Glenn Beck's Conspiracy Theories

Beck lost me months ago and this interview is why.



Let's follow along. First, we have the now infamous comment by President Obama that he's looking to "kick ass". From this, Beck moves that comment to a conference in D.C. by the name of America's Future Now. One of the speakers at this conference just happened to be Beck's favorite whipping boy Van Jones.

Now, what Beck is saying is that Obama's comment was a code from him to this conference that the progressive revolution is coming. Talk about a conspiracy theory. That's something. Unfortunately, it's not much different from what Beck does on a regular basis. He constantly makes connections between folks like Mao and Stalin to historical American progressives like Woodrow Wilson and then ties it to the administration. Then, he brings out the most easily demonized figures to act as the face of the administration. That's why he's so obsessed with Jones. Jones is the easiest to mock and demonize.

Beck isn't the first conspiracist. There's been plenty before him. What is mystifying is how he's so popular. This is truly off the charts kooky. It's not rooted in any reality and yet he can get nearly five million people to watch him daily. This sort of thing used to be referred to as propaganda. Now, it's the highest rated show on cable news.

Beck is really nothing more than a stylized and entertaining conspiracy theorist and propagandist. After all, both go together. He believes the progressives are out to destroy America. Every day he attempts to prove it. That's it. That's his whole show. That's why I got bored and stopped watching. Yet, the same people now considered Beck's biggest fans were up in arms whenever conspiracy theories like this would link Bush to Halliburton.

Yet, he's a phenomenon. Why? Are people really saying that this isn't total nonsense? The president of the United States of America came on national television and sent a coded message to an obscure conference. He told them the progressive revolution is coming.

That's tin foil hat stuff. That's the sort of thing that a fringe group can get excited about. Yet, not only does he have a show on the biggest cable news network in history. He has a very successful show. It's a phenomenon like no other. Millions of people come daily so that Beck can spout conspiracy theories about how President Obama is getting together with obscure progressive groups to take over the world.

Usually, its' the sort of thing that the mainstream laughs at. In this case, Beck wound up as one of the most fascinating people in the world.

Glenn Beck the Propagandist

If you've watched Glenn Beck more than once, you've probably seen this clip.



and this one...



and that one...

Those are three clips of several that Glenn Beck hasn't merely become fond of but is simply obsessed with. In fact, those clips are a few tools in a set of themes. From ACORN to La Raza, all of these are hammered at over and over to create a narrative. Mao, Stalin, Alinsky, and ACORN are all part of this narrative. Even Beck's frequent allusions to history are part of the narrative. How often has Beck demonized Teddy Roosevelt as America's first progressive? That Jones clip is meant to provide evidence: progressives have overrun the White House and they're going to transform America by wealth redistribution. It's a theme he hammers over and over.

Beck was on O'Reilly several months ago talking about how we're all fixated on ACORN while Dale and Wade Rathke are making their getaway and everyone is ignoring them. Since, he's paid no attention to either all while being fixated on ACORN. Why? It's because what Wade Rathke is doing now has little do with Obama themes. Rathke is running an international organization doing much of its work outside the U.S. Meanwhile, what ACORN represents is very relevant to the narrative that Beck is building.

Health care, cap and trade, and financial reform are all hammered at through a prism. The prism is a theme that Beck has created and then he uses his show to hammer at this theme. He comes back to them over and over.

Now, before anyone tries and argue with me. I'm not saying he's wrong. That isn't my point. I'm saying he's boring. Once I noticed that Beck wasn't going to stop using that Jones clip, I was through. I don't like propaganda. It's boring. He's running the same show over and over. He's built an audience which means he's good at propaganda. He's still a propagandist and that's why I don't watch.

Obama Asks to Tone Down Rhetoric

As the Church Lady used to say, "how convenient".

In an interview with Harry Smith on CBS' "Early Show" Friday morning, President Obama called out Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as purveyors of "vitriol" - creating a climate in which he's called a "socialist" and even a "Nazi."

Smith asked the president if he was "aware of the level of enmity that crosses the airwaves and that people have made part of their daily conversation about you." Obama replied, "When you've listened to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck it's pretty apparent." The rancor is "troublesome," he said, but he acknowledged it's also a recurring phenomenon.

