Comments on: Fair and unfair criticism of Glenn Beck

By: TheAlmighty

TheAlmighty — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:45:33 +0000

I have to agree with all that is said here. Nancy Franklin is simpy beating down some one who is her enemy. She can’t win with facts of truths so she is going right to the liberal game plan of destroying your enemy by saying nasty things. Glad some one is calling her out. I wrote a paper on this as well and submitted it to the NewYorker for my class. Hahahah think they will publish it?

By: ConnectTheDots

ConnectTheDots — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 22:02:17 +0000

The local radio station in Columbus Ohio started carrying the Glenn Beck radio program starting 9/11/01 to replace Dr. Laura. I’ve been listening to Beck ever since, was thrilled when his show was on CNN Headline News and was elated when he moved to Fox. Not everybody gets Glenn Beck. I liken him to an everyday guy you would have a conversation with at the water cooler. But I believe he does the research to back up his accusations. I think if Murray is poo-pooing Beck’s use of an unattributed Thomas Jefferson quote as one of Beck’s flaws, he’s skating on thin ice. I’m wondering if Beck uses Bartlett’s Book of Quotations or their database for his quotes? Frankly, I think Beck’s method of presenting things in a humorous manner is sometimes a detriment. I subscribed to his magazine and found it unreadable. I haven’t read any of his recent books for fear they are similar. I would rather have a hard-hitting, fact-laden volume than some of the picture books Beck produces. In spite of his shortcomings and showmanship, Glenn Beck is doing some very important work in countering the evils of the reigning Marxists in Washington. I wish we had 100 more like him, or a least more honesty in the Lame Stream Media.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:30:48 +0000

Take those enormous talents and make all the arguments that he can legitimately make.

That’s like telling Bush that Bush should stay stubborn and have all his good qualities, but change how he does things politically.

Newsflash: Bush wouldn’t be Bush without his problems and virtues, which means you can’t drastically change his style without changing what made him Bush.

It’s also like wishing Obama and Clinton could be just as charismatic as they are in speech, but with a conservative and military loving personality. Hello sheep of the world, the reason Obama and Clinton are charismatic is because they are narcissists. Narcissists hate people who excel in life through merit, and not through cunning deception and narcissistic rage. Remove the narcissism and you remove much of Obama and Clinton’s personal magnetism. They can’t keep their good qualities, change their core behavior on stuff, just to please you, and still be the Obama. No, better to wish they were Sarah Palins. Change the entire edifice. Don’t try to reverse engineer stuff that can’t be reverse engineered. Wipe the slate clean and start all over, from day 1 of birth.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:22:00 +0000

It is impossible to have that trust.

Why do you need trust when you can research the connections yourself.

Oh right, that’s because you don’t have the motivation or the resources to do the research yourself.

At the same time that Beck is forward on these issues, it is precisely because he has the motivation and thus the resources. If it was so easy for Fox to hire up some background researchers, one would expect the New York Times, the Obama administration, and professional columnists to be able to do the same thing. But they won’t do the same thing, because they lack motivation.

The same thing that propels Beck to the front, automatically implies that the motivation to do research is only invested in those like Beck. You can’t separate the two abilities. Remove the motivation, and you get Peggy Noonan. There’s no such thing as taking initiative and attacking the enemy means that one could do just as good a job if one changed one’s methods. In point of fact, often the methods are the very reason for original success.

Beck is just one man, and one man has a multitude of flaws. But those flaws aggregate to form success in this case. Take away the flaws and you take away the success. There is no such thing as reverse engineering human personality to a more pleasant original form. What you see is what you get.

Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann are brothers.

That’d be more convincing if the author did his own homework.

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/j/jefferson-quotes.htm

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”-Truth! Found on page 143

You see, it doesn’t matter if this quote existed or not. What matters is that Beck has access to many quotes like this, which if aren’t necessarily true to an ignorant public addicted to google, is at least academically verified by sources.

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”-Truth! Found on page 227

Beck has many of these quotes in his arsenal. But these aren’t popular knowledge. You don’t see em on google, or rather if you do see em on google you won’t have access to the original source documents or even the secondary sources covering the primary sources. This is not your average Ivy league research project. Much of this stuff is buried by Leftist lies, obfuscations, and historical decimation.

Status: This exact quotation has not been found in any of the writings of Thomas Jefferson. It bears a very vague resemblance to Jefferson’s comment in a prospectus for his translation of Destutt de Tracy’s Treatise on Political Economy: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, ‘the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, & the fruits acquired by it.’”

