TW: Not sure which one is worse but they both represent the depth to which American media has fallen.
Showing posts with label Glenn Beck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenn Beck. Show all posts
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Opposition v. Bombast
TW: Republican moderate David Frum has been engaged in an online debate with a less moderate conservative David Horowitz relative to the value and impact of Beck and other firebrand populists. As you know I think the Frums of their party make more sense than the Becks wing.
From David Frum at the New Majority blog:
"...Beck is very different even from Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. I’ve crossed swords with these other broadcasters for other reasons. I believe that their rage and extremism repel more supporters than they attract. But at least these broadcasters do know a lot about politics and hold considered and coherent worldviews. Beck, by contrast, is a random walk, capable of reaching any outcome...
You challenge me to notice that the “embarrassments to our cause – the shrill, the enraged and the paranoid – who in your mind – seem to be Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and now Glenn Beck” are also our “most powerful and feared and charismatic conservatives.”
I challenge you to notice that all three of these people repel and offend many millions more Americans than they inspire and attract.
Look at the impact of this kind of politics on the three points I itemize above.
(1) If we accept that conservatism will remain a politics that is unacceptable to the young, the urban, and the educated, we will have great difficulty raising the resources and finding the volunteers to fight a recount battle on anything like equal terms. Jon Stewart’s audience will sleep on the floor, five to a room, through an Iowa winter. The Fox audience won’t and can’t.
(2) We lost in 2008 in large part because we had not governed successfully over the previous eight years. More than political tactics, more even than media, what matters in politics is results. If national incomes had grown by 1% a year under George Bush instead of stagnating, Al Franken would have lost in a landslide. Populists like Sarah Palin may excite a TV audience, but they cannot govern. They don’t like it and are not good at it. (That’s why Sarah Palin did not even complete one term in office, let alone run for a second.) Limbaugh and Beck style politics can gain ratings. It will not win re-elections...
I speak out against people like Palin, Limbaugh and Beck because in my estimation they do enormous harm to the causes in which I believe. In my view, the talk-and-Fox complex marginalizes Republicans – and backs us into demagogic and unsustainable political positions.
David, do you really want to abolish the Federal Reserve? Do you think the United States should have allowed Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other banks to follow Lehman into bankruptcy in October 2008? Do you think that any cuts to Medicare amount to a death panel for grandma? Do you think we can sustain an adequate military – never mind finance future tax reductions – if we allow healthcare to continue rising from its current 16% of GDP to a projected 20% of GDP a decade from now if nothing changes?
I can’t believe you do. And if you don’t believe these things, is it not dangerous to have talk-and Fox whipping a couple of million conservatives into frenzy over things that are not true?
... I believe that their ratings and advertising imperatives are pushing them in a direction fundamentally antithetical to the electoral and governance imperatives of the GOP and the conservative movement..."
http://www.newmajority.com/scorched-earth-conservatives
From David Frum at the New Majority blog:
"...Beck is very different even from Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. I’ve crossed swords with these other broadcasters for other reasons. I believe that their rage and extremism repel more supporters than they attract. But at least these broadcasters do know a lot about politics and hold considered and coherent worldviews. Beck, by contrast, is a random walk, capable of reaching any outcome...
You challenge me to notice that the “embarrassments to our cause – the shrill, the enraged and the paranoid – who in your mind – seem to be Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh and now Glenn Beck” are also our “most powerful and feared and charismatic conservatives.”
I challenge you to notice that all three of these people repel and offend many millions more Americans than they inspire and attract.
Look at the impact of this kind of politics on the three points I itemize above.
(1) If we accept that conservatism will remain a politics that is unacceptable to the young, the urban, and the educated, we will have great difficulty raising the resources and finding the volunteers to fight a recount battle on anything like equal terms. Jon Stewart’s audience will sleep on the floor, five to a room, through an Iowa winter. The Fox audience won’t and can’t.
(2) We lost in 2008 in large part because we had not governed successfully over the previous eight years. More than political tactics, more even than media, what matters in politics is results. If national incomes had grown by 1% a year under George Bush instead of stagnating, Al Franken would have lost in a landslide. Populists like Sarah Palin may excite a TV audience, but they cannot govern. They don’t like it and are not good at it. (That’s why Sarah Palin did not even complete one term in office, let alone run for a second.) Limbaugh and Beck style politics can gain ratings. It will not win re-elections...
I speak out against people like Palin, Limbaugh and Beck because in my estimation they do enormous harm to the causes in which I believe. In my view, the talk-and-Fox complex marginalizes Republicans – and backs us into demagogic and unsustainable political positions.
