Last thing I say about Glenn Beck — today
Cliff, who posted earlier today, is among the defenders of Glenn Beck. He wrote:
Maybe Beck isn’t such a freak after all. Maybe if the main stream media would do it’s job, one wouldn’t have to look to Glenn Beck to do it for them.
Perhaps Cliff and other Beck fans should read center-right blogger Conor Friedersdorf, who understands what Beck and others are doing to the right.
One problem on the right is that loyalty to the grassroots is defined by how shamelessly one panders to them. Thus a talk radio host who crafts an inaccurate news narrative that plays to the prejudices of his audience is deemed a loyal player advancing the movement’s ends, whereas a blogger who points out how his words mislead listeners about reality is considered an obstacle to the cause who is overly concerned about playing fair. Unlike some in the media, I don’t regard the grassroots on the right as uniquely insane. I’ve done enough reporting at that level to know that most Americans on the right and left are reasonable people acting in good faith. The right’s fringe problem at this moment in time is one that elites have created as much as any crazy fringe righty. Outfits like Fox News, people like Glenn Beck, talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh — these outfits deliberately play on the worst impulses of the conservative base, stoking their paranoia and misleading them about reality, all for the sake of bigger audiences and greater revenues. That ought to outrage anyone who actually respects the grassroots, and has their best interests at heart. “
Whipping up hysteria with lies and conspiracies may be good for Beck, Limbaugh, et al, but it isn’t doing much for anyone else, including the conservative base.
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275 comments Add your comment
Scott
September 8th, 2009
2:07 pm
What were the lies? I don’t recall even the White House disputing the facts that Beck brought out. If lies, why did Van Jones apologize? If lies, why did Van Jones resign? It’s really amazing to hear direct quotations referred to as “lies.” Was Van Jones lying about himself?
Scott
September 8th, 2009
2:14 pm
Moreover, Ms. Tucker, how exactly are you pointing out how Beck is “misleading his listeners”? By throwing ad hominems around? Please. Calling someone “stupid head” may be a real shot on a school playground, but it leaves much to be desired in adult society.
CrazyJoe
September 8th, 2009
2:16 pm
Who cares about Beck anyway? He’s doing a great service to everyone who is an Independent; the more I see of these crazies and how they’re acting, (town halls; birthers, etc.); it makes me wonder if ALL the republicans are like that — just plain crazy, ignorant, and loud.
joe matarotz
September 8th, 2009
2:23 pm
Cynthia, you said it yourself. This is one he got right. Now what are you saying? That he got it wrong? That you got it wrong? Or are you just showing your own extremist stripe, where one can never acknowledge that the ‘enemy’ is correct? How are you different from the faction that opposes the President from delivering a speech to students, in the fear that his words will magically impart his personal views and beliefs to those kids, somehow turning them into a modern day version of “Children of the Damned”?
The answer is, you are no different. Your beliefs may differ but your philosophy is the same; never admit that the other side might be right. However, you chose a profession that precludes that philosophy. Journalists were, by definition, neutral. They reported the news as it happened and left it to the reader/listener/viewer to draw their own conclusions. But you don’t do that. You are more than happy to be a liberal shill, and damned the conservative viewpoint. And why is the ajc on the downward spiral? Well, it must be the internet and twitter and everyone else’s fault. It couldn’t be that I and many others no longer see the value in dropping .50 to read your opinions. Nah. It couldn’t be.
ster
September 8th, 2009
2:26 pm
As usual, another commentator says that Beck, Limbaugh, et al are lying and misleading their readers… and NOT ONE lie is EVER provided. The usual…. say something enough and people begin to believe it.
C’mon, Ms. Tucker… give us ONE lie! Just one! And no, a pure, bold lie, not something that could be taken two ways, or anything out of context. I bet my bottom dollar you can’t. And yet they pay you to write. Ugh.
“One problem on the right is that loyalty to the grassroots is defined by how shamelessly one panders to them.”
Sounds like the same thing the left (and Obama) does.
It’s Obama that says one thing to one audience, and the opposite to another audience.
jt
September 8th, 2009
2:32 pm
This is one qoute from “center-right” blogger Conar Friedersdorf that Cynthia thinks Beck ought to read.
“I am a fierce proponent of free markets. Therefore I am a fierce proponent of government intervention in the market.
