30 thoughts on “THE WHOPPER”

  • acer says:

    Beck is really headed into General Ripper territory these days. O'rly and Hannity seem like reassuring presences by comparison. Rupert Murdoch should bring Alex Jones for an interview, if he's just exploiting lunatics for ratings now.

  • Da Moose says:

    never mind the fact that we told our bombers not to bomb a huge world heritage site. Yeah, the only thing Beck is missing is a big red stick-on nose. Saw this live on Matthews broadcast–collective incredulity in my household. Wait. Does that make me a communist?

  • Hann1bal says:

    To bring up another crazy wingnut who got some screen time in that segment: Has anyone else noticed that one of Frank Gaffney's eyebrows is permanently raised?

    As for Glenn Beck…wow. He's been hitting the "Left Behind", obviously. I don't know if it occurred to him that we didn't attack Babylon because a) it's an archaeological site, with, in all likelihood, very little military value, and b) video of American planes dropping bombs on the site of Babylon would have made great propaganda for Saddam.

  • Noskilz says:

    But is there any sign that his fanbase isn't along for the ride? It's great that many supposedly serious people are pointing out that Beck seems to be flamboyantly stark, raving fruit-loops, but I'm not sure their fanclubs and Beck's have a lot of overlap.

    The creepiest thing about Beck to me is that there seem to be thousands of people who watch him and consider themselves well-informed by what they see.

    But it's still fun to see people like William Kristol feel the need to slap Beck around, and I hope he's finally outlived whatever usefulness he has for Fox, but he's been saying hardly less ridiculous things for years. Still, I've heard he's had trouble keeping advertisers, so here's hoping…

  • Major Kong says:

    @Hann1bal – I spent a fair amount of time dropping bombs on Iraq.

    You're exactly right. We don't target archaeological sites because there is no military value and it would be a huge propaganda bonus for the other side.

    In fact, I seem to recall that the Geneva Conventions bans the targeting of such sites. Gasp! They're in on the conspiracy too!

  • Ben says:

    Beck is the Charlie Sheen of pundits. There is nothing he could say or do that would make you say, "I'm completely shocked, I did not think he was capable of that."

  • Seth says:

    I think Noskilz has it right. The problem isn't inherently Beck. It's the distressingly large number of people who believe he's correct.

    I'll be interested in seeing/hearing/feeling the uproar from the Wingnuttery if Fox fires Beck. Can you imagine how furiously they'll condemn Fox for being co-opted by the nazisocialistnewworldorder regime?

    It would be funny if it weren't so fucking sad.

  • HoosierPoli says:

    Is there really anyone left who really gets a boner about Communism? At this point, even CUBA is introducing some liberalization of their economy. Communism, as it has been understood, is absolutely dead in the world. Stick a fork in it, it's done. Are there still people out there worried about those damn Commies?

  • dick nixon says:

    @Hoosier

    That's just what the Commies want you to think. As Lenin said, "…we will lull the capitalist lackeys to sleep with 70 years of disfunction before we join with the Islamofacists and create a dialectical Caliphate… time is on our side."

    It's all there, plain as day. Sadly, we have dropped our guard just as the plan has come to fruition.

  • Monkey Business says:

    Let's not forget that Beck is a devout Mormon, and most of the stuff he preaches fits in rather nicely with the Mormon belief in the End Times.

    So it's not just that he's crazy, he actually believes that we are on the verge of Armageddon.

    Now, he could be right, in which case we're all gonna look mighty stupid at some point in the near future. However, logic and reason and the laws of the universe suggest that he's just off his meds, and a good anti-psychotic would clear him right up.

  • Ed says:

    His ratings in January were his lowest Fox ratings ever. Increasingly, it appears that some portion of his audience – probably the part that gets off on his faux-populism but has enough of an education to realize that they are listening to a mentally imbalanced person completely wig out – is getting too embarrassed to keep watching.

  • Ike says:

    Never underestimate the power of the wingnut side of the conservative base to stand behind one of their "own." They don't see Beck as crazy, they see him as validation. Same with Rush, and Palin, and Ronnie, and Nixon.

  • Southern Beale says:

    This is all very well and good but has anyone just basically fact-checked to find out if there was, indeed, a prohibition against bombing the site of ancient Babylon? Wouldn't that kinda nip all this in the bud, instead of going into how a crackpot conspiracy theory spirals downward into a vortex of lies?

    Let me also add, I finally finished reading the New Yorker article "Paul Haggis vs. Church of Scientology" — all 26 pages of it, good Lord — and there is a very strong correlation between the methods used by an authoritarian cult like CofS and Glenn Beck. That's just the way I see it.

  • terraformer says:

    The suits have decided that they are no longer comfortable – in terms of the post-primary election and the ramping up of the 2012 presidential election – being associated with Beck. Thus, orders are out for the corporate media to start taking him down. He was useful, but is no longer. Expect him to be let go by summer. It will be interesting to see, however, the careful dance moves needed by the corporate media to can Beck while keeping the needed mouth-breather voting bloc.

