Alright, what bug crawled up Glenn Beck's ass? Options

[mipadi]

In his latest rant, Glenn Beck is actually criticizing the Obama administration and the media for encouraging Americans to volunteer. Like most of Beck's "journalism" pieces, his speech is mostly rambling and incoherent and completely lacks any thesis whatsoever...but if I'm not mistaken, he's pissed off that Americans are being encouraged to do community service for free:

Glenn Beck reminds me of my alma mater's Conservatives Club: he rails against any progressive policy, even if it's essentially an all-around good thing -- and isn't helping people a positive thing?

[heyo-captain-jac...]

Glenn Beck is a f*cktard, what else is new?

[brooklyneast05]

yeah he's beyond ridiculous, i can't stand the guy

[kryogenix]

Wow, I watched that whole thing. I'm confused, was he trying to associate volunteering with... Communist China?

But I think the take away point is that the Hollywood and the media are working as a propaganda arm for the government. And they are. Always have. His own network was the propaganda arm for the previous administration.

[Tramatize]

He doesn't research anything and he just rants on end about things he doesn't know about. He has a problem with anything Obama does or agrees with

[mipadi]

But I think the take away point is that the Hollywood and the media are working as a propaganda arm for the government. And they are. Always have. His own network was the propaganda arm for the previous administration.

Is that the take-away point? With Glenn Beck, I can rarely tell what his point is, because he's generally just ranting; he has no thesis.

The video highlights another point: I was always intrigued by McCarthyism in America, especially after reading The Crucible. But never in my lifetime, well after the Cold War, did I expect "Communist" to once again be a way for the right to slander the left. Haven't we moved past that yet?

Furthermore, does Glenn Beck even know what Communism is? Because volunteering != communism.

(Of course, Glenn Beck probably does know what Communism is. The problem is, he also knows what key phrases to use to get his viewer base angry.)

[Reidar]

Like most of Beck's "journalism" pieces

He's stated multiple times that he's not a journalist. Not exactly something anyone couldn't have discerned on their own, but you can't accuse him of making himself out to be one.

I was at Barnes & Noble once when I saw Glenn Beck's The Christmas Sweater book, picked it off the shelf, opened to a random page, and saw "there" being used instead of "their" in the first random sentence I looked at. I can't imagine how he can expect people to care about his writing when he doesn't.

[fameONE]

Fox News is still around?

[brooklyneast05]

^anyone been keeping up with fox news vs the white house lol?



it annoys me that the white house has even entertained any of the shit. it takes away credit from them and gives it to fox. they should just completely ignore fox news. no one that matters really thinks fox news is anything but an entertainment network and everyone knows the white house has more pressing matters to concern itself with.

[Maccabee]

HE is making a problem that doesn't exist.
whats wrong with this guy? people can volunteer if they want.

and he was just being sarcastic for like 6 minutes. it just doesnt work.

[mipadi]

He's stated multiple times that he's not a journalist. Not exactly something anyone couldn't have discerned on their own, but you can't accuse him of making himself out to be one.

He's not a journalist, he's an "opinion guy"? What does that even mean, "opinion guy"? In both of those segments, Beck seems to be speaking more...artistically or poetically (for lack of better terms). He clearly views journalists with contempt, and he's just trying to make himself seem like an "average joe", which is why he's claiming to not be a journalist. He's an anchor on a news show on "Fox News" -- even if he doesn't want to be a journalist (because he's suspicious of journalists and the media and doesn't want to be lumped with them), he is. And he's not a very good one.

(Besides, if by "opinions guy" he means he editorializes, then someone should let him know that editorial pieces count as journalism, too.)

[Reidar]

He is not a journalist and certainly not an anchorman. Commentators were distinguished from the aforementioned way back with Paul Harvey on the radio. I have nothing invested in Glenn Beck but there's no reason to take that as him somehow sneering at journalism. He's said before, in retrospect of his previous network, "I know many great journalists on CNN."

[mipadi]

I don't buy it. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Beck may not want to call himself a journalist, but if you report on news and social goings-on, and provide commentary for them, you are, in fact, a journalist. Beck does sneer at other journalists and the "lib'ral media", as evidenced in the very video I posted. There's a subtext to his claims of not being a journalist: he clearly doesn't want to associate himself with the news media because it would damage his conservative credibility.

If he's not a journalist, what is he? In the interview you posted, he had a chance to say, "I'm an entertainer, just like Jon Stewart," but he didn't take the opportunity to call himself an entertainer, so he clearly doesn't see himself that way. He does refer to himself as an "opinions guy", but guess what: if you're an "opinions guy" on a news-like show on a cable news network with the name "Fox News", then you're more akin to a journalist than...well, whatever Beck would prefer to think of himself as.

[Reidar]

Sneering at certain journalists does not equate to sneering at journalists as a totality/journalism. There are plenty of bad journalists. I sneer at most of the news networks aside from the BBC, but that doesn't mean news as a concept is flawed. I don't see any subtext of that. He has a problem with what he perceives as media liberalism, not mere "journalists".

Glenn Beck does not do reporting even in the same vein as other opinion hosts like Bill O'Reilly or Keith Olbermann. An objective journalist doesn't wed opinion with news to the same extent that commentators do. I know Rachel Maddow showed Cronkite giving his views on Vietnam last night, and many journalists like Laura Logan do relay their own slant on the story, but the foundation of their reporting (which, again, Beck does not do) simply isn't saturated with it.

"The term 'newscaster' came into common use to distinguish presenters of straight news broadcasts from commentators."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anchorman

News outlets have plenty of "opinion guys". Fox News has actual reporters that nobody would confuse Beck with, like Shep Smith, Carl Cameron, and Bret Baier.

[kryogenix]

I don't buy it. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. Beck may not want to call himself a journalist, but if you report on news and social goings-on, and provide commentary for them, you are, in fact, a journalist. Beck does sneer at other journalists and the "lib'ral media", as evidenced in the very video I posted. There's a subtext to his claims of not being a journalist: he clearly doesn't want to associate himself with the news media because it would damage his conservative credibility.

Bloggers do all of those things, but would you call them journalists? Stewart and Colbert?

I used to watch Glen Beck's program on CNN (back when it was cool, yo), and I did so because I found it entertaining, not because I was expecting him to inform me of what was going on in the world. Stuff like this:




was clearly not hard news, so I didn't treat it as such. I found it entertaining to watch a guy who was diagnosed with ADHD sarcastically giving his opinion on current events. Wasn't hard to distinguish between hard news and opinion/entertainment. Heck, I just went on his website right now and it says right at the top that his program is the "fusion of entertainment and enlightenment."

I admit that I haven't caught his new show on Fox News, but if his current website is any indication, he doesn't seem to be trying to hide the fact that his show is meant for entertainment, so why is there confusion?

[Reidar]

He was, though, a lot saner on CNN than he is (or at least acts) on Fox.