Glenn Beck

Sign The DROP FOX Petition From Media Matters

Posted by on October 19, 2010 at 4:07 pm. 5 Comments :

Glenn Beck - There Will Be BloodMedia Matters is partnering with People for the American Way to apply some of that free market pressure on the companies who are sponsoring Glenn Beck’s crusade of terror.

Petition to tell major advertisers to DROP FOX!

This petition is in response to a recent event wherein a Beck fan, Byron Williams, was taken into custody after a shootout with police. Williams told the officers that he was on his way to kill people at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation after having been “informed” by Glenn Beck of their evil, un-American activities.

Subsequent to Williams’ arrest Beck has actually escalated his attacks on the Tides Foundation and others despite the obvious risk that his rhetoric poses. As David Brock of Media Matters says…

“Instead of recognizing the danger and taking appropriate action, Fox News is allowing and encouraging Beck’s violent rhetoric, abdicating the responsibility the public expects of a powerful broadcaster. That is why targeting Glenn Beck’s advertisers is no longer enough — we need to hold the entire network accountable.”

It is time to tell major advertisers to DROP FOX!

Please take a moment to sign the petition and then tell your friends. The campaign to get advertisers to stop placing ads on Beck’s show has been phenomenally successful with respect to persuading almost 300 advertisers to pull their ads. He is now sponsored by a motley crew of Gold peddlers, senior services, disaster profiteers, and other News Corp enterprises (who, of course, don’t pay).

However, there has not been much effect on Beck’s bosses at Fox News and News Corp who are arrogantly ignoring the voice of their viewers and their advertisers in order to persist in broadcasting irresponsible and dangerous content on their programs. That’s why it is so important now to make our voices heard in the upper floors of the Fox hierarchy. Don’t put it off. Sign the petition now. It could literally save lives.

Fox News Advertisers May Have Blood On Their Hands

Posted by on October 15, 2010 at 3:01 pm. 17 Comments :

The Mad BeckDrummond Pike, the founder and CEO of the Tides Foundation, wrote a letter to Fox News advertisers requesting that they withhold their ads from the network:

“I am writing to ask your company to take a simple step that may well save lives in the future. And it is not unimportant that taking this action will remove your company and its products from any connection to what could very likely be an unpleasant tragedy, should things remain as they are today. On behalf of my organization, and many others like it, I ask that you cease advertising on the Fox News Channel.”

This is a significant escalation from previous calls to withhold advertising from just Glenn Beck’s show. It is a much bolder strategy and long overdue. The wildly successful campaign by Color of Change and StopBeck has caused almost 300 companies to pull their ads from Beck. In the UK Beck has been running for eight months with ZERO ads, as all advertisers have abandoned the program.

However, none of this seems to have had much impact on Fox News and their decision to associate themselves with Beck. Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch have been unmoved by this demonstration of disgust for Beck’s hate mongering. It is, therefore, time to take it to the next level and demand that advertisers withhold their ads from all of Fox News and other News Corp enterprises. This letter by Pike is a good start that should inspire further action.

Pike is not a bystander in this debate. He was motivated to take this step as result of the constant hammering the Tides Foundation has endured from Beck. As a result of Beck’s dishonest and violent rhetoric, Pike and his staff nearly became victims of the inevitable result of such hostility. A Beck fan named Byron Williams was apprehended by police while he was on his way to kill people at Tides and the ACLU:

“Imagine, for a moment, that you were us and, had it not been for a sharp eyed highway patrolman, a heavily armed man in full body armor would have made it to your office with the intent to kill you and your colleagues. His motive? Apparently, it was because the charitable, nonpartisan programs we run are deemed part of a conspiracy to undermine America and the capitalist system, which is hogwash.”

Beck has not merely expressed a disagreement with Tides. He has attempted to associate it with a worldwide conspiracy against capitalism and freedom that includes ACORN, SEIU, health care reform, Eco-activists, Bill Ayres, George Soros, and of course, President Obama and his cadre of czars:

“Since his arrival at Fox in early 2009, Beck has repeatedly vilified Tides, suggesting we are intent on ‘creat[ing] a mass organization to seize power.’ He accuses the foundation of indoctrination and says we are ‘involved in some of the nastiest of the nasty.’ Beck tells viewers that Tides has ‘funneled’ money to ‘some of the most extreme groups on the left’ and that our mission is to ‘warp your children’s brains and make sure they know how evil capitalism is.’ In total, prior to the attempted rampage, Beck had attacked the Tides Foundation 29 times.”