Or, to put things less inflamatorily, one thing that often bothers me about US defenders of free markets is how easily they (and we) forget that free markets are created, maintained and curated by, well, the government. Free market conservatives often behave as if free markets are like a state of nature in which ham-fisted government arrives after the fact and wrecks everything when, in fact, it is the opposite. In a state of nature, you have permanent war. Traders and entrepreneurs can only exist once you have a Leviathan to enforce things like private property, money and contracts — all things created and maintained by the State. The rules of the market are set by the State. And if the State doesn’t intervene — justly — in the markets, you cannot have a free market.”
Her choice of “center-right” bloggers is good for alot of laughs.
Ivan
September 8th, 2009
2:33 pm
Oh, Ok. All conservative/libertarian minded people must change their ways now. There’s a “center-right” blogger who says Beck and Limbaugh hurt the conservative cause. Therefore, all is debunked.
Quick! Someone find a “left of center” blogger who thinks Van Jones was an extremist pushing a far, FAR left (Marxist) agenda. Then there will be balance once again! Is this Comedy Central’s blog?
Really? I mean, REALLY?? More character assassination?? No debate on why Beck was wrong. No debate on why Van Jones was right. Just more “hysteria” and “conspiracies”.
Oh that’s right, Cynthia said Beck WAS right.
*facepalm*
Ivan
September 8th, 2009
2:42 pm
Joe, I didn’t see your post from 2:23 due to the fact I was typing up mine. I’m confused just as much as you are. In the previous blog, she’s saying Beck was right, and then in this one, she’s saying….what?
I think DC has Cynthia so confused herself, she’s just spouting off random attacks now.
Shawny
September 8th, 2009
3:07 pm
That paragraph you posted by Conor could have easily been about Olbermann, Maddow, et al. Except that you believe the liberal hacks and don’t believe the conservative ones. This shows your bias and dooms your credibility entirely.
Michael
September 8th, 2009
3:27 pm
The real outrage is that the media did not do its job, that unvetted czars are getting tremendous power, and that, even after the Van resigned, the media STILL got the job wrong (deliberately). Van Jones said that whites were poisoning minority communities, that only white kids shoot up schools, etc. And, yet, the media also forgot to mention that Van supported a cop killer (Mumia), served prison time and was a Communist. So, the other part of the story is WHO over-ruled the FBI in the White House to allow this person access to the White House? Rahm? Axelrod? Obama? This story is much bigger than the two sentences the NYT gave it.
Oh, and sorry but I am a DEMOCRAT. I just ain’t down with Communists who plan on destroying American capitalism using the green movement.
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator (-: You Whine )-:
September 8th, 2009
3:30 pm
Oh, Queen Pinko is concerned for us!
How considerate of her.
Anyway, I’ll take the right wing “fringe” over the left wing fringe any day of the week.
And they you let him be run out of office by f**king Glenn Beck? So Glenn Beck is running the White House now? Is that how it’s gonna be? Just tell me that I knocked on all those doors for nothing, and I can start the grieving process, but don’t pretend this will solve anything.
When I was in the Army, I got fantastic government-run health care that was all commie and sh!t. Of course, Nazi health care is bad, so when will Republicans introduce legislation mandating private health insurance for our troops?
That is what the fight over the public option is all about – it is not about policy. It’s a proxy for the implied contract we entered into when we helped get Obama elected. We expected Change, we expected to be respected, empowered and included, we expected him to fight, and we expected to join him in that fight.
Wednesday night will be a promise kept or a promise broken. Either way, it will be our moment of truth.-Daily Kooks
Freaking whackjobs.
mike
September 8th, 2009
3:36 pm
What Cynthia, Bookman and the rest of the “appalled” liberal pundits are too lacking in self-awareness to understand is that THEY ARE Beck, Limbaugh et al. They are just the other side of the same intellectually dishonest coin, they just hate different people.
Van Jones
September 8th, 2009
3:40 pm
What about that Cindy Tucker and her libtard followers? “Well, the answer to that is… they’re a$$holes.”
ron
September 8th, 2009
3:42 pm
Let us see what else Mr Beck finds under the Obama administration’s rocks. Going to have to stop blaming the right soon.
