Glenn Beck thinks Olbermann is ‘killing’ democracy

February 28, 2007

Like most rational people, MSNBC’s [tag]Keith Olbermann[/tag] has seen CNN blowhard [tag]Glenn Beck[/tag]’s work and isn’t terribly impressed. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Olbermann said Beck is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing. The very dangerously bigoted guy who is selling himself as a pragmatic philosopher. I don’t think he sees his own bigotry. There’s something about him that suggests that, one night, he’ll say something that will cost him his career in television.”

Beck, predictably, lashed out in response, but his reaction was telling. Here’s what he told his viewers last night:

“If I’m going to be shut down for that, well, it will likely be because of an intolerant ideologue like Keith Olbermann. The very idea smacks of the same McCarthyism Murrow fought so valiantly against.

“Hey, Keith, you’re not saving the world’s democracy; you’re killing it, my friend, by trying to limit the marketplace of ideas to only those that reflect your own.”

Now, I’ll admit I don’t watch Countdown every day, but did I miss the episode when Olbermann tried to limit the “marketplace of ideas”?

The whole rant is bizarre. Beck seems convinced that Olbermann wants to drive Beck from the air, as some kind of ideological purge. What Olbermann said was that Beck would drive himself from the air, after some invariably racist or demagogic tirade.

Indeed, Beck is already well on his way to undermining his own career.

Nico documented some of the recent examples.

The anti-gay slur “faggot” is nothing more than “a naughty name.” [1/23/07]

“What happened to the Duke lacrosse team was practically a lynching without the rope. And for the first time in my life, Mr. Oreo Cookie without the chocolate on the outside can understand why people celebrated when O.J. Simpson was acquitted.” [1/15/07, using a racial slur for African-Americans that refers to “being black on the outside and white on the inside”]

“[W]hat I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.'” [11/14/06, on what he would like to say to Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first elected Muslim member of Congress]

“I wonder if I’m alone in this — you know it took me about a year to start hating the 9-11 victims’ families? Took me about a year.” [9/9/05]

“And that’s all we’re hearing about, are the people in New Orleans. Those are the only ones we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.” [9/9/05]

I’d only add that Beck recently explained how much he hates Americans’ morals, said he’s afraid to have African American friends, said Barack Obama “might as well be white,” and praised those who torture detainees in U.S. custody. He believes Olbermann is “intolerant”?

I’d disagree with Olbermann on one thing, though. He said Beck may very well “say something that will cost him his career in television.” I kind of doubt it. Beck’s been saying outrageous things for years, but that didn’t stop CNN from giving him his own show, and ABC picking him up for Good Morning America appearances.

I’m hard pressed to imagine what it might take for a conservative to ruin his or her career in television, but I await the day.

This brings up the “reverse Dr. King conundrum” – should we discriminate against bigots just because of the horrible content of their character, not because of the color of their skin?

Just kidding, yeah of course we should. Ask CNN to fire this guy if you haven’t already (if you’re like me you probably already e-mailed them more than once.)

  • I think if enough of us sent enough emails to the sponsors of his sucky network, sending them examples of Beck’s hateful spewage, Beck would be gone shortly.

    Let’s see if his sponsors like his outrageous statements or not. It’s their choice if they want to support that jackass or not, and it’s our choice if we want to buy their products.

  • I’ve always reeled against cowards who feign victim while incisively working to vanquish their adversaries. Add that to the already bigotted temperment of one Glen Beck, and I guess CNN thinks it has a CableTV winner. Of all the species of the animal kingdom, Beck reminds me of a weasel. -Kevo

  • I suspect that part of the reason why guys like Glenn Beck are still employed is because the oligarchy that runs the US feels they are very useful to split up people’s opinions in the divide and conquer school of thought.

    His role is like that of most Con types, to drive a wedge between folks who should have common ground and deflect anger from those who are to blame to those who are blameless.