There's really nothing new here. Both Beck and Limbaugh are frequent targets of the president. This is also the same president that accused his opponents of single handedly putting the country on the brink of total collapse. He continues to blame the previous administration for every problem, and yet he also wants us to tone down the partisan rancor.

People often see the faults of their opponents than their allies. That's the only reason that the president believes that Beck and Limbaugh are responsible for the amped up rhetoric and not someone like Daily Kos and Keith Olbermann.

The president also continues to want it both ways. He never misses an opportunity to zing his opponents and now he says he's concerned about the rhetoric. How convenient.

A Defense of Massa

Former Congressman Eric Massa's appearance on Beck has been nearly universally mocked and ridiculed.

Fox News host Glenn Beck apologized to his viewers for “wasting your time” Tuesday after an interview in which former New York Rep. Eric Massa seemingly backtracked on his allegations that he was forced to resign over his opposition to Obamacare.

“We learned a lot I think, but what we learned I don’t think affects you at all,” Beck said, shaking his head and laughing at the conclusion of his hour-long interview with Massa, who resigned his office Monday after it became public that he was the subject of a House ethics committee investigation for possible harassment.

Staring into the camera after Massa seemingly contradicted himself on many points and refused to disclose any alleged corruption Beck suggested he had promised to disclose in a private pre-interview phone call, the conservative host apologized.

Beck himself apologized to his audience for wasting their time. I, personally, found this statement to be fairly arrogant on Beck's part. He's spent the better part of the last six months convincing his audience that progressivism is the scourge of the country. It's something near a broken record with him and so it's unclear what a loyal watcher is learning given that Beck is running through the same theme over and over.

The time line, according to Massa, was this. Initially, he announced that he wasn't seeking a second term because of his cancer. Then, upon realizing he was being investigated, Massa decided to resign. Then, he went on the radio to say that Democratic leadership was trying to force him out because he was going to vote against health care reform.

Then, on Beck, Massa took full responsibility for resigning. So, everyone called this a trackback. Maybe, it is however theree can also be a certain logic to all this as well. Massa may in fact realize that he's done things that are unacceptable, and he may also see the Democrats going after him because they want him gone. Massa is retired military and that attitude might make him expect more of himself. It doesn't sound as though we've heard anything that would necessarily rise to the level of an offense you'd have to quit over. After all, nearly one hundred members of Congress have credit so shot they can't get a credit card. Some inappropriate behavior toward your staff seems to be normal Congressional behavior.

So, maybe, Massa expected more of himself. At the same time, he may have seen that the Democrats were going after especially hard even though there's all sorts of nonsense going on. What I don't understand is what Beck expected of the interview? Massa said that there won't be any real reform unless there's campaign finance reform. Instead of expanding on that, Beck mocked the answer. I don't know what answer he wanted from Massa but he should have explored the answer he was given.

Massa has certainly humiliated himself over the last few weeks. He's a broken person with little credibility. Still, I don't think the problem was his interview with Beck.

Glenn Beck: Are You Serious

Van Jones received an award from the NAACP and he addressed the constant attacks he's received from Glenn Beck like this.

I see you, and I love you, brother,” Mr. Jones said. “I love you and you cannot do anything about it. I love you and you cannot do anything about it. Let’s be one country. Let’s be one country. Let’s get the job done.”

Here's how Beck responded.

I appreciate the fact that you love me. And as my eternal brother, I love you as well. Now, it’s never been a personal thing and I’m not sure why you’re trying to make it a personal issue. But it’s not a personal thing. It never has been. I was somebody who didn’t want you fired.

Beck has got to be kidding. It isn't personal. Put yourself in the shoes of Van Jones. I'd say it's personal from his perspective. For the last nearly half year Beck has used every opportunity on his show to make Jones the symbol of everything wrong with the administration, our political thought, and the direction of the country.

