The TV character Glenn Beck
I’ve made it a personal point not to let Glenn Beck get me too far off target on any particular day, my thinking being that the guy is neither a danger, nor does he have the screw loose that many outside the hardcore Tea Party set assume is the case with him.
No, Glenn Beck is, to me, a TV character, played by a comedy writer who happens to also be named Glenn Beck, but getting mad at the TV character Glenn Beck makes about as much sense as getting mad at, say, the TV character Al Bundy.
I bring up Al Bundy, from the ’80s and ’90s off-color classic “Married With Children,” because, well, for starters, there’s the obvious Fox connection, but more to the point, because like Al Bundy, Glenn Beck doesn’t need to worry about little things like being consistent or even making basic sense.
Case in point with the TV character Glenn Beck: his ranting and raving about how his Washington, D.C., rally over the weekend was his effort to reclaim the civil-rights movement. Countless column inches have been devoted to deconstructing this nonsense, all of it missing the obvious fact that not even Glenn Beck, the guy writing the nonsense, believes what the TV character Glenn Beck had to say on that issue.
Indeed, seems to me that what the TV character Glenn Beck had to say could just as easily have come out of an editorial meeting at The Onion.
“Let’s have Beck say that the rally was actually a tribute to King.”
“Yeah, yeah! Brilliant!”
“And that the angry white Tea Party mob out for immigrant and Muslim blood is actually rallying to reclaim King’s vision.”
“This is hilarious!”
Granted, not everybody is in on the joke. There’s the progressive commentariat, for instance, whose rantings and ravings in response to the rantings and ravings of TV character Glenn Beck only serve to legitimize the guy, much as the fictional Miranda Veracruz de la Jolla Cardinal legitimized Bundy on “Married With Children” with her breathless TV reports from his latest NO MA’AM rallies.
There are also Beck’s legions of fans on Fox News, though you have to take the concept that there are legions with a grain of salt. Beck had 1.7 million viewers tune into his Friday, Aug. 27 show; last week’s “SpongeBob SquarePants” had 4.2 million.
(The syndicated weekend “Seinfeld” had 3.5 million. “Married With Children,” alas, was not even in the top 25 syndicated shows last week. Bummer!)
That said, back to the legions. Beck is pulling good numbers. For cable news. His show, at 5 p.m. weekdays, mind you, is #3 most days (behind Bill O’Reilly and the 6 p.m. Fox News Special Report), and he was able to get a few people out to the National Mall over the weekend using his TV and radio programs as a sounding board for what amounted to tens of millions of dollars in free advertising.
(Give Al Bundy what Fox gives Glenn Beck, and … can you say “NO MA’AM will rise again”? I knew you could.)
This one was without a doubt the biggest on-air promotion of his life, but really, was it that much different than any of the live remotes that he would have done as a radio shock-jock back in his days as a morning-zoo disc jockey?
Sorry, Glenn – I’m speaking to the comedy writer Glenn Beck here. Ahem, sorry to burst the ol’ bubble on this.
‘Course, Glenn, you can rest assured that the secret to your success is safe with me. I’ll go back to pretending to hate you for spewing your nonsense, and let you get back to pretending to be the megalomaniac who thinks that God speaks through him about reclaiming movements and redirecting the course of history.
(You are still aware that this is shtick, right?)
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Posted on August 30, 2010 · 5 Comments
Beck’s rally was bigger than the Spongebob and Patrick rally, or so I hear.
Nine million people watch Pat Sajak every night. He should have a rally. (It would have to be over with early. His core audience is in bed by 7:45.)
Glen Beck is a loud mouth trying to shed a different light on past proven history events, He does not mention that a large part of our manufacturing facilities were lost during the Bush admiinstration ,GE moving a large part of their manufacturing to Mexico and Dupont building several plants in China and then turning around and selling them to the Chinese goverment and countless others out sourceing their manufacturing to foreign countries paying low wages in the name of greed.
Nor does he mention that two wars were started during the Bush years under false information costing the tax payers billions upon billions of dallars and the loss of thousands of our men and women in service their lives.
He will have his day on the stage and then will be heard no more and go out like a candle, The American people are too intelligent to fall for all of this rhetoric, some how he is trying to convence the people all of this it is Obama’s fault.
In due time he will let his mouth over load his you know what and that will be the end, If things are so bad here let him move to another country wishing him bon voyage.
Harold, I hope you’re right, that “The American people are too intelligent to fall for all of this rhetoric.” From your mouth. . . .
What an opportunistic charlatan Beck is. Bottom line, bottom line, bottom line. Forget honor and doing (and saying) what’s right.
Watch MSNBC!!!
At least Spongebob and Patrick are entertaining. But like all the rest, after a while it all gets to be a bit too much and the best idea is to turn off the TV.