There has been an enduring and sustained assault on people whom Beck regards as enemies of humanity. He calls them evil and associates them with Hitler and Stalin and Satan. He has called progressives a “cancer” that needs to be “cut out;” that they are vampires and that his viewers should “drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers.” He warns that his perceived enemies are deliberately going to fly the “plane” of state into the trees, and that they are “taking you to a place to be slaughtered.” He recently told his viewers that “violence is coming” and that there will be “nothing but ugly and destruction.”

And after all of this, Beck’s psychosis permits him to make disingenuous pleas for non-violence. In August of 2009, I wrote an article that noted how disconcerting it was that Beck has to so frequently admonish his congregation to refrain from violence. And if he is in a position to call on them to stand down, can he also order them to advance? But the main point I addressed is that Beck cannot be allowed to maintain that he is opposed to violence when he is inciting his disciples on a daily basis. It’s as if he were saying…

“HEY! There is a mob of rabid, pillaging, Satanists on their way to rape your daughters and kill the rest of you. It’s time to stand up and fight back against these hordes who threaten everything we hold dear. They have spit on your flag and blasphemed your God and now they are here for your honor and your lives. And, oh yeah, when they get here you should be ‘forceful, but peaceful’ with them. After all, I don’t believe in violence.”

Of course he doesn’t. He would never respond with force to an angry mob threatening him or his family. I wonder how then he would explain why he carries a gun with him when he goes to the movies. What does he intend to do with it? Would he use it on mugger even though he asserts that he would not use it on demonic hordes seeking to force America and the world into slavery?

These are deliberately mixed messages. Beck doesn’t want his words to result in him being blamed for instigating a violent revolution, although that’s precisely what his actions suggest he is doing. You simply can’t scare people into believing that they are being mortally threatened without expecting them to defend themselves. And this is something that Tides’ Pike recognizes when he concludes his letter by saying…

Starve the Beast

“The next ‘assassin’ may succeed, and if so, there will be blood on many hands. The choice is yours.”

It is now incumbent on all of us to require that the advertisers subsidizing Beck make that choice. The companies that pay for Beck’s divisive and destructive sermonizing, and the network that carries it, do not deserve our patronage. This is an argument I’ve been making for years (see Starve the Beast) and I am glad that the Tides Foundation is signing on, although I am saddened by the events that precipitated it.

[Update:] Media Matters has started a petition aimed at News Corp shareholders. Take a moment to sign it and then tell your friends. News Corp took a beating today at their shareholder meeting over the multimillion dollar donations to the GOP and the Chamber of Commerce.

Glenn Beck Pimps Chamber Of Commerce – Screws Tea Party

Posted by on October 14, 2010 at 3:47 pm. 9 Comments :

Fox News has lately been escalating their support for rightist, GOP candidates and causes. They have Sean Hannity and Dick Morris traveling around the country to stump for Republicans. They have Karl Rove raising tens of millions for GOP advertising. They even have prospective presidential candidates like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee on their payroll.

And now they have Glenn Beck pitching for the uber-rightist U.S. Chamber of Commerce (CoC). The same CoC that received $1 million from Beck’s boss Rupert Murdoch. The same CoC that is spending over $75 million in support of Republicans running for Congress.

On his radio program today, Beck announced that he was donating $10,000 to the CoC and urged his listeners to donate as well. He declared that he “would like to have this the largest day of fundraising for the Chamber of Commerce ever.” In his pitch he misinformed his audience saying that the US CoC was made up of the struggling local businesses that are downtown. That’s false. The US CoC is not affiliated with municipal CoCs around the country.

Beck’s pitch was largely based on the opposition to the CoC expressed by the administration. And if the administration is against it, well by golly, he’s fer it. However, the administration’s position is not really anti-CoC. It is against the solicitation of unlimited funds, some of which come from foreign entities, without disclosure. But Beck apparently is in favor of secret foreign enterprises influencing our domestic elections. He fervently expressed his affinity by saying that “They are us.”

Unless “us” are giant multinational corporations, I don’t think we are really them. What’s interesting about this appeal is that the CoC was a vocal supporter of some of the initiatives that Beck believes are destroying the country. The CoC backed the passage of the TARP legislation:

“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbied for the creation of the TARP program and continues to support efforts to improve the program to ensure its success.”