    Both sides on the political spectrum are concerned about the way corporations have subverted America (although the semi dense folks on the right have the anger, but not the sense or intelligence to realize that WE are not the “enemy” as they are want to blame liberals, regulation, illegal “immigants” and gay folks for their problems.)

    I suspect that the reason why Liberal commentators are easily heaved over the side is because they’re right as in correct. No typical self important arrogant motherfucker of a corporate “leader” is going to allow an underling the pleasure of being right while the boss is so very wrong–from my own observations, Cheney is the rule not the exception among CEO types. If the Liberal types had their way, the self important arrogant motherfuckers would be all unemployed cranks on serious meds to keep their antisocial urges in check. They know that in a “Liberal” world there is no place for these folks except in a mental institution.

  • “Hey, Keith, you’re not saving the world’s democracy; you’re killing it, my friend, by trying to limit the marketplace of ideas to only those that reflect your own.”

    Well, what is Keith doing to limit the marketplace of ideas? Disagreeing with all the right-wing blowhards in the media? Last time I checked, the marketplace of ideas is already limited, and it is in favor of the far right. If Keith is added to the mix, that increases the marketplace of ideas.

  • CNN likes Beck BECAUSE he panders to their viewers prejudices. Rush Limbaugh does the same thing, and gets good ratings doing so, which is exactly what CNN wants too. Instead of pushing for Beck’s removal, push for legislation allowing cable & satellite subscribers to select their channels ala carte (that is, pick the channels they like themselves) so you can drop CNN and pick up MSNBC instead.

  • Well, what is Keith doing to limit the marketplace of ideas?

    Conservatives don’t believe in the marketplace of ideas so much as the marketplace of their ideas.

    Of course, this is just carryover from their approach to markets in economics, where the applicable concept is ‘everyone else gets a free market, but not me’.

  • Don’t forget objectively pro-terrorist.

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=7920

    In a fair world Beck has already said the goof that would hound him out of television. Seven or eight times. People seem slow to realize that the principle only works for lefties – there is literally nothing that a rightwinger can say that will disqualify him/her from the public discourse. Something about disrespecting the heartland, who knows. I call it the Inalienable Right.

  • The thing a lot of people don’t realize is that white supremacists like Beck are convinced they are right, that they’re not bigots, that they’re the ones who see the truth behind what masquerades as “reality.” My friend Mike German, who spent 12 years in the white supremacist domestic terrorist movement as an undercover FBI counter-terrorism agent, writes in his book “Thinking Like A Terrorist” (I recommend it highly) that these people (at least the truly dangerous ones) are not the cliched raving ranting beer-belly rednecks, but the guys who can sound “reasonable” (most of the time), who can successfully make the argument that it is they (and by extension all white people) who are the threatened victims.They are intelligent idealists (like most of us, except their ideals are insane).

    It would not surprise me to find any examination of Beck’s background would reveal connections within the “lone wolf” white supremacist movement – he’s far too overt to be merely some guy on the fringe.

    If you’ve read any of the stuff posted here by our white supremacist “friends” lately, you’ve seen what I mean about the way the dangerous ones are.

  • ScottW’s Law states:
    “As a patriotism discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving McCarthyism approaches one.”

  • I saw a comment somewhere that the difference between using a prostitute and listening to Sean Hannity was that if you listened to Hannity, you would
    stay screwed. The same can be said about Beck.

  • Beck is a poster child for the soft bigotry of low expectations. He couches his bigoted and infantile rhetoric by saying he’s “a dope like me who says the wrong thing from time to time.” Bingo! A free pass to spout any kind of obscene crap and when he gets called on it Beck just whips out the faux-self-deprecation to get off the hotseat. It’s a version of the Good Ole Boy routine where the affable stupidity is just cover for a maliciously hateful streak. He’s got this schtick figured out.

    But Glenn has to take his lumps for using this clever ploy. Olberman was just calling Beck the idiot Glenn admits he is, Glenn’s just mighty thin skinned for someone who likes to shell out abuse from his very public pulpit.

  • …one night, he’ll say something that will cost him his career in television.