  • DS says:

    I wrote my masters thesis on the Catholic far-right in France during the Algerian War and this is exactly what they argued: Islam and communism were working together to dominate the world, and if the French didn't torture and firebomb the bejesus out of Algerians and keep it French, it would be the stepping stone to conquer Europe. Mind you, these people were always on the fringe in the 1950s and 1960s in France. It is absolutely shocking to see it being argued on one of the most influential cable news shows in America in 2011. What else can you say?

  • J. Dryden says:

    We all have to remember Beck's background as a Morning Zoo Shock Jock. That his ratings are down explains much of the latest bout of lunacy–when your audience is growing bored with the current level of wackiness, you double-down and start booking transgender midgets and holding Cutest Aborted Fetus beauty pageants. Beck *may* be genuinely crazy, but I'm skeptical; he's spent a long career feigning wacky and outrageous behavior as a means of making a living. That Fox has put him in a format that demands greater and louder levels of lunacy may have resulted in a genuine madness superseding the carnie-level performance of same (wait–is Beck Hamlet?). But I refuse to ascribe to illness what can more easily be ascribed to the inability to shed oneself of old habits of venal hucksterism. In short, he's a clowning fraud, not a loon, and I suspect he looks in the mirror and laughs at how much he's getting away with. Though if the diminishing returns continue, desperation and the inability to imagine a smarter path may drive him to do/say something spectacular…Excuse me, I have to program my DVR.

  • Amanda says:

    What if they fired him just as election season started up again? "They took our freedums, our monie$, AND our Glenn Beck. Meddlin' libruls."

    Also I could see him making money going around the country making speeches and such even if he does get fired. Hope that Christmas sweater still fits this year (or was it shoes?). And what about his radio show?

    I'm curious as to why Rush isn't feeling similar pressure. Isn't he just as crazy?

  • Southern Beale says:

    I'm curious as to why Rush isn't feeling similar pressure. Isn't he just as crazy?

    There is no Murdoch connection to Rush and also, Rush DID feel this pressure and got booted off the TV a few years ago. He's strictly in radio now where his visibility is much less but he can still spread the crazy conspiracy crap and mine the partisan divide. Radio is the perfect place for the Becks and Limbaughs of conservatism.

    Most people ignore Rush these days. If Beck does get the boot he will still be on the radio, he'll just be exiled from TV.

  • The Man, The Myth says:

    This may be dumb – but I can't help but wonder what it says about a country where assholes on radio become successful. As other people have already said here – why would anyone want to listen/watch these jerks? A person gets killed and "conservative" bomb throwers whine and ask why they are being picked on? How about because you are total assholes? I wish I knew if England had a Rush Limbaugh. I still recall that the Economist had a tremendous opinion piece after Sarah Palin was selected as the VP back in 2008 – who is the British equivalent of Sarah Palin's fan? The Economist argued that in England these people are too concerned with the next football match, fighting, and drinking to worry about politics. I will admit to being pretty concerned with the next beer I drink, speaking of which, I think its beer-o-clock.

  • Arslan Amirkhanov says:

    Matthews kinda fucks it up with the Communists hate socialists remark(not all people who call themselves socialists are Communists but virtually all Communists are socialists), but as for Beck, GODDAMN!!! Does he realize that Ancient Babylon and Islam are not connected? And does he realize that Bush planned this war, so if this were true, it would be primarily the conservative Jesus' fault?

    Scratch that, it doesn't matter what he knows, or doesn't know. The point is that he doesn't care. He doesn't check because he knows his listeners won't check.

  • Arslan Amirkhanov says:

    Also I may be wrong about this, but what Mormontard apparently doesn't realize is that Shias are a minority in the Islamic world, and they do not follow Caliphates or Caliphs at all. Shias believe that the line of Islam follows Ali, a family member of Mohammed by marriage, as opposed to Sunnis, who believe in the line of Caliphs starting with Abu Bakr.

  • Arslan Amirkhanov says:

    Ok major fuck-up on my part here. Shias dispute not so much the idea of Caliphs but only the methodology by which they were chosen- hence you had the Fatimid Caliphate. Still, the idea that Shias are going to bring about a worldwide Caliphate is idiotic beyond belief; it is unlikely that the majority of Muslims, especially fundamentalist Sunnis, would ever recognize a Shia caliph.

  • Arslan Amirkhanov says:

    Beck: He just doesn't care.

    "According to Moojan Momen, Shia traditions state that the Mahdi be "a young man of medium stature with a handsome face" and black hair and beard. "He will not come in an odd year […] will appear in Mecca between the corner of the Kaaba and the station of Abraham and people will witness him there.[7]"

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