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Author of Time's Beck profile digs a deeper hole

September 18, 2009 9:30 am ET by Jamison Foser

Charles Kaiser offers this pitch-perfect description of Time's profile of Glenn Beck: "Von Drehle's piece is so humiliating on so many levels, it's hard to know where to begin."

Kaiser interviewed Von Drehle about the Beck profile, with hilarious results.  Like this, from Kaiser's Full Court Press post:

Von Drehle identified the boycott as "a boon" to Beck's ratings; but he didn't say that it now includes more than sixty corporations, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Procter & Gamble.   

FCP asked Von Drehle if sixty wasn't a rather large number-one perhaps worth mentioning in his piece.  "Well," he replied.  "There are millions of companies."

See, Von Drehle didn't mention the fact that 60 companies are boycotting Beck's show because there are millions of other companies that aren't.  Got it?  Millions of companies that have never advertised on Glenn Beck's show make the fact that 60 companies that used to do so now refuse to meaningless.  

Oh, and Detroit automakers are doing just fine. Sure, they've lost a lot of customers over the years -- but literally billions of people haven't stopped buying their cars!  Bonuses all around!

Then there's Von Drehle's justification for drawing an equivalence between Beck and Keith Olbermann:

Von Drehle also seems to think that the progressive hosts on MSNBC are really just like the right-wing crazies on Fox.  But when FCP pressed him about that, he admitted that had no basis whatsoever for making any comparison: 

"I haven't seen Keith Olbermann for at least a year and a half," the Time writer said.  "And I've never seen Rachel Maddow.  I have four children and a wife.  I don't sit around watching cable TV.  I don't understand why anybody watches any of these shows.  I know what these opinions are based on: they're based on nothing."

David Von Drehle doesn't watch Olbermann or Maddow, you see, because he already knows their opinions are "based on nothing."  The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping.

My own take on Time's profile of Glenn Beck is here.  Hint: It isn't positive.

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    • Author by The_Cat (September 18, 2009 10:23 am ET)
      1  
      "The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping."

      Very true, but also as pitch-perfect as Von Drehle's piece. :)
      Report Abuse
    • Author by mk3872 (September 18, 2009 10:24 am ET)
      3  
      Well, so much for journalistic integrity.

      He wrote a piece comparing Glenn Beck to shows he NEVER WATCHES! LOL!

      BTW, I have a family, too, and I can watch in the evening after kids are asleep through the miracle of recording my favorite programs!

      Report Abuse
      • Author by Kojerk (September 18, 2009 11:00 am ET)
           
        There was nothing in that piece about Glenn Beck heavily implying that a step-dancing team was actually a gang training to become Obama's personal SS. That point should be made over and over and over. Step-dancing team...Obama's personal army. More false equivalency pap. Number of times Keith Olbermann has trashed 9/11 victims' families? 0. Number of times he has war-gamed a coup? 0. These are not insignificant things. And keeripes, von Drehele just comes off like an ass in his rebuttal. Kind of, hmm, what's the word I'm looking for here..."elitist".
        Report Abuse
      • Author by NG_Officer (September 18, 2009 11:26 am ET)
           
        These shows are also stored in dump trucks on the internets and you can download them through the distribution tubes.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by meshelman (September 18, 2009 10:44 am ET)
         
      He doesn't bother to research the things he writes about because he has a personal life? Impressive. Do I get to blow off the most fundamental responsibilities of my job because I have a personal life?
      Report Abuse
    • Author by NiceguyEddie (September 18, 2009 11:01 am ET)
      4  
      David Von Drehle doesn't watch Olbermann or Maddow, you see, because he already knows their opinions are "based on nothing." The hypocrisy is jaw-dropping.

      Not to the average conservtive! These people are blind to their own hypocrisy because they've swallowed whole the nonsense that conservtatism is a virtue and liberalism a vice, so WHY do you need to actually LISTEN to the arguments? You KNOW they're wrong becasue they're LIBERAL! The evidence and reasoning are irrelevant. All you need to know is, LIBERAL.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by mdh (September 18, 2009 1:51 pm ET)
           
        Modern liberals are fact based. Modern conservatives are tribe based. Full Stop.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by political_left-religious_right (September 18, 2009 7:08 pm ET)
           
        Regrettably, that kind of mind-set manifests itself beyond politics. There was a theological debate once where one of the participants (a complete loony-tune named Art Sippo) assumed he knew his opponent's position so well that he kept walking off stage whenever his opponent got up to speak. His behavior was worse than condescending. And, not surprisingly, he still claims today to have won the debate in a crushing manner. In situations like that, when there's no room at all for reason, it's time to call out the guys with the white jackets.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by historygeek001 (September 18, 2009 11:32 am ET)
      2  
      Von Drehle seems to have fooled Time into thinking he's actually a journalist.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by The New Pilgrims (September 18, 2009 1:04 pm ET)
      1  
      Stenographer David Von Drehle covers the Holocaust:

      If you get your information from Jews, millions have been killed. This reporter though he saw what appeared to be smoke plumes billowing from what appeared to be a large human oven, accompanied by a horribly pungent odor. But Hitler's aides explained this is actually just a really large cookie factory, and that one of the worker's has bowel issues.

      Who to believe? Neither side is perfect. And their opinions are based on nothing.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by Peter Principle (September 18, 2009 5:02 pm ET)
         
      Expecting David Von Drehle to know more about the subject of his profile is like expecting a prostitute to know his/her John's favorite color. (In fact, it's EXACTLY like that.) That level of attention to detail just isn't in the job description
      Report Abuse
    • Author by steeve (September 18, 2009 6:49 pm ET)
         
      I don't watch cable news either. Partly because, UNLIKE VON DREHLE, it's not my job.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by central texas (September 18, 2009 10:08 pm ET)
         
      What is most interesting to me is that this naif or clown assumes that this is just another payment of his dues. He has not the faintest concept that his idiocy will live for decades and be among the things that anyone will find when they ask, "who the hell is David Von Drehle and why would I care what he says". The response that "yes, I was a stupid bootlicker then" invites the question, "what are you now?"
      Report Abuse

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