Beck has to use sub-standard sources because the academic firepower or professional researchers are not on his side. And it wouldn’t even matter if they paid someone else to do this, because this kind of research actually takes skill and judgment, not just Democrat patronage type hackery. You have to find someone that can acknowledge the truth when they see it. And where are you going to be able to find someone like that from the public education system willingly to work for a price Beck can pay? If Fox News and their competitors can’t find enough people to research shallow war and civic CURRENT EVENTS to get things accurate, how are they going to justify putting serious conservative and valued academics on this subject.

We’re talking about a conspiracy needed, not a one on one private relationship.

And how the hell does the author know, absolutely know, that it was Beck who ‘found this quote’ and not one of his staffers and research artists who, being either young or underpaid, didn’t devote the days required to search through all of Jefferson’s writings and second source sources for verification?

The author should take his own advice, precisely because a google search gave me an alternative quote Beck could have used. If I was criticizing Beck, I’d recommend he use that quote. Because you see, if I want him to do his homework, I’d do my homework and then I’d showboat him by giving him a better result than the one he created, while this author admits openly that he can’t equal Beck’s work but criticizes it nonetheless as being inferior to some abstract standard.

Victory and failure are born of realistic standards, not abstract standards.

By: SADIE

SADIE — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:24:10 +0000

I think Murray only used the Jefferson quote as an example.
The irony here is that Obama is all style and no substance, but of course, no one on the flip side of the coin thinks that’s relevant to coverage.
suek, you hit the nail with Palin and Beck in the same breath/sentence. It’s gotten to the point when someone is honest and in your face with it – the doofuscats are aghast.
The voter has gotten so used to a snow job, they can’t see Spring.

By: suek

suek — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:11:33 +0000

“I would love it if Beck and his staff would take Murray’s criticism to heart and clean up the show’s act. ”

You know…it’s a pretty general accusation. Did he mention any specific erroneous information that Beck has broadcast? or is it just because of a lack of demonstrable specific references for his statements?

By: suek

suek — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 01:46:37 +0000

“I want him to change. Take those enormous talents and make all the arguments that he can legitimately make. Keep the cutesy gimmicks”
In other words…”I agree with him…but d*mn, he embarasses me! Can’t be more _sophisticated_? … like _me_????”

In other words…he’s like Palin – he appeals to the everyman, which is just really embarassing for the well educated class…even though they really know she – and he – are absolutely right. And in my mind, I think of Kerry and Bush…the one so lah te dah, and the other so… well… _nice_!

By: SADIE

SADIE — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:59:10 +0000

Murray’s contradictory *quotes provides the cannon fodder for the argument that Beck puts across his message with too many bell and whistles. While he makes his case, in a less than sophisticated style (Top 40 radio style) he has your attention. For the non-reader or reader-lite, he moves his point along – the Evelyn Wood Speed Viewing Course.
That’s why it’s called the Glenn Beck Show, not the Glenn Beck News Hour.
*”Glenn Beck and Keith Olbermann are brothers” and “ Beck is spectacularly right (translation: I agree with him) on about 95 percent of the substantive issues he talks about”
Beck’s style has certainly ruffled the feathers of the peacock network and Franklin. If the New Yorker felt compelled to point and shoot and Book dropped the ‘Beck’ word (it’s like dreck in many circles) and he succeeded in bringing Van Jones front and center and his ‘exit’ – let him keep the format. If he moves to a news hour one day, he can clean up his act later.

By: suek

suek — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:40:38 +0000

“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.”

a) He only has an hour show. To fulfill your requirements would probably take twice as long. If Fox would remove Geraldo (Jerry to his mother) and give Glenn his hour of broadcast time, maybe he could fulfill your requirment! It’d be ok with me…!!
b)The question really is “who can you trust?” We’ve all been lied to so often by the MSM doing the same sort of misleading reports that Murray complains about that it’s reasonable to be untrusting. In the end though, either you have to do all the research yourself, or you have to trust _somebody_.

Glenn Beck’s style isn’t really my cup of tea…but what he says…is.

By: pst314

pst314 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:44:56 +0000

“as Shakespeare said, ‘Oh, I have lost my reputation’”
The New Yorker, along with much of the MSM, has also lost its reputation, except that it is known for formulating its lies in long, dry, boring prose.