencies. But in no cases have they provided any evidence that they are presently engaged in such sales. And in at least some cases it seems pretty unlikely. I’m not sure that Old Grouch’s Military Surplus or Controlled Chaos Arms are sacrificing much in the way of revenue from police department clients. None of the major arms manufacturers like Smith & Wesson, Sig Sauer, or Glock are participating in the boycott.

3) Other vendors will happily take up the slack.
These eager activists don’t seem to grasp the concept of boycotts. Generally they are carried out by refusing to buy certain products, thus hurting the targeted vendors by using their financial clout to affect policy changes. Instead, the gunnies are refusing to sell their own products to willing buyers, thus hurting only themselves. It’s a little like demanding that the bank teller hand over all the money and threatening to shoot yourself if they don’t.

4) If effective, the boycott would endanger the lives of citizens.
Setting aside the fact that this protest is pitifully ill-conceived, let’s imagine how it would unfold if it had any chance of succeeding. The apparent goal is to pressure states not to implement gun safety initiatives by, in effect, disarming the officers who are there to protect the people. That seems like a reckless course of action and one that the public would disapprove of in droves. Gun advocates may enjoy fondling their weapons and pretending to be superheroes, but most citizens are not anxious to confront desperate criminals on their own. Grandma is not likely to hear the call on the police scanner, start up the Rambler, and head down to the mall to foil a gang of jewelry store thieves.

5) The law enforcement agencies don’t make the laws.
Perhaps the most tunnel-blind facet of this folly is that the dimwitted gun vendors are aiming their protest at the police, despite the fact that they are only responsible for enforcing laws, not drafting them. So the gunnies are taking a stand to refuse to provide service revolvers to local police because of something that was done by governing legislatures and executives.

Like so many harebrained schemes by far-right extremists, this protest action is not very well thought out. It harms first responders who are innocent parties in this debate; it puts citizens at risk; it blows up in their own faces financially; and it makes no strategic sense whatsoever. Yet it is being heralded by the wingnut press including Breitbart News, and Fox Nation. And in addition to the article on TheBlaze, Glenn Beck addressed the subject on his webcast escalating it into pure conspiracy theory delusion. He warned that the gun dealers…

“…are not going to provide anything to a state where those weapons are going to be used against the citizens to possibly take guns and gun rights away.”

So Beck is afraid that states are plotting shooting rampages by police against residents in pursuit of their firearms and, therefore, the police must be disarmed. This is another demonstration of conservatives leaning so far out to the right that they fall overboard and make asses of themselves. And as if to underscore their dementia, note the ad on TheBlaze about “FEMA Coffins.” Those should come in handy after the cops have killed everybody.

Let’s Get Ready To CRUMBLE: Glenn Beck Ducks WWE Challenge

Posted by on February 24, 2013 at 9:41 am. 1 Comments :

Glenn Beck and professional wrestling. Who could have imagined a collision between these two disparate media phenomenons?

After all, one of them is perhaps the most notorious entertainment spectacle of the last fifty years and involves a highly choreographed production of television broadcasts that purport to be genuine, but are in fact as phony as Bigfoot’s Snake Oil Elixir. Nevertheless, it hooked a surprisingly large audience of gullible viewers starved for over-the-top melodrama and sweaty, wild-eyed brawls.

And the other one is professional wrestling.

Indeed, Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Revue and Holy Huckster Sideshow seems like the perfect match up with pro wrestling. They are both so divinely cartoonish and dripping with cheap theatrics that it’s a wonder someone hadn’t thought of it sooner. But Sadly, it’s not to be.

Glenn Beck Wimped Out

After the WWE debuted a couple of characters modeled after Tea Party wackos, Beck bounded into the proverbial ring to slam the sham Teabaggers and the horse they rode in on. That horse, by the way, was the property of two-time Teapublican senate loser, and WWE’s owner, Linda McMahon. Clearly this is not an organization run by Obama functionaries or progressive rabble.