    Poor, naive Keith Olbermann. He should know that there is nothing a right-wing blowhard can say that will get him or her thrown off the airwaves.

    Well, Rush got sacked for his Donovan McNabb remark — but that was more a criticism of the media powers-that-be than a racist slip, frankly.

  • The right is becoming increasingly surreal..
    Condi sees George Bush is a Roosevelt standing firm against Hitler.
    And Beck says Olberman is a McCarthy dragging down democracy.
    And evolution is a theory, global warming is a myth, tax cuts decrease deficits.
    For the wingers, “Freedom loving” means freedom from the constraints of reality,

  • “… that didn’t stop CNN from giving him his own show, and ABC picking him up for Good Morning America….”

    I wonder how long it’ll be before the Shrub awards him the medal of freedom?

  • Here’s something on Beck from THE BEAST’s list of The 50 Most Loathsome People In America:

    24. Glenn Beck

    Charges: If the dumbing down of political commentary continues along this trajectory, the next pundit to make the grade will be a hyena. Even the leather-winged shouting heads at Fox News look like intellectual giants next to this bleating, benighted Cassandra. It’s like someone found a manic, doom-prophesying hobo in a sandwich board, shaved him, shot him full of Zoloft and gave him a show. What makes Beck special, aside from appearing to have derived his entire geopolitical outlook from a five-minute segment about Iran on “The 700 Club,” is the folksy “golly gee” manner in which he accuses his guests of collaborating with terrorists. At least Hannity and O’Reilly have the decency to act like bellicose pricks when they’re engaging in breathtaking cheap shots.

    Exhibit A: “When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, ‘Oh shut up!’ I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining.”

    Sentence: Stripped bare, trussed like a turkey and airdropped into Waziristan with an apple in his mouth and an American flag in his ass.

    http://buffalobeast.com/113/50_most_loathsome_2006.htm

  • http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/10059.html

    Tim F: In a fair world Beck has already said the goof that would hound him out of television. Seven or eight times. People seem slow to realize that the principle only works for lefties – there is literally nothing that a rightwinger can say that will disqualify him/her from the public discourse. Something about disrespecting the heartland, who knows. I call it the Inalienable Right.

    Lets play along with the right for a moment and call this phenomenon for what it is: “political correctness”. We progressives have taken just as much care to respect the feelings of the angry and delusional as we have to respect people of other skin colors, religions and lifestyles.

    But no reciprocity will be offered as the right don’t seem to care about anyone but themselves or any opinions but their own. They are like the carjacker who preys on the goodwill of a motorist willing to stop and help them, then murders them in cold blood.

    Does anyone else see irony in the contrasting of this “turn the other cheek” mentality liberals seem to possess, and the fact that conservative “Christians” take advantage and walk all over us time and time again? What would Jesus do, indeed?

  • Does anyone else see irony in the contrasting of this “turn the other cheek” mentality liberals seem to possess, and the fact that conservative “Christians” take advantage and walk all over us time and time again? What would Jesus do, indeed?

    Comment by JTK

    JTK, I think that’s when Jesus took the whip to the money lenders in the Temple. Not much later, the money lenders had Jesus crucified.

  • Another Sick Beck story here (MediaMatters, 10/7/05): a guy calls in and claims to know about blinding torture victims in Iraq with powerful halogen lamps, jetting high pressure water (1400lbs pressure) into their ears (which sounds like it would kill someone, not torture them).

    Point being Beck’s response. He had a long conversation with the caller (“Mitch”), saying “I’ve got to tell you I appreciate your service.”. He also said: “I’ve got to tell you, Mitch, it’s — you know, you tell one of these stories, you — I don’t know. If you’re comfortable telling this kind of — it’s not something that when you first meet — say, “Hey, by the way, for 30 years I tortured people.” I mean, it’s kind of an awkward, weird, kind of thing. But I have to tell you, when all is said and done, I’m glad people like you are on our side.”

    The guy’s a psychopath, eager to believe whatever torture stories he hears, and eager to praise them.

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