My blog, Progressive Eruptions, has written about conservative, self-identified "recovering dirt bag" , Glenn Beck, and his crazy rants that were featured every night on FAUX NOOZ.
Now, in a cynical attempt to sound penitent (for gawd only knows what financial advantage) he admits that his harangues and histrionics were divisive and that they tore the country apart.
Beck is a phony.
Always was and always will be. I remember listening to his corrosive screeds on AM radio when I lived in Florida. I never thought a blathering nincompoop like him would ever attract a national audience.
But, FAUX NOOZ.
That cable station gave him a platform to spread his idiotic conspiracy tirades to galaxies of unthinking zombies.
Now he's sorry.
Cry me a "you-know-what-kind-of-" river, Glenn. Now go away. And stay there.
"Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, now an older and wiser and richer man, told Fox News' Megyn Kelly on Tuesday that he regrets having "played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart" during his tenure with the network. Beck was with Fox from shortly before the 2008 election until 2011, during which time he became notorious for his encouragement of the Tea Party and his far-reaching conspiracy theories about Socialist infiltration of the Obama administration. Or, as Kelly put it in introducing Beck for her interview, Glenn "had a very successful run here at Fox News, but also became a bit of a lightning rod."
A bit! It was indeed a successful run for the parent company — until Beck's assertion that President Obama was racist and had "a deep-seated hatred for white people" prompted advertisers to pull spots from his program.
(Later, religious groups objected to Beck's claims that social justice work was associated with Nazism.)
But now Beck sees the errors of his ways, understands that these excoriations weren't helpful (like when a guy who'd heard Beck's repeated attacks on the non-profit Tides Foundation was arrested on his way to shooting the place up)."
Some citizens of Cephalopodia (Shaw is one) may recall this letter. I wrote this letter three years ago to pressure Fox News into pulling the plug on Glenn Beck. Please consider it in the public domain and feel free to copy and use it in the event this creep raises his ugly head again:
ReplyDeleteRoger Ailes
Chairman and CEO, Fox News Channel
News Corporation
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036
(Date)
Dear Mr. Ailes:
After the shooting rampage in Tucson that left six people dead and thirteen injured, you offered this appeal for civility: “I told all of our guys, shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually. You don’t have to do it with bombast.”
Weeks after Tucson, nothing has changed. Glenn Beck has turned up the volume on partisan hate speech. The poisoned atmosphere unleashed by Glenn Beck means any citizen - Democrat, Independent, or Republican - can be defamed in public and targeted for persecution. Beck’s messages provoke unstable persons to act on impulse, and events have shown that violent rhetoric leads to violent acts:
Prison Term for Man Who Threatened Speaker Pelosi
(Mother of Accused Man Blames Fox News);
Renowned Professor Terrorized After Glenn Beck Broadcasts;
League of Women Voters Targeted by Glenn Beck Fans;
Two California Highway Patrolmen Shot by Glenn Beck Fan;
Three Pittsburgh Policemen Killed by Glenn Beck Follower.
There is no plausible deniability that can wipe the blood off Beck’s hands or absolve the Fox News Channel of responsibility for reckless incitement. Shooting sprees, murder, malicious defamations and infamous provocations … these have no place in a free society. When toxic television threatens public safety, all citizens of all persuasions have grounds for alarm.
Glenn Beck has crossed boundaries that should never be crossed. It is time to pull the plug on the Glenn Beck Show before more people are terrorized, injured and killed.
Sincerely yours,
(signature)
The letter is short enough to fit on a single page (word count=265).
Personally I think you give "The Power of Beck" more umph shall we say than is reality. But what do I, the inconsistent, always questioning. anti-authoritarian, anti-party affiliation, pro liberty, reasonable free speech, 2'nd amendent advocate, reasonable firearm regulations, etc. guy know?
ReplyDeleteWhat's wrong with "anti-authoritarian, anti-party affiliation, pro liberty, reasonable free speech, 2'nd amendent advocate, reasonable firearm regulations ...?"
ReplyDeleteSounds OK to me. Sometimes a little feedback improves the blogging experience.
Well gosh (O)CT(O)PUS, guess I should have spelled it out sooner. But I thought you knew. I suppose I let it fall into the "assume" file. Just proves the old saying about assume is valid I suppose.
ReplyDeleteSometimes a little affirmation improves the blogging experience.
DeleteWell here am with the mountains of Cuba a few miles off the starboard bow, headed for Florida. I almost forgot what a hell hole I'm coming back to all too soon. Saw a huge Moray yesterday, sticking his head out of a hole in the reef off Cozumel. Looked just like a green Glenn Beck -- only the eel has an excuse for it.
ReplyDeleteCapt. Fogg
Bon vacance, Monsieur Captain! Reminds me of an old song:
DeleteWhen the moon hits your eye [... skip ... ] that's a moray."
Nothing new here - same old fish boil.
I suppose I've long thought of that fellow as proof that for many people, "ideas" are nothing more than feelings (read: biases, fears, etc.) masked over with a thin veneer of something or other: when someone comes along and states their quarter-baked, tenth-witted "ideas" a bit better than they can and with a flair for the entertainment value of the thing, they go for the show in a big way. Wild conspiracy theories, nasty rants, visions of the librul-zombie apocalypse, and so forth are best-sellers. So are "true confessions" (sincere or otherwise; it may not matter much) of just how wrong one was to engage in such things. Any way you look at it, the purveyor does pretty well.
ReplyDelete“the purveyor does pretty well”
DeleteHere’s the challenge: How to capitalize on outrage and still remain ethical. Oh! Wait! That’s what we do here, but there’s no money in it (and we give it away to Google for nothing). Anyone have a more lucrative idea?