Dimwitted wrestler Jack Swagger and his hillbilly manager Zeb Colter were a pretty accurate representation of the rednecks who mindlessly spew patriotic jargon and blame all their failures on minorities. But Beck wasn’t having it. He declared that he was sick and tired of being miscast and wasn’t about to allow these twits to besmirch the image of his precious Tea Party. With classic WWE bravado Beck taunted his nemeses saying…

“I can take it from a lot of people. I really can. I can’t take it from the stupid wrestling people.”

You can almost imagine him center-ring, yelling that into a microphone hanging from the ceiling. This is the Beck who has called himself a rodeo clown and just last month said that he considers what he does to be “like circus performer art.” Having thrown down the gauntlet, the ball was now in the court of the wrestling duo. So Swagger and Colter struck back inviting Beck to appear on their show and defend the honor (such as it is) of “We the Teaple.” In a video challenge they said…

“You know, Glenn, many of your followers are WWE fans and they understand the difference between reality and entertainment. Are you so out of touch with your own audience, Glenn, or are you just a ‘stupid’ political commentator.”

They were obviously giving Beck’s fans more credit than they deserved with regard to their alleged understanding of reality. But they were also giving Beck a sterling opportunity to address the millions of WWE viewers (10 times more than any audience Beck ever had), and explain why Swagger’s character offended him. But rather than meet his opponents in the ring, Beck pulled the covers up over his head and tweeted that he is “currently booked doing anything else.”

It’s inevitable that big-mouths like Beck reveal themselves to be cowards. But this exceeds all boundaries of wimposity. Beck is trembling before fictional foes. It would be one thing if Beck was afraid to debate Rachel Maddow or Bill Maher, experienced communicators who have obvious intelligence and wit. But to shrink from facing off with a fake adversary on a scripted television farce demonstrates just how paper thin Beck’s veneer of bombast really is.

Glenn Beck Calls Obama The Worst Thing He Can Think Of: ‘A Girl’

Posted by on February 5, 2013 at 12:04 pm. NO Comments :

Cover the children’s eyes and carefully consider whether you want to read further because what follows is not for sensitive readers. Glenn Beck, that macho icon manliness, has been driven to distraction by President Obama’s exhibition of icky feminine traits. Something Beck himself would never do.

Glenn Beck

During the Superbowl interview of the President, Scott Pelley asked him if he would allow his hypothetical sons to play football in light of recent news about the dangers from concussions which can lead to severe mental illness, dementia and death. Obama thoughtfully responded that he “would have to think about it.”

Apparently Beck would not need to think about it at all. He would gleefully encourage his sons to participate in an activity that has been known to cause serious injuries. Why would he need to give any thought to that? In fact, Beck was so offended by the President’s response that he played it on his little Internet blog and, the whole time Obama spoke, Beck kept repeating “He’s a girl…He’s a girl…”

One thing we can ascertain without doubt from observing his behavior is that Beck is a boy – an immature, ignorant, petulant, emotionally stunted, bitter, little boy, who thinks he can “revoke” Obama’s “man card.”

What’s worse is that Beck, in his haste to repudiate Obama’s thoughtfulness, has revealed his innate disrespect for women. In searching for the appropriate insult with which to bash the President, Beck can only come up with one that he repeats in a manic display of childishness: “You’re a girl. You’re a full-fledged woman.” Beck fervently believes that calling Obama a girl is the most damning epithet he can hurl. What could be worse, in his cartoon brain, than being compared to a young woman?

This isn’t the first time Beck has exposed his overt misogyny in this manner. When Jimmy Fallon’s TV house band, The Roots, played Fishbone’s “Lyin Ass Bitch” as Michelle Bachmann was introduced, Beck demanded that Fallon fire the band, but that he wouldn’t because he is – you guessed it – a girl.

You see, in Beck’s mind, only real men are capable of making difficult personnel decisions. Likewise, only real men understand that worrying about the welfare of your children is the mark of a sissy. And pretty much anything that stirs Beck’s ire is sufficient cause to castigate someone with aspersions to womanliness – the most horrible state of being that Beck can imagine. So horrible that I’m sure the very thought of it makes him cry.