David, do you really want to abolish the Federal Reserve? Do you think the United States should have allowed Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other banks to follow Lehman into bankruptcy in October 2008? Do you think that any cuts to Medicare amount to a death panel for grandma? Do you think we can sustain an adequate military – never mind finance future tax reductions – if we allow healthcare to continue rising from its current 16% of GDP to a projected 20% of GDP a decade from now if nothing changes?
I can’t believe you do. And if you don’t believe these things, is it not dangerous to have talk-and Fox whipping a couple of million conservatives into frenzy over things that are not true?
... I believe that their ratings and advertising imperatives are pushing them in a direction fundamentally antithetical to the electoral and governance imperatives of the GOP and the conservative movement..."
http://www.newmajority.com/scorched-earth-conservatives
Sunday, September 13, 2009
McCarthy Resurgent...
TW: Obviously the kid is not that old maybe 12-14 so he is primarily spouting his parent's ignorance. But folks really need to do some history work on Facism, Communism, Racism, Treason, and most of all McCarthyism. McCarthy was American and very real. For decades he and his disgraceful methods were considered largely beyond the pale. Apparently amongst a certain strain of Republicans, he is making a comeback. They believe Joe McCarthy was a national hero. McCarthy embodied a level of populist paranoia which did great harm to the United States. He was the Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck of his day and arguably less damagingIn the mean time until and unless the Republican leadership instead of embracing this stuff, distances themselves I would really ask folks to consider whether the Republicans provide legitimate opposition.
The Democrats need help, their legislation could use some tweaking (sometimes more than that) but this stuff is ridiculous. Folks will try to say well there are and were especially during the W. Bush years shrill lefty opposition. True. But for the most part they were contained on the fringe. I could have walked over to Union Square in Manhattan (and did for amusement) and found signs somewhat akin to the above relative to W. Bush (less some of the obvious comparative nazi-McCarthy-commie inconsistencies).
What one would not have found were mainstream Democratic party leaders embracing the Union Square attitudes. Joe Wilson is now a cause celebre within the party for calling the POTUS a liar during a national address. His fellow South Carolinian Republican Senator Jim Demint describing the crowd:
"This is not some kind of radical right-wing group. I just hope the Congress, the Senate and the president recognize that people are afraid of what’s going on"
Some Republicans like David Frum and Mark McKinnon are denouncing Wilson and Glenn Beck publically and without equivocation but they are few and far between and they are not elected. Not one potential 2012 Republican POTUS nominee has made anything approaching a strong stand against this paranoid movement.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Creating an Alternative Reality
TW: The recent shootings create plenty of opportunity for demagoguery from the left. I will not head down the path of extrapolating the behavior of depraved individuals other than to say if one can isolate their behavior to "individuals" then presumably much "jihadist" behavior can as well, no? Or if not then why not them but the far-right wingers yes?
My point though relates to Fox News and more broadly the right-wing cocoon perpetuated by Fox and others. Charles Krauthammer received an award the other night from Rupert Murdoch for "political commentary" excellence, in his acceptance Krauthammer made remarks which were taken out of context I thought by progressives. Many quoted the part about "alternative reality" as if Krauthammer was critical of Fox, in truth he was being complementary. Here is a longer quotation:
"In that respect, there should be a special award for Fox News. Fox has done a great service to the American polity -- single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliche) over the broadcast media.
"I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.
"What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality."
Putting aside alleged lefty bias in the media to which Krauthammer refers (a huge canard from my perspective but that is for another day), I think Krauthammer is spot on that Fox and others are enabling an alternative reality. A very harmful and wrong-headed alternative reality. The truth is a pliable concept when folks are built up to be respectable sources of information then begin perpetuate ignorance and illogic, their viewers are lead down the path towards ignorance and illogic. A network that features absolute crackpots like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and then backstops them with "fair and balanced" Orwellian journalism from the likes of Krauthammer and Bill Kristol and Neil Cavuto the world gets topsy-turvy where up is down and down is up. Shepard Smith makes unsurprising comment and gets pilloried. Glenn Beck manages to turn a Nazi walking into a Holocaust museum and shooting an African-American guard into a left-wing conspiracy. Who are "they" anyway?
Exhibit A:
When anybody on Fox leaves the rails they are pilloried. Shepard Smith states an obvious point and gets this and this treatment.