C K Hall
September 8th, 2009
3:49 pm
Thank God for Beck! The “major” news outlets now know who people are listening to–including Cynthia Tucker! By the way Ms. Tucker,
I haven’t seen a single lie of Beck repudiated by you or your far lefty friends..You folks simply cannot take the truth!
lovelyliz
September 8th, 2009
3:49 pm
makes the differences between political/fiscal conservatives and neo-cons blatantly clear, but as long as Rush L is at the head of the table…………………………
lovelyliz
September 8th, 2009
3:50 pm
ster can you count to one?
jconservative
September 8th, 2009
3:55 pm
2008 presidential election. Obama 365 electoral votes – McCain 173 electoral votes. 269 electoral votes needed for the White House.
Looking ahead to the 2012 election.
The Republican base is about 28 electoral votes; states McCain carried by at least 60% of the vote. The Democratic base is 146 electoral votes; states Obama carried by at least 60% of the vote. The Republicans need to create 241 electoral votes to win in 2012. The Democrats need to create 123 electoral votes to keep the WH in 2012.
Where are the Republicans going to get the 241 electoral votes they need? The only place they can get them is from the pinko commie socialist who voted for Obama. I would guess that it would be difficult to get those folks to vote for you if your party representatives keep calling them a bunch of pinko commie socialist.
That is why some conservative types are saying tone down the rhetoric.
And, I understand my opinion & $1.00 will buy a cheap cup of coffee.
P/S – the Libertarian ticket received 0.040% of the popular vote.
Bill
September 8th, 2009
3:55 pm
Those in the MSM are supposed to be – as Joe Matarotz said above – neutral. They CHOSE a profession that REQUIRES that they be neutral – and they choose to not be.
They want it both ways. They want to be able to say that they are journalists, and therefore say that their insight is soooo far above that of others (which is highly debatable), while at the same time taking sides against conservatism.
If they want to take sides, then fine. No one is saying that they can’t. But they cannot do that while clinging to a profession that requires that they be objective, unbiased and neutral.
Bill
September 8th, 2009
3:59 pm
… and the Atlanta Journal Constitution cannot (even in the remotest sense) be said to even be close to being be an objective, unbiased and neutral newspaper.
gatorman770
September 8th, 2009
4:06 pm
Cynthia Tucker you are welcome to present your liberal body of evidence that outfits like Fox News, people like Glenn Beck, talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh — are big fat liars!
The only crazy fringe has been the real astroturf consisting ultra marxist union and acorn thugs beating real Americans speaking out to save their country!
smoochie
September 8th, 2009
4:07 pm
If they were lies why did he quit????????????????????????????????????????????????/
dgroy
September 8th, 2009
4:11 pm
I’ll tell you what, Cynthia Tucker, I’ll listen to what Glenn Beck has to say over what you have to say every time. Your extremism is so far out of the mainstream that you fit right in with the AJC. You’re helping a once great newspaper go belly up……good riddance to both of you, soon I hope.
Rob
September 8th, 2009
4:19 pm
I have never been political before… I am 50, however, Obama and his big government spending scares and angers me. I have started to listening to voices in the news that I agree with for updates and information and motivation… Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are speaking my thoughts. I now watch news instead of sports and drama. I don’t think I am radical or “crazy”, I just believe in freedom and choice and the government out of my life.
Jack
September 8th, 2009
4:30 pm
I can’t remember any AJC editorial writer ever admiting they backed the wrong candidate. Tucker certainly will not be the first one.
Cuzzin Vinnie
September 8th, 2009
4:34 pm
Cynthia Tucker is a crackpot. She owes her job to affirmative action, plain and simple. Now, Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell are a different story. Two very smart and capable black men. I would quickly vote for them for any political office. Cynthia ia in there with the other Cynthia, Maxine Waters and that crowd.
a_mom
September 8th, 2009
4:38 pm
Cynthia, will you PLEASE dedicate your next column to SPECIFIC lies that Glenn Beck told about Van Jones? I watched Beck’s show for the first time last week, and my jaw dropped when learning about Van Jones’ history and political views. How could someone like that have “accidentally” slipped through the vetting process? What worries me is that Obama knew exactly what Van Jones stood for. And he’s not the only one – there seems to be quite a few other czars with pretty radical views. Until you or other libs can SPECIFICALLY tell us which “lies” we’re being fed, I’ll be watching Glenn Beck & Sean Hannity to find out more about this administration.
Rita
September 8th, 2009
4:39 pm
Here are just a few Beck whoppers to get you started:
1. FEMA detention camps
2. Obama is “genius architect” bent on forcing people to work for ACORN, AmeriCorps
3. Maybe Treasury is “selling black-market bonds.”
4. “You have the artwork of Mussolini there, here in New York at Rockefeller Plaza.”
