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THE ANATOMY OF A SMEAR: How the Left is fighting to silence GLENN BECK
media.glennbeck.com ^
| June 22, 2010, for TOWNHALL July 2010
| Meredith Jessup
Posted on 06/25/2010 5:51:02 AM PDT by Yosemitest
THE ANATOMY OF A SMEAR:
How the Left is fighting to silence Glenn Beck
by Meredith Jessup
Rule #11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.
Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals
We shouldve seen it coming.
As his Fox News Channel television audience exploded in 2009, it was only a matter of time
before the liberal Left organized itself into a full-court press against Glenn Beck.
Since the conservative radio phenom made the jump from CNNs Headline News to FNC,
Beck has set cable ratings records, adding more fans to his radio audience of millions.
His five oclock timeslot on Fox has grown to rival the primetime titans of cable news, Bill OReilly and Sean Hannity.
Though OReilly and Hannity are no strangers to hatred from liberals,
Glenn Becks fusion of entertainment and enlightenment incites a particularly unique level of vitriol
unmatched by any other television commentator today.
The concentrated disdain for Beck has also united the Left behind one common goal: Various levels of the Leftfrom grassroots organizers to the Obama White House
are working in an all-hands-on-deck concert to discredit Beck with a barrage of attacks in a relentless smear campaign.
LET THE BOYCOTTS BEGIN
To Becks regular audience, his disregard for political correctness and adherence to no-nonsense common sense are refreshing.
To his detractors, he is a fear-mongering extremist whose opinions represent reckless vitriolic rhetoric.
When third-year University of Wisconsin law student Angelo Carusone was annoyed by Becks controversial opinions, he launched StopBeck.com an online effort aimed at pressuring advertisers to withdraw their commercial support from Becks broadcast on Fox
and, in turn, force Beck off the air.
Working from an office in his two-bedroom apartment in Madison, Wis., Carusone sends sound bites of Becks show to corporate sponsors
and questions whether their products and services should support Becks programming.
In many cases, this slight nudge is enough to make the targeted advertisers pull their commercials.
If advertisers dont pull their support, Carusone uses his website and social networking sites to organize other Beck opponentsincluding his nearly 8,000 followers on Twitter
to bombard the companies with messages in support of a Beck advertising boycott.
And if the snowballing effect of thousands of outspoken anti-Beck activists doesnt stir enough commotion for a company to relent,
Carusone picks up the phone to personally confront them.
In what he calls his least flattering method of persuasion, Carusone argues with corporate media executives until they give in.
StopBeck.com also claims that Beck uses his media platform to disseminate vitriolic hateful rhetoric and stoke racial anxieties,
and the group works in conjunction with ColorofChange.org a group founded by dismissed Obama green jobs czar Van Jones
in boycotting Becks commercial sponsors.
Both organizations disparaged Beck for questioning President Obamas personal motives in condemning the Cambridge, Mass., Police for arresting Harvard professor Henry Gates in 2009.
ColorofChange.org Executive Director James Rucker told Townhall that the groups goal has been to bring Becks pattern of race-baiting to advertisers attention,
to let them know about our members concerns
and to ask whether those companies feel comfortable enabling Becks rhetoric.
But when rapper Kanye West infamously stated that President George W. Bush doesnt care about black people following Hurricane Katrina,
there was no boycott of Wests album sales.
And when pressed by Townhall about uber-Leftist comedian Bill Mahers recent comments about Barack Obama not being a real black president
because he didnt carry a loaded pistol in his waistband,
Rucker and Color of Change did not respond.
By Color of Changes own standards, these comments seem repulsive and dismissive,
yet Beck and Fox News remain the groups only boycott targets.
Color of Change and StopBeck.com represent a small niche of the anti-Beck movement on the Left
that uses advertising dollars as leverage to silence what they refer to as Glenn Becks brand of hate a brand they've constructed by using selective interpretation of mere fragments of Becks contextual dialogue.
But the Lefts efforts in smearing and silencing Beck run well beyond the limits of these two online campaigns.
The complex structure of the Lefts Glenn Beck smear campaign also includes some familiar big players in liberal politics.
ENTER GEORGE SOROS MEDIA MATTERS
Beck is a daily fixture of self-described progressive media monitor Media Matters.