Glenn Beck’s Conspiracy Theory About Conspiracy Theories

Posted by on January 24, 2013 at 2:40 am. 3 Comments :

Sometimes the dementia of right-wing fabulists is a richer vein of comedy than a Marx Brothers marathon. And speaking of Marx (Karl), his press agent, Glenn Beck, is contributing more than his fair share of unintentional hilarity to a nation thirsty for humor.

On his silly and mostly ignored webcast, Beck set out to warn his flock of the dangers of getting sucked into conspiracy theories. He expressed his deep concern that people understand that the real reason these tall tales are disseminated is to distract unsuspecting citizens from the evils being perpetrated by the government. You know…evils like the conspiracy theories Beck espouses.

Beck is America’s preeminent source for conspiracy theories. He just published a book titled “Agenda 21” that is based on a nightmare fable of the United Nations subjugating the world to slavery on the pretense of building sustainable communities. He produced a three day Fox News spectacular revealing that George Soros is also plotting to rule the world. He’s certain that the art and architecture of Manhattan conceals communist propaganda. And who can forget his sermons on the Islamic cabal, in league with Western European socialists, to restore the ancient Caliphate and, of course, rule the world.

Now the master of conspiracy madness is revealing a deep cover plot too scandalous to believe (video below). Beck has discovered that the whole birther mess was actually devised and implemented by a scheming White House in an attempt to divert attention away from a dastardly blueprint to bankrupt America and deliver its carcass to her enemies.

Beck: “The only time you ever heard about [Obama’s birth certificate] was from the lunatic fringe – and I mean a very, very, small group of people that were talking about it – but the White House was the one that was constantly bringing it up and stirring the pot.”

That’s right. It was a very small group of people consisting mainly of Fox News anchors and pundits, right-wing activists and Tea Partiers, and the lunatic fringe more commonly known as the Republican Party. The mini-faction included unknown, media-shy characters like Mitt Romney surrogate, Donald Trump. This tiny, almost imperceptible, collective of outliers had little influence on public opinion unless you count the polls that show nearly half of “staunch conservatives” saying that they think Obama was not born in the U.S.

Now that Beck has exposed the truth that conspiracy theories are really covert diversions, the only unanswered question is whether the conspiracy theories Beck spins are themselves distractions from the government’s clandestine plots. How can we know that Beck is not a part of the plot to draw attention away from far more fiendish exploits contrived by federal super-villains? If conspiracy theories are government plots, and no one is more adept at constructing them than Beck, well ….. connect the dots.

Life After Congress: Dennis Kucinich And Allen West Take Different Paths

Posted by on January 17, 2013 at 2:59 am. 3 Comments :

The election last November returned President Obama and most of congress to the jobs they already had. However, a few notable exceptions resulted in changes to the Washington roster. This year we know what happened to a couple of the losers.

Dennis Kucinich was something of an enigma. He held fairly reliable liberal positions on issues related to the economy and the environment. He was also staunchly pro-life [Correction: Kucinich changed his position on abortion in 2002]. One of the more annoying traits he displayed was his eagerness to appear on Fox News where he would be abused by right-wing anchors and panelists and waste everyone’s time by expressing opinions that Fox viewers would never give serious consideration.

Now that he lost his seat in a primary that pitted him against a fellow Democrat due to redistricting, he is making the trek to Fox more permanent. It was announced today that Kucinich has signed on to be a regular contributor on the network that only hires Democrats as either targets to humiliate or puppets to manipulate into attacking their former colleagues.

Allen West was not enigmatic in the least. He was a flaming right-wing lunatic who believed that the Democratic caucus was teeming with commies and threw Nazi references around as if they were compliments. He was so certifiably nuts that even Fox wouldn’t touch him. So he signed up with the also-rans at Pajamas Media where he will be hosting a Glenn Beck style webcast. And viewers will have to shell out for the pleasure of watching West spew hyperbole and bile at his perceived enemies of liberty.

Both of these ex-legislators have made career choices that will lead them to ignominy. Kucinich will enjoy a bit of notoriety on his Fox perch for a while, but will lose respect due to his craven self-promotion and sycophancy to his new masters. For a preview of where he is headed he can look to other Fox News Democrats like Kirsten Powers, Pat Caddell, or Dick Morris. It’s not exactly a bright future.