5. Obama’s “civilian national security force” is “what Hitler did with the SS,” “what Saddam Hussein” did.
And the hits just keep on coming with this as #1 with a bullet:
6. “Everything that is getting pushed through Congress, including this health care bill, are transforming America. And they are all driven by President Obama’s thinking on one idea: reparations.” Beck later added that Obama’s “goal is creating a new America, a new model, a model that will settle old racial scores through new social justice.” [Fox News' Glenn Beck, 7/23/09]
Otto
September 8th, 2009
4:40 pm
Well said Rob. People are waking up and finally angry. We have grown to expect politicians to be idiots but it is getting out of hand.
Davo
September 8th, 2009
4:43 pm
You should have just left well enough alone, Tucker. I’m guessing you wrote your first column before trolling your left wing talking points and finding that your ‘reasonable’ opinion didn’t measure up to your peers. Now it’s catch-up; and nobody buys it.
Got credibility?
Annie
September 8th, 2009
4:43 pm
Lies? Distortions? Are you really that hard up? Oh, I get it. The liberal left has no rebuttal because….THERE IS NONE! So the way you respond is by name-calling and denial. That’s okay. We’re all on to ya.
Steve
September 8th, 2009
4:43 pm
As Scott indicated in the first post; where are the lies. Run a google search on Van Jones and all the evidence reported Glenn Beck can easily be found.
He is a self proclaimed communist; he believes the Bush administration is complicit in the 2001 World Trade Center bombing; has made openly racist remarks, and is a convicted felon. How does someone with those credentials ever make it to the position he had in Obama’s administration?
Thank God for people like Glenn Beck who are willing check on the people Obama has close to him. I never saw ABC, NBC, or CBS run any story about Van Jones until they announced his resignation. Even then none of these FACTS about the man were given. ABC, NBC, & CBS have all reached the point that I consider them tabloid journalism.
B-fan
September 8th, 2009
4:43 pm
jconservative, stop talking sense. The more screaming done by the right, the more the rest of America will tune them out.
Marc
September 8th, 2009
4:46 pm
Cynthia, I have to chime in WHERE ARE THE LIES. I don’t see Obama addressing them. The only thing I see people like yourself and Bookman doing is bringing up the Bush administration and ignoring the same things that are happening in Obamas along with the misconduct of Rangel, Shummer and most of Obama’s appointees. Barney Franks, Nancy Pelosi and other democrats on their arrogance and you are failing to call Obama on his broken campaign promises and his and gross abuse of power.
Eddy
September 8th, 2009
4:52 pm
Ms Tucker…..backing and filling is not lady-like especially after you’ve already stated that Beck is right about Jones. For all of the loonies…just watch the videos of Jones. Olbermann has this thing to be portrayed as a manly man so he spews and sputters trying to be taken seriously. Someone, anyone, please take Keefe seriously. Meanwhile, please list all of the errors as stated by Beck about Jones….we’re waiting!!!! Tick, tick, tick……Oh by the way, I’m sure that Yale is really proud of this esteemed alumnus…when you scrape the bottom of the barrel in the name of affirmative action, Jones is what you get.
MAC
September 8th, 2009
4:56 pm
Cynthia Tucker doesn’t watch Beck or listen to Limbaugh, she and her peers get the recaps from Media Matters, whose job it is to find objectionable quotes, in or out of context. Therefore, her commentary of so-called “right-wing media” is not only distorted but dishonest.
midtowngirl
September 8th, 2009
5:03 pm
hahahahahahahaha…PILGRIMS!!! I LOVE IT…keep hate alive!!! Ya’ll pilgrims give us something to talk about and laugh at all day! Gotta love ya’ll…hahahahahahahahahaha!!! PILGRIMS!! And you go to bed with your fist balled up in anger…that’s why ya’ll age so quickly!