However, instead of pointing out factual errors in Becks programming,
Media Matters merely inserts its own political opinion.
Media Matters obsessively posts nearly a dozen anti-Beck stories on their website daily
and thrives on clipping apart Becks statements to paint crude and incomplete pictures of Beck and his large devoted audience.
Media Matters also publishes media research on its site
that other liberal outlets pick up and disperse across the Internet and blogosphere.
Among these hard-hitting items: Glenn Becks disturbing use of race and race-baiting
Becks embrace of violent, anti-government rhetoric
Becks slavery fetish
Beck promotes book rife with anti-Semitism and racism
Beck pushes bogus evidence of socialism in Obamas policies
Media Matters joins StopBeck.com and Color of Change in supporting a widespread boycott of Becks programming and advertisers
and runs a daily list of companies who advertised during the Fox show.
Another group providing the Left with invaluable out-of-context quotes and blatantly slanted interpretations
to use in attacking Beck is John Podestas Center for American Progress (CAP), which talks about Beck claiming [Van] Jones proverbial scalp
and complains about Becks vitriol that is increasingly allowed to infect our public discourse. Incidentally, Podestas CAP and Media Matters not only spread each others research, but also share staff.
In fact, Podesta was a pivotal figure in founding Media Matters.
And CAPs Eric Alterman, who writes about Becks hatred for sale,
likes to remind readers that hes a senior fellow at surprise! Media Matters.
Not surprisingly, Media Matters and the Center for American Progress share common donors
that keep operations running smoothly, including generous financial gifts from George Soros and his Open Society Institute.
Soros affiliate MoveOn.org has also joined in spreading the Lefts disdain for Beck, in constructing a fake broadcast video that pokes fun at Becks conspiracy theories.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA ASSAULT
Saul Alinskys fifth rule for radicals says,Ridicule is mans most potent weapon.
Against irrational ridicule, there is no defense and an enemy is forced into concessions.
Taking a page right out of Alinskys playbook, the Left uses various media outlets to push
not only its policy agenda but also to advance its campaign against Glenn Beck.
By himself, Beck represents a formidable opponent in the media market.
Hes a media giant in every sense of the word commanding a broad audience in radio, television, books and public appearances
and it drives the Left and their friends in the mainstream media crazy.
On average, Becks five oclock timeslot ratings wallop cable competitors CNN and MSNBCs combined primetime line-up ratings.
When Beck had his regular show on HLN, the media could largely ignore him.
But when he was added to the Fox roster with the policies of a new Democratic administration to comment on,
Beck became an unstoppable force and Foxs cable competitors and other mainstream media outlets have had to put up a concerted effort to drown out his success.
Rule 11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it, Alinsky wrote.Dont try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies.
Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame.
Time magazine recently ran a cover story on Beck titled, Mad Man: Is Glenn Beck Bad for America? Times own Joe Klein lobbed a heavier accusation while appearing on MSNBCs The Chris Matthews Show,
claiming that people like Glenn Beck
rub right up close to being seditious.
Further, Times managing editor, Richard Stengel, appeared on Joe Scarboroughs Morning Joe on MSNBC to plug the magazine and personally attack Beck.
Becks work, he claimed, plays a part in the lack of civility in political discourse, Stengel said.
He also claimed Beck was stoking the publics angst about many things,
including the fact that President Obama is an African-American.
The New York Times dubbed Beck mad and apocalyptic.
Veteran liberal journalist Cokie Roberts dubbed Beck a traitor to the American values he professes so loudly to defend
and claimed he is corrupting the very essence of democracy.
MSNBCs Rachel Maddow cherry-picked statements from Glenn Becks radio show to accuse him of lying about global warming (see Maddows Snow Job sidebar ).
MADDOWS SNOW JOB
To illustrate how the liberal attack machine works,
follow this sequence of exchanges between MSNBC host Rachel Maddow and Glenn Beck:
Friday, Feb. 12: As the East Coast was pounded with record amounts of snow fall,
Beck joked on his morning radio program (in a stereotypical mobster voice, no less) that God was sending people like Al Gore a message,
but noted that one large snowstorm does not prove or disprove anything.
Friday, Feb. 12: In a brief segment on her primetime MSNBC show, Maddow quotes Becks joke as if he were seriousin claiming the snowstorm disproves Al Gores global warming theory.