Jones has long been gone from the administration but that hasn't stopped Beck from attacking him mercilessly. Now, Beck says it's not personal. That's easy for Beck. After all, he's the one attacking. Maybe, he doesn't mean to make it personal. From the position of the attacked, it's much easier to make it personal. If Beck wants to make Jones the symbol for everything that's wrong in America, that's his right. To pretend that such a sustained and vicious attack on Jones isn't personal is laughable, insulting and the sort of patronizing nonsense that Beck would rail against if someone else were doing it. Hopefully, someone on the right has the courage to call out Beck's absurd and insulting position. This is personal Mr. Beck. You've made it personal. You may not have meant to do it but you did. Don't insult everyone's intelligence.

The Obama/ACORN Video

The conservatives are having a field day with this one.


In reality, the president isn't saying much here that is all that shocking. Of course, he has worked on campaigns that ACORN also worked on. They both were part of the same radical area in Hyde Park in Chicago. Of course, they worked on the same campaigns. They all worked on the same campaigns.

I always said that ACORN was a piece of a largely far left/radical puzzle that defined Obama's political and professional upbringing. I just always felt that there wasn't a smoking gun for a nefarious relationship. This video certainly isn't that.

Still, the optics here look terrible. First, Obama has downplayed his own involvement with ACORN. Second, ACORN's brand is worse than the Tiger Woods' brand right now. So, for those reasons, this video will have some staying power. Watch for this video to become part of a loop on Beck.

The Fringe Media

Glenn Beck has really had it with the MSM. He's so fed up that he's now calling them the fringe media. Now, if it were easy to change my tags, I would change them all, but I will continue to use the tag of the MSM. Still, the fringe media is an apt title for them. Just think about the important stories of the day and then think about what the fringe media is covering and how the cover it.



The ACORN story was, for several days, not even covered by the MSM. We all know about Charlie Gibson's infamous answer to Don Wade and Roma when they asked him about the story. Gibson sheepishly admitted he hadn't even heard about the videotapes. Then, when the fringe media did begin to cover it, they tried to turn the story into the two reporters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles.

But it took amateur actors, posing as a prostitute and a pimp and recorded on hidden cameras in visits to Acorn offices, to send government officials scrambling in recent days to sever ties with the organization.

Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing Acorn workers, who appeared to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. It was, in effect, the latest scalp claimed by those on the right who have made no secret of their hope to weaken the Obama administration by attacking allies and appointees they view as leftist.

The Acorn controversy came a week after the resignation of Van Jones, a White House environmental official attacked by conservatives, led by Glenn Beck of Fox News Channel, for once signing a petition suggesting that Bush administration officials might have deliberately permitted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Even before Mr. Jones stepped down, Mr. Beck had sent a message to supporters on Twitter urging them to “find everything you can” on three other Obama appointees.

Then, an MSNBC anchor referred to O'Keefe as a right winger. Of course, the story isn't the two journalists. Instead, it's the behavior of the ACORN employees and the management that allowed them to behave this way.

The fringe media similarly ignored the Van Jones story. Here's the now infamous video of Chuck Todd wondering if covering Van Jones is the best use of the media's time.



Finally, there's the media's fascination, or better yet condescension, with Glenn Beck. Ever since Beck exploded with Fox, the rest of the media doesn't know what to do with him.

Glenn Beck: the pudgy, buzz-cut, weeping phenomenon of radio, TV and books. Our hot summer of political combat is turning toward an autumn of showdowns over some of the biggest public-policy initiatives in decades. The creamy notions of
postpartisan cooperation — poured abundantly over Obama's presidential campaign a year ago — have curdled into suspicion and feelings of helplessness. Trust is a toxic asset, sitting valueless on the national books. Good faith is trading at pennies on the dollar. The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" — the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country — is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. Between the liberal fantasies about Brownshirts at town halls and the conservative concoctions of brainwashed children goose-stepping to school, you'd think the Palm in Washington had been replaced with a Munich beer hall.

Unless you cover the media, Beck isn't the story. The fringe media doesn't know what to make of him, and so they simply make fun of him. To the fringe media, he's the media equivalent of a circus clown.