And in urging the Congress to pass the Stimulus Bill, the CoC said…

“The global economy is in uncharted and dangerous waters and inaction from Washington is not an option. No package of this size can be perfect but we need a bill that will unlock capital markets, free up credit, and create momentum in the economy.”

TARP and the Stimulus Bill have been castigated by Beck as socialism and Nazism and harbingers of a future of government domination and slavery. They have been the backbone of his delusional tirades against an administration that he is convinced is purposefully trying to bring the nation to ruin. They have been roundly rejected by the Tea Party crowd as evidence of government and business corruption. Yet Beck is now shelling out $10K (a pittance for him) to one of the biggest backers of these policies, and urging his congregants to cough up their hard-earned money as well. Why?

Because Beck is, and always has been, a shill for Republicans and the conservative agenda. He regularly uses his program to advance the campaigns of GOP candidates and never misses an opportunity to impugn a Democrat. His behavior is perfectly aligned with that of his employer, Fox News.

This solicitation on behalf of an organization of big business lobbyists is a slap in the face to his Tea Party followers. If they had the ability to conduct their own analysis they would be horrified at his dishonesty and manipulation. Good thing for him that most of them can’t think for themselves and will follow his advice like the blind and obedient disciples they are. Let’s just hope that the rest of the American populace is paying better attention and has more common sense.

The Metamorphosis Of Glenn Beck

Posted by on October 9, 2010 at 2:07 pm. 10 Comments :


Glenn Beck is being tested by God. He is undergoing a form of holy scrutiny to ascertain his devotion and commitment. A Baptism by fire. Why else would this humble servant of the Lord be subjected to the suffering and infirmity that he just announced to his disciples?

“I have been losing feeling in my hands and my feet.”

Hands and feet? Could this be the beginnings of the stigmata and the confirmation of his Messianic identity? Beck has also complained of problems affecting his vocal cords, the primary basis for his existence. And he has previously announced that his vision may be failing. He is literally coming apart at the seams. But fear not. He insists that this is not bad news:

“Things are changing and there is no bad news here. Because what I am feeling in myself, and what is happening to my physical body, to some extent, and what is happening to me mentally, is not a depression, is not a death. It is a transformation. It is a transcendence. It is a reaching out of the slime and pulling yourself out. So it is not bad news. It is just a transition period.”

Hallelujah. Beck hasn’t been arbitrarily struck with multiple maladies. He is simply transcending to a higher form. He is fundamentally transforming into a more powerful and omnipotent force. Should he succumb to these trials it will simply be a reassignment to the right hand of God. If he prevails and is cured, it will be just another miracle on the path to beatification.

Of course there is the other possibility – that God is pissed and is meting out his punishment. Deuteronomy 28:27-29 explains clearly what God will do to you if you fail to follow his laws:

27: The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
28: The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.
29: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

The emerods (or hemorrhoids) he has already had, and it nearly killed him. The potential blindness he announced earlier this year. The madness is self evident. And even his prosperity has suffered in that nearly 300 advertisers have refused to permit their ads to be run during his program.

If God isn’t smiting this sinner then S/He sure has a twisted sense of humor.

Glenn Beck Says Glenn Beck Devalues Humankind

Posted by on October 6, 2010 at 5:56 pm. 6 Comments :

In an epic rant about how progressives are plotting to engage in all manner of mischief if they don’t get what they want, Glenn Beck revealed something about himself that is far more enlightening than his routine delusional obsession with left-wing radicals.


Beck was rolling along in his customary panic-addled fashion, disinforming his viewers about environmentalists, whom he portrayed as so desperate to enact their planet-saving agenda that they would do anything, no matter how grotesque, to protect the Earth. The end justifies the means…Saul Alinsky…collapse the system…kill babies. Beck employed every scare tactic he has used in the past year for this one subject in order to imply that these treehuggers would stop at nothing.

Climate Change has been affirmed by hundreds of reputable scientists around the world. The evidence is voluminous. And the only opponents are those with political or business affiliations and other conflicts of interest. It is imperative that we alter our relationship with this planet if we hope to continue living on it. The reality of that perspective resulted in the production of some hard-hitting public service announcements in England that have sparked Beck’s outrage.