Maddow conveniently leaves out Becks comment that one storm does not prove anything.
Monday, Feb. 15: Beck takes to the radio airwaves and responds to Maddows Friday segment,
calling her dishonest and reminding listeners that his stereotypical fake mobster/God voice
was nothing more than a joke.
Beck implied that it was irresponsible for Maddow to present his joke as evidence in an attempt to discredit him.
Tuesday, Feb. 16: Maddow fires back at Beck: I think its between you and your God or you and your conscience as to how much youre willing to stir up Americans fear and prejudice for profit.
But its between you and me when you accuse me of lying.
I didnt lie. Back o! .
Wednesday, Feb. 17: Beck plays the audio of his original comments,proving that Maddow had indeed selectively edited the audio
in order to suggest Beck based his opinion of global warming on one large snowstorm: The very next line that I said was youre an idiot if you believe this one storm in Washington proves theres no global warming.
I mean, its the very next line.
They are so dishonest they have to go that far.
In many cases like this, there is not one ounce of truth in the attacks on Beck.
The tactic is also known as propagandaand its just another tool in the Lefts smear arsenal.
Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather considers Beck controversial, but says he loves Keith Olbermann of MSNBC.
Speaking of MSNBC not content on merely calling him a racist,
the network cut right to the chase and called on Fox News to fire Beck.
Following his comments that Obama has deep-seated problems with white people,
MSNBCs First Look said that it was amazing that what Beck said isnt a fireable or even a suspendable offense.
Arianna Huffington, the namesake of President Obamas suggested reading for the American people, the Huffington Post, says she resents spending even a second of my life thinking about him.
But part of me recognizes that [Beck]s too dangerous to ignore.
She goes on to accuse him of inciting violence and anger
and argued that while the government cannot hold him legally liable,
he should be held morally liable and subsequently fired from Fox News.
The New Yorker calls Beck energetically hateful, truth-twisting, and blasts the negative, regressive take on politics he expresses with raw-throated outrage, smiley sarcasm and, occasionally, a display of hurt, even tears.
Newsweek went so far as to prominently feature Beck in an article titled, HATE: Antigovernment Extremists Are on the Rise and on the March.
Pictures in the article link Beck and former Alaska Gov.
Sarah Palin to 1930s socialists with a caption that reads: Huey Long castigated the rich
and Father Coughlin denounced Jews in the 1930s.
Today, the microphones belong to Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.
A week before Becks latest best-seller, a novel titled The Overton Window, was even released, the Left was already working to discredit the book and its author.
Media Matters derided the fictional work as sheer lunacy and once again labeled Beck a conspiracy theorist.
The Huffington Post critiqued a short video trailer promoting the book, which featured stanzas written by British poet Rudyard Kipling, stating, The trailer for Glenn Becks new book is just as nuts as youd expect.
Baseless charges like these are hurled at the conservative talker on a daily basis from the mainstream media a liberal salute to Alinskys Rule 8: Keeping the pressure on your opponents.The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.
It is this that will cause the opposition to react to your advantage.
When the medias feigned outrage over Becks opinion does not hinder the growth of his audience, they turn to the next slanderous charge.
When Fortune ran a cover feature on Becks unique ability to turn his political and comedic commentary into cold, hard cash,
the media accused him of being a money-grubbing showman.
When Beck warned viewers about Black Liberation Theology and the Lefts ideas of social justice, newspapers such as the Washington Post reserved copy space for a rebuttal.
The radical progressive Rev. Jim Wallis, Obamas own spiritual adviser,
urged Christians to stand up to Glenn Beck and accused him of picking a fight.
Time echoed Wallis with an article asking, Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Jesus?
Its not uncommon to go through a week with a different Glenn Beck hit piece splashed across the pages of all the countrys major newspapers, magazines and left-wing cable channels.
Simply put, the media are reacting to a threat to their agenda and their agenda is Barack Obama.
As a result, the mainstream media have joined the liberal blogosphere and organizations like Media Matters
and the Center for American Progress in an organized effort to attack Beck with amazing coordination from coast to coast.
With a close look at various media outlets coverage, it seems clear they all use the same set of recycled Glenn Beck talking points
and all regurgitate the same distortions and outright lies.