Of course, that's why the mainstream media has turned into a fringe media. They can't seem to figure out what is a story anymore. The only stories that interest them are the ones that are passed back and forth at the cocktail parties they attend together. To them, the only fascination is why the rest of the country is so fascinated with ACORN. The only fascination is why anyone at all is fascinated with Glenn Beck. The only fascination is why anyone would find anything wrong with the president. They don't see the world for what it is, but rather for what they'd like it to be. That's why they are now irrelevant. They are now the fringe media.

Fox News, the MSM, and ACORN

If you saw Glenn Beck today, you would know that he was livid over the lack of attention that the MSM has paid to the ACORN revelations recently over at Big Government. He put up a chart of the major media including the three networks, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and the Washington Post and their coverage of the undercover video. Among all of these media, CNN lead the pack with a total number of mentions of three. Fox News, incidentally, had nineteen.

Beck was livid because he saw the lack of coverage as another example of media corruption. Beck is right. Yet, in my opinion, it really doesn't matter. The MSM is corrupt. They absolutely pick and choose the stories they cover not on their newsworthiness but on their ideology. Besides that, they don't matter.

Just think about this. Van Jones has resigned. Four ACORN workers have been fired. The census bureau no longer wants anything to with ACORN. All of this happened with Fox News leading the charge in covering these stories. On top of this, they were followed by a collection of new media sources that ultimately got the message through.

Big Government has exploded on the scene. In two days, they have instantaneously become a media force. In fact, it's really nothing more than a blog. It's, however, a blog with some very enterprising blogger/journalists breaking stories. Who cares if CNN, NBC, and the New York Times refuse to cover stories because those stories might upset their ideological sensibilities? The New York Times doesn't matter.

In fact, what has happened over the last two weeks, should tell everyone that media corruption ultimately now only hurts the corrupt media. Glenn Beck got more than 4 million viewers in his two airings of his show. He's challlenging Bill O'Reilly for the top personality on Fox News. He's doing it from the 5PM ET time slot. He got barely a blip on CNN. At the same time, stories driven mainly by Fox News and a consortium of new media have taken down a czar, four ACORN employees, and caused the census to drop ACORN.

So, why is Beck getting mad? Their corruption is his gain. If everyone were covering the story he wouldn't be getting nearly 4 million viewers. The MSM is corrupt, but their corruption has only made them irrelevant. They don't matter. The media has become so fractured and eclectic that if you're corrupt and/or incompetent, it isn't that corrupt our media at large. Instead, you simply make yourself irrelevant.

The Conservative Media Smells Blood in the Water

I saw a bit of Sean Hannity last night. It was a rather unremarkable show. After all, Hannity railed on Obama's czars, his radical associations, and the lack of vetting that put a lot of these people too close to power. There's nothing new here. That's what Hannity talks about nearly every single night. The only thing that's new is just how effective this is becoming.

We're going to look back at the Van Jones resignation as a watershed moment for the Obama administration. That's because that will become the initial symbol for everything that was wrong with Obama's administration policies in general. It's remarkable how many different angles the Jones saga opens up. There's the issue of radicals that are near the president. You can count Cass Sunstein, Dr. Zek Emanual, and Jon Holdren in that group. There's the issue of vetting. There's been way too many nominees and advisers with problematic pasts that came out after their nomination or approval. Then, there's the issue of czars. Their constitutionality is dubious. No one thinks it's a good idea to have so many, and no one knows just how much power each has. Of course, the conservative media is there to pick up the ball and run with it. Of course, they were handed a gift over the weekend when this video of Reverend Jeremiah Wright surfaced.



Conservatives have always been amazed by how little the rest of the country cared about Obama's relationship with Wright. The man is a racist. There's no ifs ands or buts about it and Obama sat in his pews for twenty years. More than that, Obama claimed that the most incendiary comments that we heard...



were an anomaly. Yet, time after time, Reverend Wright is caught making the kind of remark he just made. So, it becomes more and more clear that in fact what we heard weren't the anomalies but the rule. Furthermore, the conservative media said that radicals like Wright were the norm not the exception for Obama, and that his White House is going to be full of them.

