The great libertarian scholar Charles Murray has spent six weeks watching Glenn Beck's show, and has come to a conclusion:
Beck is spectacularly right (translation: I agree with him) on about 95 percent of the substantive issues he talks about. He is a full-throated libertarian in a world of wishy-washy Republicans. The man is a gifted communicator. His style doesn't happen to be one I like, but many times I've sat there on my sofa wishing I could make the same point as effectively.But Beck uses tactics that include tiny snippets of film as proof of a person's worldview, guilt by association, insinuation, and occasionally outright goofs like the fake quote. To put it another way, I as a viewer have no way to judge whether Beck is right. I have to trust that the snippets are not taken out of context, that the dubious association between A and B actually has evidence to support it, and that his numbers are accurate. It is impossible to have that trust.
Which leads Murray to conclude:
What Beck does is propaganda. Maybe propaganda has its place, but let's not kid ourselves. Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann are brothers.
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If Keith Olbermann & Glenn Beck are brothers then Glenn is the one they keep locked in the attic and don't ever mention.
If Olbermann and Beck are brothers, then Keith is the older one, something of a bully, while Glenn is frustrated by all the 'weggies" he gets at school - including by his older brother.
By the way, on the subject of propaganda vs. news, here's an interesting read:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/09/thought-experiment-no-1-and-more-inappropriate-alarm-clocks/#more-12119
By the way, Cultural Conservative, on the plane of propagandists, I'd have to compare more to the gonzo kids at BigGovernment.com. Both are grinding axes, but at least doing with verve and wit.
Beck? Just a lunatic -- and I've met leftists who could mirror him, but nobody ever gave them a daily television show.
Beck is a lunatic? He connects dots and comes up with pictures. He invites, nay, begs you to make better pictures with the same dots or find better dots to draw to. I don't see anyone doing either without introducing a lot of wishful thinking in lieu of evidence. Beck is a great Teacher with a flair for dramatic presentation, and well worth the tuition.
I don't see Keith Olbermann asking to be fact-checked by his viewship like Glenn does... Do you?
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