Whether or not these ads exceed the bounds of good taste is something people can decide for themselves. But Beck seems to be convinced that they represent a literal method of dealing with Climate Change deniers. He thinks the eco-terrorists are actually coming to blow you up. His fear of this leads him to castigate all environmentalists as murderous thugs whose extremism will necessarily result in atrocities.

BECK: If you literally believe the world is doomed unless we act, then you’ve devalued humankind.

Really? You mean like…..

“I don’t need to convince you that there are people intentionally destroying our country.”

“The rain is coming. I think you feel it in your gut. It is time to build an Ark. It is time to prepare yourself for some tough times.”

“You’re gonna see a black and white world, man, that is nothing but destruction and ugly.”

“Please, please America, don’t debate, don’t compromise on these things. […] They’re building a machine and they’re about to turn the darn thing on. You don’t compromise on your destruction.”

“Find the exit closest to you and prepare for a crash landing, because this plane is coming down, because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees. […] They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.”

“It is the eve of destruction in America.”

“If we don’t face the truth right now, we’ll be dead in five years; this country can’t survive.”

“This is about man’s freedom. This is it, gang. If we fail here the world is plunged into global darkness.”

These are just a few examples of Glenn Beck expressing his demented view that the world is doomed unless we act. He very specifically declares that destruction is on the horizon and that we must not only act, but we must do so without compromise. Therefore, by his own definition, he is devaluing humankind. And it should also be noted that the video above is an allegorical tale, while Beck’s admonitions of doom are delivered with utter seriousness.

The absurdity of Beck accusing others of fear mongering exposes a severe malfunction in his psychological profile. But to specifically criticize them for inventing doomsday scenarios of the very sort he has been mass producing for years goes beyond the scope of modern psychiatry to understand.

One Nation Working Together Till Election Day And Beyond

Posted by on October 3, 2010 at 3:47 pm. 16 Comments :

One NationWith the massive One Nation rally in DC over, the post-game analyses have been flying furiously around the media and Webosphere. It was clearly a successful event that served to energize progressive activists and demonstrate that the left is not cowering under the national basement.

However, most of the press is making the mistake of comparing One Nation to Glenn Beck’s Acute Paranoia Holy Rollover Revue. This is typical of the horse race mindset of the media that is incapable of putting information in context and making relevant evaluations.

Let me make this crystal clear: The purpose of One Nation was NOT to draw more people than BeckFest. That would have been a shallow and unproductive goal. The purpose was to motivate the activists and organizers who attended, as well as those who watched from afar, so that they would be more effective and engaged in these crucial final weeks before the midterm elections. It was also intended to demonstrate the commitment of progressives to maintaining the course of the past couple of election cycles and to show the media that not everyone out there is a Tea Bagger. There were several reasons why attendance was never meant to be the yardstick by which this event would be measured.

First of all, One Nation did not have the benefit of the highest rated cable “news” network (Fox News) pumping out promotions for the event day in and day out for six months. They didn’t even have the second highest rated cable news network (MSNBC). Only Ed Schultz made much of an effort to promote One Nation. And while he is a popular radio and TV talk show host, recent surveys show that 70% of the country have never heard of him. It would be absurd to suggest that he would have the same impact on marketing that Glenn Beck, Inc. would have (despite what Ed says about himself).

Secondly, the demographics of the audiences are not remotely similar. Beck’s audience is a much older and more affluent crowd. In fact, he has one of the oldest skewing programs in all of cable news, including a high percentage of retirees. That’s partially how he manages to produce such high ratings in the middle of the day when normal people are at work. His viewers as a group are far better able to afford a trip to the nation’s capitol. They also are more likely to have the spare time available for outings like these. The folks attending One Nation are more likely to be working people who cannot just take time off from their jobs and their families, and sink scarce funds into traveling.

Fox News GOP Tea PartyThirdly, the incentive to attend a rally often hinges on the celebrity star power of the event. While the speakers at One Nation were all fine people who are dedicated to positive change, there was no one with the fan base of Glenn Beck. His devotees regard him as a prophet whom they must follow with unquestioning allegiance. Plus he had help from the Queen Tea, Sarah Palin, who has her own bevy of believers. Can anyone honestly say that 8/28 would have drawn more than a handful of garden-clubbers in a Dodge Caravan if someone like Newt Gingrich was the headliner? For evidence of this look no further than the second annual 9/12 rally a couple of weeks ago that featured teen idols Dick Armey and Andrew Breitbart. They drew a crowd that barely exceed a triple-a ballgame, and far fewer than One Nation.

