Politico reports Glenn Beck has some people scratching their heads after his website last week posted an in-depth analysis partially debunking an undercover sting video produced by guerrilla filmmaker James O’Keefe showing National Public Radio executives disparaging conservatives. Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune was even caught off-guard.
Category: Glenn Beck
Political mantra: Never let facts get in the way of a good story
Posted by – March 4, 2011
It seems being loose with the truth is becoming contagious. In its never-ending quest to separate fact from fiction, Politifact offers these nuggets:
• Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a commentator on Fox News and a potential Republican presidential candidate for 2012, said earlier this week while hawking his new book that President Barack Obama grew up in Kenya. Check the facts here.
• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, locked in a budget battle with unions and Democratic senators, said the state is broke. Check the facts here.
• Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, no stranger to wild and unsubstantiated comments, said Michelle Obama has 43 people on her staff, compared to just three for Nancy Reagan. Check the facts here.
Managing – or not – the outsized personalities on cable TV
Posted by – January 24, 2011
Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC reveals the problematic structure of the current incarnation of cable news, in which bombast, opinion and outsized personality get ratings, but these same qualities can make talent almost impossible to manage. Click here for the story.
Olbermann’s anger drove his ratings, but also drove his bosses crazy. Howard Kurtz of the Daily Beast writes on how the newly unemployed MSNBC star’s indignation fueled his rise and fall.
With Olbermann’s departure, Glenn Beck’s collapsing ratings, and Sarah Palin’s recent missteps, John Avlon wonders if we may be witnessing a national turn away from hard-core partisanship. Click here for the story.
Was ‘Restoring Honor’ rally about America, or Glenn Beck?
Posted by – August 31, 2010
Writing for The New Republic, freelance journalist Alexander Zaitchik — author of “Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance” — says the decline of the talk show host apparently has been greatly exaggerated. Once again, Zaitchik contends, Beck has been successful in promoting himself and furthering his career.
Almost no one who attended Saturday’s “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall seems able to cogently explain what, exactly, took place. Was it a thinly disguised political rally? A triumph of Made in America inspirational treacle? A modern-day religious revival? When probed by reporters, happy participants and skeptical observers alike struggled to make sense of the prayerful parade that saw Tony LaRussa, Sarah Palin, and Eveda King take turns at a podium between prerecorded voiceovers about crossroads, awakenings, and miracles. Yet there was one message that the afternoon’s emotional emcee managed to get across with unmistakable clarity: Glenn Beck is still a major force to be reckoned with, and has every intention of staying one.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bill McClellan has an interesting take on Saturday’s festivities in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Nobel Prize-winning columnist Paul Krugman predicts a repeat of the 1990s if the current trend continues.
