31 March 2009

Glenn Beck Rising

The New York times has an A01 article on the rising popularity of the man behind the 5pm Fox News slot, Glenn Beck:

Joel Cheatwood, a senior vice president for development at Fox News, said he thought Mr. Beck’s audience was a “somewhat disenfranchised” one. And, he added, “it’s a huge audience.”

Mr. Beck has used phrases like “we surround them,” invoked while speaking vaguely about people who do not share his discomfort with the “direction America is being taken in.”

His comments have prompted several bloggers to speculate recently that the TV host may have been promoting an armed revolt.
He's a bit screwy in a "crazy-old-Uncle" kind of way, but these are screwy times, so I can relate. He doesn't have that smarmy Neocon approach like Kristol and he doesn't take himself too seriously like O' Reilly, so I admit to enjoying his show (albeit with a little bit of guilt). The guy is a living personification of the pejorative word "wingnut", but there's less shame in that now that conservative ideology is in the minority. Plus, he reminds me of Harry Dean Stanton's character from Red Dawn, which is reason enough to watch the guy occasionally.

8 comments:

subrookie said...

Do you really think that conservative ideology is in the minority? We were 3 years into the war and Bush won the election. I'm not saying I support Bush, but he did carry the election during an unpopular war.

Possibly it took 4 more years for Obama to come in. Really the liberal, or if you believe them the "Progressives", we struck out because we floated a moderate. I don't think it would have mattered. Anyone with an R next to their name would have lost this election. I still think the '04 voting block stands, we just need to find a candidate that is electable.

The true test is on now. Since when can a gov't official mandate a publicly traded company fire their CEO? Well, apparently now. His foreign policy so far is freshmanlike. Anyway, until then I watch Beck, hes better than Stephonopholis

Elizabeth said...

By any chance, did you guys see the blog in the Washington Times by a conservative blogger who not only feels - literally, I'm guessing - that he and his cohorts are under attack by liberal commenters but they (the conservative bloggers!) are losing the battle!?

Subrookie and LT Nixon, I think you might like to check this out...

http:/www.chrisweigant.com/

Oh, The Humanity! Godless Huffington Post Commenters Wickedly Destroying Conservatives


It's a response to the blog in the Washington Times by a guy named Breitbart (I think he's a comedian...I HOPE he's a comedian!), with a link to the Brietbart piece.

olgreydog7 said...

Ever notice how one side always says the others comments are some sort of revolutionary/racists/derogatory remark while the commentators on their side make figurative jokes? I find it odd that BHO didn't really mean Special Olympics when he actually said Special Olympics, but Beck meant an armed revolt when he said surround them.

Nixon said...

Subrookie,

I judged that statement based on recent polling data of Obama, which still indicates he has wide approval...I don't know why.

Elizabeth,

Yes, I saw the Breitbart article, and I think it's a bit knee-jerk to think that conservatives are being "persecuted" by dyed in the wool lefties. I've been pretty libertarian for a long time, so that's always a political minority. But left-leaning blogs have this bizarre fetish in silencing Fox News, when they should be aiming their fire at politicians who are actually in charge of the country.

Elizabeth said...

LT,

So, you're saying that Andrew Breitbart was being serious in his opinion piece!? Wow.

Did you see Chris Weigant's response...it was pretty good, I must say.

I could never understand the inclination for Democrats to shy away from Fox News - cancelling the Democratic candidates debate last year comes to mind. It said to me that they were not secure enough, personally or in their political positions on the issues, to appear there for fear of...who knows what!?

Anyway, I hope you check out Chris Weigant's take on Breitbart - I think you would really appreciate some of his stuff - he is certainly left-leaning but not in an extreme or partisan way, by any stretch of the imagination.

Besides, he lists VoteVets on his blogroll and I'd love to see your site(s) up there, too! :)

subrookie said...

LT,
I think it depends on whether you want to believe the MSNBC spin. Less than 50% of the public think that we are headed in the right direction. But, you would have to read 3 paragraphs of the story to get to that. I think Ace has something about that yesterday.
Sub

Anonymoose said...

I've been seeing Obama's recent approval at 45-55%.

senior said...

I've been pretty libertarian for a long time, so that's always a political minority.