MODERN-DAY GOVERNMENT BLACKLISTING
In addition to Wallis, others close to President Obama have played a role at various levels of the Lefts smear machine.
The White House began waging war with Fox News last spring,accusing the cable network of spreading false information
about the presidents health care plan and pedaling propaganda from the Republican Party.
Ironically, then-communications director Anita Dunn said the White House would not just sit back and defend itself
because the conservative media will say anything.
They will take any small thing and distort it.
Most recently, the Lefts attack machine has moved to a new level, incorporating the power of the federal government.
Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., is accusing Beck of misleading his viewers in an attempt to profit off Americans economic jitters.
Weiner is accusing Beck of maintaining an unholy alliance with Goldline, one of Becks television and radio sponsors,
and suggests that Beck talks about Americas dangerous levels of debt only to try and scare people into purchasing gold.
Lost on Weiner, apparently, are the fact that Beck himself is a customer of the gold dealer
and the fact that Americas debt is indeed at a dangerous level.
Goldline rips off customers, uses misleading and possibly illegal sales tactics and deliberately manipulates public fears,
Weiner claims, yet the company maintains an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau.
Typical of government bullies, Weiner promises a future congressional investigation into Becks business relationship with Goldline.
Finally, when all else fails, the Left brings in the big guns.
President Obama himself has singled out Becks programs,
calling Beck and Rush Limbaugh troublesome and telling Americans to get their news somewhere else.
During a recent commencement address at the University of Michigan, Obama told the audience, If youre a fan of Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh,
try reading a few columns on the Huffington Post website.
But even with the power and prowess of the president behind the Lefts smear of Glenn Beck,
its doubtful Beck fans will happily hop over to a websitethat promotes a Twitter protest against Beck
or features headlines such as Lewis Black: Glenn Beck Has Nazi Tourettes;
or stories about how Glenn Beck hates Mothers Day;
or riveting video of HLNs Joy Behar telling Beck, I dont give a flying f**k about you.
SOLDIERING ON
To a regular viewer and listener of Becks programs,
the accusations thrown at him from the Lefts smear campaign machine are ludicrous, untrue and sometimes even comedic.
Suggesting Glenn Beck hates Jesus or leads an axis of the obsessed and deranged
serves only to unite Becks loyal bloc of viewers against the Left.
Though he does from time to time
use over-the-top imagery and sarcasm on his shows that may be lost on many people,
its not this behavior that causes the Left to froth at the mouth and howl with outrage.
Perhaps most offensive to the far-Left is that Glenn Beck refuses to succumb to the rules of political correctness
and doesnt try to soften the blow of the harsh realities the country faces today.
The American people appreciate honesty, and Beck dishes out his own daily dose.
Above it all, Beck has sparked a movement toward enlightenment in America both political and historical
and this movement represents a significant threat to the Obama agenda and, subsequently, the media.
He has reignited the publics interest in our nations founding principles,
exposes left-wing policies and individuals that make up the Obama administration
and serves as the common mans advocate against their disastrous economic policies.
For a self-educated, self-described rodeo clown, Glenn Beck must be doing something right.
For the time being, Beck is a pivotal public figure in the fight against the agenda of President Obama and his liberal progressive cohorts.
And as long as hes able to withstand the onslaught of attacks from the Left,
Beck will remain a de facto leader of the movement working to take our country back.
Beck has sparked a movement toward enlightenment in America
both political and historical
and this movement represents a significant threat
to the Obama agenda and, subsequently, the media.
Meredith Jessup is assistant editor for Townhall.com and a contributing editor for Townhall Magazine.
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: beck; democrats; glennbeck; inman; lds; liberal; liberalfascism; liberalprogressivism; mormon; progressives
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Thanks you for pointing this article out, Glenn.
God bless you and keep you and your's safe, and guide and protect you.
To: Yosemitest
My mother has a pin given to her from some Democrat org. It reads:
SILENCE GOP LIES.
2
posted on
06/25/2010 5:53:18 AM PDT
by
madameguinot
(Our Father's God to Thee, Author of Liberty)
To: Yosemitest
Do you think that Beck’s recent criticism of J.D. Hayworth is an effort to curry favor with the Left?
3
posted on
06/25/2010 5:53:18 AM PDT
by
iowamark
To: Yosemitest
I thought Glenn was a righting embarrassing “kook”? Why would the leftists want to silence him?