On a side note, Beck’s fabled popularity may have peaked. A report from New Jersey yesterday reveals that his appearance at the first of his “Restoring America” gigs was filled to only 10% of capacity. Perhaps the $50.00 tickets (or $125.00 for “VIP privileges”) suppressed demand enough to allow 90% of the seats to go unfilled.

The above notwithstanding, One Nation can be considered a roaring success if it achieves its goal of invigorating the electorate, recruiting volunteers, and turning out voters. The right has become fully invested in an outcome that requires them to take majority control of the House and Senate. If they do not, they can only be regarded as failures. That is their projection, not mine. It’s all they’ve talked about for weeks. Now they must be prepared to be judged by the standard they set.

The past few weeks have seen momentum shifting in the election nationwide. The right may be played out. The left are just getting warmed up. In order to close the deal we need to insure extraordinary turnout. So get involved and make the demagogues on the right eat substantial portions of crow. Organizations like MoveOn and Democracy for America are presently recruiting people for their GOTV projects. Call them, or a local Democratic campaign office, and be a part of something positive.

Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck UPDATE: Mickey Mouse Too

Posted by on October 3, 2010 at 9:33 am. 5 Comments :

Who knew that Disney was so far ahead of their time. This cartoon captures perfectly the manner in which Glenn Beck and his ilk employ lies and fear to indoctrinate their congregation of the feeble-minded. Plus, it is F@%KING HILARIOUS. Enjoy it before the Copyright Cops take it down.

And a shout out to its creator, Jonathan McIntosh at Rebellious Pixels.

The Mad BeckUpdate: This video is getting a lot of attention, as it deserves. There were about 6,000 views when I posted it, and now it is over 200,000 (I’m sure I’m responsible for most of that). People clearly enjoy satirizing Beck. There is plenty of material there to work with. I have been down that road myself (see Malice in Wonderland)

I think it’s interesting that it has been featured at both the Huffington Post and Fox Nation.

The Fox Nationalists are aghast that Beck is being parodied. Some are vowing to boycott Disney. Seriously, they think that Disney produced this. That’s the level of their intelligence. Others think the ending is an incitement to violence, particularly an incitement to harm Beck. Someone needs to tell them that radios are inanimate objects. And, oh yes, that cartoons are not the same as real life.

At HuffPo there is a more generally sane reaction. They have an appreciation for the quality of the work and, of course, the good humor. I’m just glad to see this getting some exposure.

Plus…..Beck responds. On his radio show Beck made a point of weaving his conspiratorial delusions around this video and its creator. He spun a tale that entwined the federal government, the National Endowment for the Arts, and even the White House. Of course, without a hint of evidence. His paranoia knows no bounds.

“It is some of the best, well made propaganda I have ever seen.” […]

“If I’m not mistaken, some of these remix videos – it’s very interesting – I believe get federal funding. I believe it was…one these things that he’s involved in was one of the first to receive federal funding. We’re looking into the funding of this gentleman and the incredible propaganda against me, like you’ve never seen. using Disney and Disney cartoons.”

Listen to the whole thing yourself. His tone of voice is ripe with disgust, and his inflection on words like “social justice” and “Chicago” fill them with foreboding. And now Mickey Mouse joins in the fray:

The “incredible propaganda” against Beck is a wonder to behold. But no more wondrous than the propaganda he spews everyday on his own. Watch your back, Jonathan. Beck is “looking into” you.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

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.

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).

Glenn Beck Admits He Disgusts Himself. He’s Not Alone

Posted by on September 30, 2010 at 4:15 pm. 3 Comments :

In a new profile of Glenn Beck for the New York Times, Beck summarizes how most of America feels about him:

“You get to a place where you disgust yourself…Where you realize what a weak, pathetic and despicable person you have become.”

It’s about time. The article, by Mark Leibovich, is an in-depth examination of the Fox News prophet of paranoia. It covers a fair bit of ground personally as well some highlights (and lowlights) of his professional career. As for the causes of Beck’s self-hatred, there is sufficient justification for it in his past behavior:

“He was in therapy with ‘Dr. Jack Daniels.’ He smoked marijuana every day for about 15 years. He fired an underling for bringing him the wrong pen. And, according to a Salon.com report, he once called the wife of a radio rival to ridicule her – on the air – about her recent miscarriage.”