In West’s case he will simply fade from the scene and be forgotten as befits a one-term representative who failed to distinguished himself as anything other than a psychotic, mouth-foaming crackpot. His model for the future is Glenn Beck who also has a subscription webcast. But West doesn’t have nearly the following or media savvy of Beck. Even so, Beck’s star has fallen precipitously since he was booted off of television. He is now relegated to a distant studio in Texas from which he sends out his alarmist communiques. Just yesterday Beck declared that civil war is imminent and displayed a loony flow chart that made little sense.

Glenn Beck

Beck never satisfactorily explained how this path would traverse from “Compromise” to the “President Complains” to a “Tragic Event” to “Blame” to an “Executive Order” to both “Violent Rebellion” and “Peace.” But that’s the beauty of insanity – no one expects it to make any sense. And in that respect West is a natural for this medium. His followers will surely find him and everyone else will forget that he ever existed.

Lust For Strife: ‘The Citadel’ And Glenn Beck’s ‘Independence’ Are Betting On Catastrophe

Posted by on January 15, 2013 at 10:29 am. 6 Comments :

The geniuses who form the brain trust of the far right are trampling all over each other as they scamper for high ground to avoid the Commie Tsunami they imagine is bearing down on them. The fear is palpable as these whimpering Apocalyptoids rush to save themselves from what they are certain is a world-ending crush of progressive tyranny being orchestrated by the evil forces of self-government known as democracy.

Since the extreme righteous-wing was unable to thwart American voters last November, returning Satan’s Lieutenant Obama to the formerly White House, they are now intent on demonstrating their patriotism by advocating acts of treason and aspiring to secession.

That is the theme embodied in the quixotic blueprints being drawn up for utopian conclaves by folks like Glenn Beck and the architects of The Citadel. These would-be nation-states peddle phony promises of security and liberty to rubes who are convinced that those principles are so fragile under our current Marxist, Muslim, Kenyan president that they are certain to disappear by lunchtime. And the panic produced thereby is a market opportunity for Armageddon profiteers.

Glenn Beck’s version of this Exodus is a city/theme park that he calls Independence, USA. That also happens to be the name of the city that his Mormon faith teaches will be the place that Jesus will choose when he returns to usher in the end of time. Beck doesn’t have any plans for how he will raise the $2 billion he says the project will cost, but it will almost certainly come from the hides of his sheep. As I wrote last week…

“The development includes all the necessities that a demented doomsday prepper could desire. There would be farming land where residents could till the soil and produce their own food. There would be a mall with shops populated by craftsmen who would also teach the young’uns how to make their own rocking chairs and crossbows. He also plans a media center where he would produce entertainment “that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency.” It is in that area that he would train new journalists in his techniques of lying and fear mongering. There would be a research facility for…God knows what. Recognizing the need for diversions from all of this ecstasy, Beck plans to include a theme park. And of course, centrally located, would be a church for his parishioners to worship.”

Now it appears that Beck has competition. Another contestant in the Doomsday Bonanza Sweepstakes is a project called the Citadel. Its backers are a mysterious cabal centered around what appears to be an arms manufacturer located in somebody’s garage. Some reports cite the founder as Christian Hyman (aka Sam Kerodin), a convicted extortionist who, in 2004 was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for setting himself up as a security consultant in order to “shake down shopping malls by publicizing that they were especially vulnerable to terrorist attacks unless they paid him not to do so.”

The Citadel’s terms for residency are a maze of contradictions. They boast that there is “No credit check. No background check. Zero down payment. Zero interest. Zero property taxes,” but you still have to pass an application review and sign their “Citadel Patriot Agreement.” The agreement is described as “a voluntary set of conditions to which every single Patriot who accepts a residence in the Citadel must agree, in writing.” But it’s not really voluntary if you are required to agree. The Citadel claims it “will be built as a fortified bastion of Liberty.” However, The terms “fortified” and “liberty” sort of contradict one another. Plus, to the Citadelians, liberty also means being forced to own a rifle, a handgun and an AR-15 assault weapon, and be trained in their use (you have to pass a test). How convenient that a community founded by a gun dealer requires its residents to purchase guns.