4
posted on
06/25/2010 5:55:29 AM PDT
by
central_va
(I won't be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.)
To: Yosemitest
Working from an office in his two-bedroom apartment in Madison, Wis., ... In his pajamas, no doubt...............
5
posted on
06/25/2010 5:56:43 AM PDT
by
Red Badger
(No, Obama's not the Antichrist. He's just some guy in the neighborhood.............)
To: Yosemitest
I think the thing that frightens these marxists the most is the fact that Beck never says “Trust me”. He says “Don’t take my word for it, research it yourself”.
Its kind of a double slap to the marxists who don’t want people to think for themselves. Glenn has them firmly pegged.
6
posted on
06/25/2010 5:57:56 AM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
To: iowamark
Lately Beck has been all over the map. I suspect he is trying to appeal to what is generally defined by the MSM and liberals as “mainstream” by going left, so I’ve begun to seriously question just where he actually stands.
7
posted on
06/25/2010 5:59:08 AM PDT
by
The Sons of Liberty
(The usurper 0bama regime is a "Clear and Present Danger" to AMERICA! - Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin)
To: Yosemitest
Rule #11: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it.
TWO CAN PLAY THE SAME GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8
posted on
06/25/2010 6:00:29 AM PDT
by
PORD
(People...Of Right Do!)
To: Yosemitest
Liberals have failed to use logic against their opponents, so they resort to personal destruction and lies instead.
Keep exposing how liberals must use lies to destroy their opponents rather than intellectual arguments.
9
posted on
06/25/2010 6:00:48 AM PDT
by
Erik Latranyi
(Too many conservatives urge retreat when the war of politics doesn't go their way.)
To: Yosemitest
10
posted on
06/25/2010 6:00:50 AM PDT
by
dcwusmc
(A FREE People have no sovereign save Almighty GOD!!! III OK We are EVERYWHERE)
To: iowamark
I think so and in the end it will bite him in the butt.
11
posted on
06/25/2010 6:02:27 AM PDT
by
MBB1984
To: iowamark
Do you think that Becks recent criticism of J.D. Hayworth is an effort to curry favor with the Left? No.
To: Red Badger
pajamas? you give him too much credit...most likely his whitey tighties and a three day stubble with some empty beer cans and a full ashtray beside him.
13
posted on
06/25/2010 6:04:03 AM PDT
by
tioga
To: MBB1984
I think so and in the end it will bite him in the butt. How does (properly) criticizing a pol who claims fiscal responsibility on the one hand and does a commercial ad to promote begging for tax dollars on the other amount to an attempt to curry favor with the left, and just how is this going to "bite him in the butt"?
To: Yosemitest
“Stop Beck.”
As far as I know, every clicker in the world comes with a surefire means of doing that.
In a free country, that’s considered sufficient.
To: tioga
The only reason he does this is because he has waaaaaay to much time on his hands, and can’t get a date...............
16
posted on
06/25/2010 6:11:35 AM PDT
by
Red Badger
(No, Obama's not the Antichrist. He's just some guy in the neighborhood.............)
To: MozarkDawg
How does helping John McCain square with Beck’s stated conservatism?
17
posted on
06/25/2010 6:16:00 AM PDT
by
iowamark
To: central_va
Why would the leftists want to silence him?
A very interesting question. One would think that lies will prove themselves in short order. Like what happens with progressives, leftists democrats communists etc. So why would leftists want to silence him, or any other truth teller for that matter.
The answer is obvious. It is only truth that angers the left.
18
posted on
06/25/2010 6:24:03 AM PDT
by
wita
To: iowamark
I suppose you've missed his constant denunciation of McCain, the question he asked, "Where do the people of Arizona turn?"
I still want to know how pointing out Hayworth's hypocrisy is somehow currying favor with the left.
To: Yosemitest
my wife and i cancelled geico insurance after they left beck.
we got wauwaunesa insurance which is less expensive.
geico called the house to inquire why we hadn’t paid the renewal.
i replied: because we’re not renewing geico.
the 20 something asked: why?
i said: because geico left the glenn beck show.
he exclaimed: because of THAT? !!
20
posted on
06/25/2010 6:33:21 AM PDT
by
ken21
(who runs the gop?)
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