Now it’s bad enough that he was an abuser of drugs and alcohol, and a world class jerk who didn’t care about anyone but himself, but those things occurred during a difficult time in his life and prior to his having entered rehab and finding God. So let’s give him the benefit of a doubt and take a look at how sobriety and religion changed him and how he mellowed to merely…

“…joking about poisoning the speaker of the house or talking about choking the life out of a filmmaker or fantasizing about beating a congressman ‘to death with a shovel’ (as Beck did for Nancy Pelosi, Michael Moore and Charles Rangel, respectively).”

I think I liked him better when he was tokin’ doobies. At least none of his delusions invoked bloody murders. Also since his “recovery” he has embarked on a non-stop campaign to convince his followers that President Obama and a phalanx of progressives are amassing to destroy America, revoke all freedom, confiscate every penny you earn, defile your daughters, rebuke your Lord, and otherwise end civilization as we know it. Then, after making the case for how these heathens are plotting to unleash a millennium of evil, he softly interjects that their Satanic onslaught should not be met with violence. But nevertheless, you must not allow them to get away with it. And thank God for the Second Amendment.

Mixed signals? Not really. Beck knows very well that his disciples will take up arms to defend themselves against the Hellish regime of slavery that he prophesies. Who wouldn’t if they really believed that was imminent?

Glenn Beck

The ramifications of Beck’s rhetoric stretch ominously into Apocalyptic territory. His rants run the gamut from political extremism to fanatical, pseudo-evangelistic cultism. More often than not he makes no sense at all, but that hardly matters. His audience can read between the lines, as he once begged them to do:

“[I]f you hear me stop saying these things, it’s because I can no longer say them to you. But hear them between the sentences. Hear them, please. I will be screaming them to you.”

It’s that sort of madness that has many wondering if Beck is doing more harm than good (including Beck who wrote that very question in an email to Sarah Palin). It isn’t just liberals who are wondering this. According to the article in the Times Beck’s raving is causing some consternation amongst many conservatives and even his colleagues at Fox:

“Several Fox News journalists have complained that Beck’s antics are embarrassing Fox, that his inflammatory rhetoric makes it difficult for the network to present itself as a legitimate news outlet. Fearful that Beck was becoming the perceived face of Fox News, some network insiders leaked their dissatisfaction in March to The Washington Post’s media critic, Howard Kurtz, a highly unusual breach at a place where complaints of internal strains rarely go public.”

This is nothing new. In recent months former Foxies have been all too willing speak up. Jane Hall, an associate professor in the School of Communication at American University, and a Fox News contributor, quit Fox in part because of Beck. Eric Burns, the former anchor of Fox News Watch told the press that he is grateful that he no longer has to “face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.” And it isn’t just jealous on-air competitors. The Times went on to reveal that Beck’s bosses are also having second thoughts:

“The cross-promotion can be a sore spot at Fox News, particularly for its president, Roger Ailes, who has complained about Beck’s hawking his non-Fox ventures too much on his Fox show.” […]

[Ailes has] been vocal around the network about how Beck does not fully appreciate the degree to which Fox News has made him the sensation he has become in recent months. In the days following Beck’s Lincoln Memorial rally, which by Beck’s estimate drew a half-million people, Ailes told associates that if Beck were still at Headline News, there would have been 30 people on the Mall.”

While Ailes is a potentially dangerous enemy, he has enemies of his own. Members of Rupert Murdoch’s family, who will inherit his media empire, have not been shy about their distaste for the programming style of Ailes. Murdoch’s son-in-law publicly said that he was ashamed and sickened by Ailes.

In all likelihood, Beck probably feels that he can afford to weather these storms. He sees himself as a messenger from God with a congregation of devotees who will support him and, if necessary, avenge him. Fox would be treading on thin ice if they contemplated canceling his show. This is one of those situations where Beck would have to be caught with either a dead girl or a live boy before he could be cast off. In this case we can add any connection to the sort of acts of domestic terrorism that his outrage inspires.

So even though Beck disgusts you, and me, and his fellow hosts, and his bosses, and even himself, he is going to have to slip up pretty bad to lose his perch.