This bastion of liberty also has some pretty severe exclusionary policies. First and foremost is their open antagonism to “Marxists, Socialists, Liberals and Establishment Republicans,” whom they discourage from applying on their home page by warning that they “will likely find that life in our community is incompatible with their existing ideology and preferred lifestyles.” What’s more, anyone who is, or becomes disabled such that they cannot pass the firearms test will not meet their standards and will be denied or expelled. Blind patriots, or even those with severe arthritis, would be unable to pass the marksmanship tests. Also, felons and others not legally permitted to possess firearms would be unable to comply with the requirement to own such weapons. (Wouldn’t that include the founder who is a convicted extortionist?)

The one angle these hucksters appear to have missed is the tax exemptions they would have if they registered these properties as churches. While The Citadel does not seem to be overtly religious, Beck has long cast himself as a televangelist with tearful entreaties to his Lord and sermons on society’s abandonment of Him. Beck famously declared that he has seen “the finger of God” and frequently regales his flock with assertions that God has anointed his path. However, Beck never explains why God later permits him to discard those previously divine projects. Beck’s God may have a touch of ADHD. Consequently, no one will be surprised if none of these projects ever come to fruition.

Not to be left out, Fox News has jumped into the fray with not one, but two promotions for The Citadel. Their Fox Nation web site featured the project in separate postings of the very same article from CNSNews, which is owned by the uber-rightist Media Research Center.

Fox Nation

Notice that the Fox Nationalists present these stories in an overtly partisan manner. One headline touts the operation as “Patriotic” despite its inherent separatist and exclusionary policies and the criminal background of its founder. The other headline brags about the “Live and Let Live” lifestyle – unless you are a liberal. The cognitive disconnect required to put both of those concepts into that single headline and image is almost painful.

The natural affinity between Fox and these Last Chance boondoggles is readily apparent. They both devote much of their energy and resources to spreading horror stories about a worldwide collapse of civilization. They both profit from the irrational fear that such stories generate. They both employ propagandists whose job it is to incite terror and suspicion amongst the paranoid yokels who are their target audience/consumer. And they both market a brand of Armageddon that is uniquely designed to enrich their leaders.

It is astonishing, and somewhat depressing, that there are so many misfits who are susceptible to this con game. But if Jim Jones could get nearly a thousand disciples to follow him to the jungles of Guyana (and take their own lives), the far better financed and media savvy successors to his model of salvation have the potential to cause much greater damage. The only prospect for apocalypse is the one being shaped by these false prophets. Let’s hope the flock will pull the wool away from their eyes in time to avoid something tragic.

Is Glenn Beck’s Independence, USA The Next Jonestown?

Posted by on January 12, 2013 at 2:35 pm. 11 Comments :

On his webcast this week, Glenn Beck unveiled yet another publicity stunt intended to buy him some attention, at least from his congregation of disciples. This time it comes in the form of his “vision” of a utopian community where rich and poor will live together in harmony while shopping and farming and riding holy-roller coasters to Valhalla.

Glenn Beck Independence

This new society of egalitarian pilgrims would amass in Beck’s planned city of Independence, USA. He admits that there is no such place mapped out as yet and that the whole concept exists only in his imagination which is, to say the least, fertile. The development includes all the necessities that a demented doomsday prepper could desire. There would be farming land where residents could till the soil and produce their own food. There would be a mall with shops populated by craftsmen who would also teach the young’uns how to make their own rocking chairs and crossbows. He also plans a media center where he would produce entertainment “that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency.” It is in that area that he would train new journalists in his techniques of lying and fear mongering. There would a research facility for…God knows what. Recognizing the need for diversions from all of this ecstasy, Beck plans to include a theme park. And of course, centrally located, would be a church for his parishioners to worship.