Scott
September 8th, 2009
5:03 pm
Rita: (1) Beck did not advance the idea about FEMA detention camps; he spent an entire show debunking the rumor; (2) mandatory national service has been a proposal specifically made by both Obama and David Axelrod; (3) the word “maybe” is speculative, so I would not say that Beck was saying it was so, only speculating that it’s possible. I’m not sure what the specific context of this discussion is, so I only have your word “maybe” to go on; (4) Beck was making the claim that a figure in a piece of artwork in Rockefeller Center was a depiction of Mussolini. How do you know this to be incorrect? (5) Obama specifically stated he wanted a civilian national force in a speech during the 2008 election; I’ve heard the clip played many many times; Hitler had the Hitler Youth and Saddam had the Republican Guard. Beck is drawing connections, not telling lies; (6) Five days before the election, Obama specifically stated that his goal was “fundamentally transforming” the nation; again, this is not a lie, this is a specific reference to something Obama himself said.
Trust the government, ask an Indian
September 8th, 2009
5:04 pm
Beck may be a blow hard, but he was right on Van Jones, where were YOU on that on Cindy?
mike
September 8th, 2009
5:11 pm
midtowngirl –
Sorry to tell you this but your writing style seems to imply that you are the one sitting there with your fists balled up in anger. Chill out. It’s just a blog
Scott William Godwin
September 8th, 2009
5:14 pm
I see what none of you see, Beck is right on the money with what he is doing. Dont you understand that watching a “News Comedy Show ” Why do you and the Huffington post give him so much power? Also Van Jones is a comunist and this is a capitolist country. Capitolism is not Evil, Men our evil. I have been to other countries and America the “Giant Coorperate Evil” or so people like you want us to believe it is helps more globally then all of the UN put together not to mention our comunities around the country are Socialized and help out eachother in times of need you know spread the wealth around. I see the poor people around the world kept down in the dirt where there is very little hope for them to find a way out of that life. Not here In “America the Beautiful” all men and women have a chance to a great life or standard of living. I see the left wing of American politics fueling Racism in this country and I see Blacks lashing out on whites and have since I was a kid and all I can say to you people is wake up “Divded We Fall” I am a white guy who grew up in an all black neighborhood and have A Korean wife and mixed children and I wounder where in our public schools do we have an asian support group? oh thats right there isnt one. But there is a black support group for the kids and the parents. WHY!!!! because the left wing wants us to have racial issues. If all men and women are created equal then why do you tell them that they need a special support group are you guys idiots. No tharts right you think we all are. GLENN BECK called you all out and held you accountable and you dont like it. True americans will not lash out with violance as long as they have the right to free speech wich the currrent Administration is trying to silence. Dont be a liberal racist think about it and its outcome in the years to come and the answers are in your heart. These you cant get in church or at a support group its much cooler then that.
Scott
September 8th, 2009
5:15 pm
Also, there’s a clip of Obama speaking on a radio show in which he spoke about the “inadequacies” of the Warren court. Obama specifically says that one of the problems of the Warren court is that it never addressed the subject of reparations. So Obama is on record stating that he is in favor of this.
Bullhying Protester
September 8th, 2009
5:17 pm
Forget Glenn Beck, Van Jones was and is an extreme radical who wasn’t properly vetted or was he? Obama knew the man he hired, but rightfully assumed his friends in the mainstream media wouldn’t dig too deeply just as they haven’t all along. Cynthia never once acknowledges Van Jones for the nut case that he is, because he’s Cynthia’s kind of
America hating commie. His own words speak for themselves.
Dave
September 8th, 2009
5:25 pm
What Lies? I watched video clips with his mouth moving and saying everything he is accused of. Glenn Beck did what CBS, NBC, ABC and Cynthia Tucker would not do. Liberals would not know what a FACT was if it slapped them in the head.
Bob
September 8th, 2009
5:27 pm
Up next, the FCC diversity Czar, another admitted commie.
jt
September 8th, 2009
5:30 pm
Van Jones sux.
On the otherhand, MIKE Jones got swag thru da roof.
Mike Jones.
jt
September 8th, 2009
5:32 pm
Mike Jones is still tipping.
Bozo the clown
September 8th, 2009
5:34 pm
Think how bad it would be if the whole country was a wacked out as is the south. Glen Beck, the new leader of the republicant party.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
September 8th, 2009
5:37 pm
My dear, sweet, naive, Cynthia, as if our pen never recorded a worst case assessment of President Bush’s military service, personal history, or strategery. For that matter, the same can be said of your treatment of another true American hero, Vice President Cheney. While you squeal as if a shoat with hound on heels, please remember that, in our judicial system, one must do equity before one can seek equity.
Trust the government, ask an Indian
September 8th, 2009
5:44 pm
Bozo, stick to entertaining children….was republicant a joke effort?