Richard WarnickRodeo Clown Going Down
I’m going to admit up front I don’t watch Glenn Beck, the professional bigot, on CNN Headline News. I’m in good company, though– a lot of people don’t. His twice-nightly show’s ratings lag behind the competition on Fox News, CNN and MSBNC.
If you need an antidote to the recent Salt Lake Tribune puff piece, this post is for you. Beck claims to be targeted by a “leftist witch hunt.” What’s really happening is, CNN must realize they got a bad bargain when they cast aside all standards of journalistic fairness and hired this guy, who is failing to deliver good ratings. Anyone who wants to see a talking Bushbot can find better ones on Fox Noise Channel.
I highly recommend Eric Boehlert’s most recent column about Beck, who gives his occupation as “rodeo clown.”
Just months after being hyped as the fastest-growing prime-time program in cable news, Glenn Beck has become arguably the most stagnant prime-time program in cable news.
For CNN, the repercussions of the backslide are immense and go far beyond the advertising dollars and cents involved.
That’s because whereas CNN last year traded away its good name in exchange for debuting Beck’s factually challenged and hateful brand of broadcasting, at least CNN execs were getting a ratings boost out of the Faustian bargain. Today, Beck’s still making a mockery out of CNN’s reputation on a daily basis, as he disparages liberals, gays, Democrats, blacks, immigrants, and Muslims at will. But in return, CNN’s now stuck with a Beck program that’s trapped in neutral and shows signs of sliding into reverse.
Here are some lowlights of Beck’s nightly bigotry on CNN Headline News:
March 16th, 2006 - Glenn Beck says he will pay for a 7 year old’s ticket to “go to Africa” as long as she “signs a contract to never come back to the United States”. (the girls “crime” was writing a controversial poem about white oppression)
June 14th, 2006 - Glenn Beck says about Shanghai being underwater, “does anyone really care?”
July 21st, 2006 - Glenn Beck tells black people to “drop the Ebonics crap”
September 12th, 2006 - Glenn Beck says the middle east is being overrun by “10th century barbarians” and we will have to “nuke the whole place”.
November 15th, 2006 - Glenn Beck accuses first-ever Muslim congressman of working with our enemies.
February 12th, 2007 - Glenn Beck says Barack Obama is “colorless”, “very white”, and “might as well be white”.
On his radio show, Glenn Beck referred to survivors of Hurricane Katrina who remained in New Orleans as “scumbags.” Also, after acknowledging that nobody “in their right mind is going to say this out loud,” Beck attacked victims of the disaster in general and the families of victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, saying: “I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims.”
But Peggy Fletcher Stack of the Trib credits the “frank” and “bombastic” Beck as being, in effect, the Voice of God:
He sees global news as evidence that the end of the world is spiraling toward us and God is prompting him to speak out…. “Evil is taking root and it frightens me,” Beck said in a phone interview from his New York City studio.
How soon can we expect CNN to fire the rodeo clown and get his bull off the air?
May 17th, 2007 at 8:22 pm
And God said, “Let there be dialog, and there was, and it…” went on and on and on. Too much of a good thing can be ‘Evil’.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Glenn Beck can occasionally make a lot of sense, and then he can become a fool in an instant.
I think also it seems like radio personalities get caught up in their radio shtick and they aren’t often able to make the transition to the visual medium of television.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:23 am
Thanks for your matter of fact analysis of the biggest clown on any “news” program - cable or network. I join with you as one who doesn’t watch Glen’s show but I occasionally drop in for a few brief minutes while channel surfing. It is my understanding that Beck’s credentials include spending the first 30 years of his life as a self-admitted drug addict/alcoholic and then he found God (The LDS Church) and got his life straightened out.
As a devout Mormon myself, I’m glad that my church was instrumental in helping someone get on the right track. However, I am COMPLETELY dismayed that his idiotic ideolgy is associated with my church in any way. But that is another subject…
What I find myself wondering is how anyone with his lack of any credible journalistic credentials gets his own program on CNN? Do you just have to be some jerk with an opinion (informed or not) - think Sean Hannity - or do you have to have some other life experience or some training or education. What has he done to attract ANY attention from ANYBODY?
May 18th, 2007 at 10:38 am
What Beck does is not journalism. Like Rush, Hannity and the rest, they call themselves “entertainers” and “hosts” while acting like they have credibility and should be compared to real news gatherers. They get attention by saying and doing outrageous things- although Beck is the only one I know of claiming, apparently straight-faced, that he’s on a mission from God. Limbaugh’s drug addictions and recklessly untrue and libelous comments ultimately blow his cover. But his fans believe him regardless of his utter lack of credibility. Beck is probably more racist than Limbaugh given his comments about blacks, Muslims and other non-whites but his political affiliations are somewhat nebulous, unlike Rush and Sean. He’s there to get ratings, pure and simple. Rodeo clown is an apt characterization. Dangerous idiot is another.
May 18th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
It’s way past time television started providing entertainment by having interesting political shows with honest discussion instead of focusing on shock and blocking out views which differ from giant corporations and powerful politicians.
OK, I can dream…