Exhibit B:
Glenn Beck of course is the poster child for a certain segment of the right-wing:
My point though relates to Fox News and more broadly the right-wing cocoon perpetuated by Fox and others. Charles Krauthammer received an award the other night from Rupert Murdoch for "political commentary" excellence, in his acceptance Krauthammer made remarks which were taken out of context I thought by progressives. Many quoted the part about "alternative reality" as if Krauthammer was critical of Fox, in truth he was being complementary. Here is a longer quotation:
"In that respect, there should be a special award for Fox News. Fox has done a great service to the American polity -- single-handedly breaking up the intellectual and ideological monopoly that for decades exerted hegemony (to use a favorite lefty cliche) over the broadcast media.
"I said some years ago that the genius of Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes was to have discovered a niche market in American broadcasting -- half the American people. The reason Fox News has thrived and grown is because it offers a vibrant and honest alternative to those who could not abide yet another day of the news delivered to them beneath layer after layer of often undisguised liberalism.
"What Fox did is not just create a venue for alternative opinion. It created an alternate reality."
Putting aside alleged lefty bias in the media to which Krauthammer refers (a huge canard from my perspective but that is for another day), I think Krauthammer is spot on that Fox and others are enabling an alternative reality. A very harmful and wrong-headed alternative reality. The truth is a pliable concept when folks are built up to be respectable sources of information then begin perpetuate ignorance and illogic, their viewers are lead down the path towards ignorance and illogic. A network that features absolute crackpots like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and then backstops them with "fair and balanced" Orwellian journalism from the likes of Krauthammer and Bill Kristol and Neil Cavuto the world gets topsy-turvy where up is down and down is up. Shepard Smith makes unsurprising comment and gets pilloried. Glenn Beck manages to turn a Nazi walking into a Holocaust museum and shooting an African-American guard into a left-wing conspiracy. Who are "they" anyway?
Exhibit A:
When anybody on Fox leaves the rails they are pilloried. Shepard Smith states an obvious point and gets this and this treatment.
Exhibit B:
Glenn Beck of course is the poster child for a certain segment of the right-wing:
Friday, April 3, 2009
Colbert Shreds Beck
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The 10/31 Project | ||||
| ||||
TW: I repeat as long as Fox carries Glenn Beck they are not a serious news organization. To the extent people believe Beck then they are fools.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Comedy Central: A Bastion Of Sanity
TW: You may recall this video of the rabid fool, Glenn Beck. Thankfully we have Comedy Central, in this case Colbert, to put Beck in perspective. Things are challenging the Glenn Beck's of the world only make them worse. That he is achieving strong ratings speaks more about Americans than Glenn Beck.
From LA Times:
"Before Glenn Beck started his new show on Fox News in January, he sat down with Roger Ailes, the network's chief executive, to make sure they were on the same page.
"I wanted to meet with Roger and tell him, 'You may not want to put me on the air. I believe we are in dire trouble, and I will never shut up,' " said the conservative radio host.
But before Beck could say anything, Ailes shared a message of his own: The country faced tough times, he said, and Fox News was one of the only news outlets willing to challenge the new administration.
I see this as the Alamo," Ailes said, according to Beck. "If I just had somebody who was willing to sit on the other side of the camera until the last shot is fired, we'd be fine."
Beck's indignant critiques of the Obama administration and gloomy outlook on the nation's financial health have found near-instant resonance. His eponymous 2 p.m. PST program averaged nearly 2.2 million viewers last month -- double the number the time slot attracted the previous February and a remarkable amount for the afternoon. That made "Glenn Beck" the third most-watched program in all of cable news for the month, after Bill O'Reilly's and Sean Hannity's evening shows..."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-foxnews6-2009mar06,0,5964042,full.story
Monday, February 23, 2009
Economic Pornography
TW: Not surprisingly I find Glenn Beck repulsive. But he has anchored prominent shows now on two separate major networks, CNN and now Fox. This recent clip to me is the height of irresponsibility and speaks to the depths MSM will sink in pursuit of ratings. Does he represent a segment of our population, probably. A segment we would want governing our nation, I sure hope not.
Btw, the Steven Roach character puking about 90% tax rates works for the Wall Street Journal and appears regularly on CNBC. My guess is his brilliant analysis assumes to trying to pay down all the recent expenditures over a very short time period as opposed to over many years which will be the case (just like we paid for WWII etc.). Mike Scheuer is a very controversial former CIA analyst aligned with Ron Paul.
The gap between certain conservatives and quackery is narrowing.
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