Now, we have an opportunity for the conservative media to drive this narrative home and to make it stick. This is another example of the drip, drip effect. This isn't about Van Jones. That's exactly what Glenn Beck says. That's because Jones is one of many that people like Beck refer to as "radical". Beck, Hannity, Rush, Laura Ingraham and a cast of thousands have been hammering on statements from the likes of Jon Holdren, Harold Koh, Cass Sunstein, and Dr. Zek Emanual.

The other angle is the proliferation of czars. Obama is so vulnerable here because even most Democrats don't defend his usurpation of power into czars. That's because it's an end run around Congressional power. This story line is nearly endless. After all, there are over thirty czars. No one knows how much power each has. No one knows how fully vetted they were. The White House admitted that Jones wasn't vetted very well. So, how many more are there that haven't been vetted? How many radicals are sitting in positions of power near the President?

These are the questions that the conservative media will now begin to ask in earnest. Now, to be fair, they've been asking these questions all along. The difference is that with the resignation of Van Jones, these questions become more relevant. Their exploration takes on a whole new context. The likes of Beck, Hannity, et al will hammer away at each and every radical and czar until the country has a clear idea of who they are what their powers are.

So, what we have is an endless opportunity for analysis and hyper analysis. None of this analysis will look good for the president. The president doesn't shine well when day after day media is pointing out goofy and radical statements of any number of his advisers. It is only beginning and it will go on his entire presidency. As the health care debate heats up, this endless stream of questions will only further erode his standing and credibility. The conservative media can smell Obama's blood in the water and their claws are out.

Glenn Beck's Moment Has Arrived

The biggest winner from the the whole Van Jones affair is Glenn Beck. After all, it was Beck that lead the charge against Van Jones. Beck was ahead of this story from the beginning, but it was this latest week that he put Jones in his own crosshairs.


Once Beck made him the centerpiece of his show it didn't take but a week for Jones to be gone. That says two things about Beck. First, his instincts are there. How many liberals couldn't get enough of the "Downing Street Memos"? They spent endless hours hyperanalyzing them and it all went nowhere. Beck makes no bones about the idea that he has no use for the President. That can cloud your judgment and Beck could have gone off the rails over something trivial. He didn't. He was able to spot a story and went with it long before most were looking at it hard.

Second, it shows that Beck's media star has power, all sorts of power. Lot's of people were calling attention to Jones for many months and it wasn't until Beck dedicated himself to really exposing him that he went. He went quickly. All it took was a week of serious pressure and Jones was gone.

Now that Beck has serious momentum, he isn't going to stop. The Jones saga opens up several different fronts for Beck, and he will likely look to exploit both of them. He can draw attention to other radicals in Obama's adminstration: Harold Koh, Dr. Zek Emanual, Cass Sunstein, and Jon Holdren among them. He could also go after the universe of czars. They are, arguably, totally unconstitutional. They certainly create a government that isn't transparent. Furthermore, Jones was clearly not vetted properly. So, how many others have skeletons? Beck has a plethora of angles on this if he wants it.

Beck is already saying that there are questions still unresolved about the firing of Van Jones.

The American people stood up and demanded answers. Instead of providing them, the administration had Jones resign under cover of darkness. ... Judging by the other radicals in the administration, I expect that questioning to continue for the foreseeable future.

Now, the only way to read that statement from Beck is that he sees all sorts of issues that surround the Van Jones firing and he's just getting started. Watch for Beck to put the spotlight on someone else in the administration that he sees as radical. Watch for him to continue to explore the issues surrounding Jones and the czars.

Most dramatic is that the White House has no answer. Beck was brilliant last week in constantly pointing out that the White House wasn't responding to repeated inquiries. Beck has moved from simply being a media phenomenon to a pundit that can affect change. Very few can say that. His colleague Bill O'Reilly is one. He was able to help get Jessica's Law passed an nearly every state, he stopped Ludicris from getting a Pepsi deal, and most recently his reporting forced the hand of Oklahoma's AG and that AG has filed more charges against convicted child rapist David Earls.

Beck may have that kind of power. That's all sorts of power. Glenn Beck's moment has just arrived and his star will only go up from here. (by the way, I rarely watch Beck myself so this is not some promo of my favorite pundit, which would be Bill O'Reilly)