Perhaps most notable is Beck’s provisions for living space. He says that he will build “a residential area where people of different incomes could all come together and be neighbors.” Sounds a little socialist to me. But so does much of his concept that relies on all the people contributing to one another and to the greater good of the community.

What’s troubling is the notion that Beck wants to create a segregated community of followers who believe in his vision and will strike out on their own to build a self-reliant, communal society based on his twisted brand of evangelism and with him as its leader. Sound familiar? It is precisely what Jim Jones, a pastor from California, did when he assembled his flock in Guyana to form what he called Jonestown. That ended in tragedy with more than 900 disciples succumbing to poison-laced Kool-Aid.

Already Beck’s flock is getting excited about his new city proposal. They are leaving comments on his web site declaring their loyalty and wondering when they can move to the imaginary Independence. It’s sad to see that there are people who regard independence as fealty to a hate-filled, fear mongering, tele-prophet, who is only interested in his own fame and considerable fortune. Hopefully people will see through this charlatan before it’s too late, because it is difficult to see any good coming from this.

Glenn Beck Desperately Struggling For Relevance With Yet Another Re-Invention

Posted by on January 9, 2013 at 11:06 am. 10 Comments :

When rumors first emerged that Glenn Beck was likely to lose his perch on the Fox News Channel, he responded with the confidence of a Messianic warrior saying “I will find another way to get my message out on a platform that will be a thousand times more powerful!”

Glenn Beck Messiah

Well, the rumors proved to be true and Beck was cast off of Fox and hurled into the cacophony of the Internet. Since then he has frantically stumbled around searching for an identity and grasping at phantom opportunities to keep his movement humming. He began by launching GBTV, a subscription Internet video blog that he delusionally described as a television network. Despite his assertions that it was a huge success, he submerged it into his web “news” site The Blaze.

Now Beck is making another u-turn with the announcement that he is re-branding his entire operation as a “global Libertarian news network,” whatever that means. He claims that he will be opening three foreign bureaus in cities that are “important to America” (presumably that nixes Paris, Caracas, and Beijing), and will relocate his staff to a new facility in Manhattan that “will piss everyone off” (He must have found space at 30 Rock between MSNBC and Chuck E. Cheese).

Beck, one of the most hostile and divisive characters in modern media, now says that he wants to distance himself from the left/right squabbles of cable news saying that “We’re not gonna play in that crazy space.” Apparently he has a whole new crazy space that he’d like to pioneer. But it’s hard to see where he would fit in the Libertarian realm. With his overtly evangelical appeals to religion, he is more aligned with theocracy than the secular oriented individualism of Libertarians. And after spending the last several years bashing liberals as “a cancer on America,” it’s unlikely that a rational, centrist audience is going to find him credible.

It is telling that Beck says that “I’m a lot closer to Penn Jillette than I am to Chuck Hagel.” So Beck is confessing that he is more like an entertainer whose specialty is to create illusions, than he is like a mainstream Republican legislator and veteran.

Beck has had so many public personalities it is difficult to keep track of them all. When the Tea Party was new Beck introduced his own version that he called the “912 Project.” Then he attempted to recruit followers to join his “Watchdogs.” Then he unveiled an ambitious bit of lunacy he called “The Plan,” a 100 year blueprint for the restoration of an America. Then there was his pitch for political activism, “In or Out 2010,” aimed at lobbying the politicians in Washington he had previously dismissed. And there was something he called the “Refounders,” an homage to America’s founding fathers whom he had elevated to the status of saints. And who could forget his “E4 Solution” that he promised would “chart a course boldly into the future.” All of these excursions were launched with a glorious fanfare, and all were later abandoned in the trash heap of discarded publicity stunts.

So now Beck is dressing up in new costume that, like all the rest, is designed to capture media attention and boost his publicity and bank account. If he is able to scare up any support from Libertarians, it will only be those of the most shallow (and gullible) variety who aren’t put off by his insistence that all rights are granted only by God, and that Armageddon is upon us so ye had better purchase over-priced gold coins from his sponsor. However a more likely scenario is that, when this scheme fails, he will ditch it and get out the trumpets to announce another re-invention in hopes of drawing in few more suckers.