Washington Post Radio considers hiring Glenn Beck
In a June 7 Washington Post article, staff writer Paul Farhi wrote: "Faced with continuing financial losses and stubbornly low ratings for Washington Post Radio," WTWP owner Bonneville International Corp. is "considering" picking up "a show hosted by conservative Glenn Beck." Farhi added: "However, both Bonneville and The Post must agree on all programming decisions." As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, Beck -- who hosts a nationally syndicated radio show and a nightly program on CNN Headline News, and joined ABC's Good Morning America as a regular contributor in January 2007 -- has repeatedly spouted inflammatory comments about Muslims, Arabs, Mexicans, and female guests on his radio and television programs, a tendency that went unmentioned by Farhi.
Beck has said of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY): "[S]he's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" He once asked then-Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim ever elected to Congress: "OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. ... [W]hat I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' " He has said that he "wouldn't vote for [Sen.] Joe Lieberman [I-CT] as president ... because of the way the Middle East would use it," but also asserted, "That's not saying the same thing as I wouldn't vote for a Jew for president." More recently, he speculated whether the wife of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) was under the influence of "some sort of ... date rape drug."
The article quoted Jim Farley, vice president of news for Bonneville, as saying that the station is in need of "more conversational elements" and also included quotes from Joel Oxley, Bonneville's top local executive, who stated, "Beck is an interesting guy. ... He does a good job in some other markets."
Glenn Beck gets terrible ratings but conservative businessmen like him. He is nearly always smiling and agreeable, the new face of bigotry. He is shooting up so fast in the media, if not among the public, because they want a more agreeable, personable semi-fascist.
I believe I'm paraphrasing Jon Stewart here, but Beck says what people who aren't thinking are thinking.
That sounds like Stewart. Also sounds like something Groucho might have said about someone.
Regardless, I'm going to use it now.
Plagarist
If someone refers to and gives credit to the person who originated the idea, it's not plagiarism.
I'd suggest a dictionary before trying to use any more big words.
Good idea, King. I hear them dictionaries can help with spelling, too.
You can't find truthiness in the dictionary. Well, maybe you can find the word "truthiness", but you can't find the state of mind.
Easter,
I was coming in here to post about what is so damn special about Glen Beck but you said pretty much what I was wondering......
Since he is just another half-wit racist that tries to act as if he is smart about any issue and that he 'knows' what the majority of us are thinking.......
No wonder right-wing troglodytes love him!
Glenn Beck is as far from being racist as you can get, but I don't expect you to know that. Ignorance breeds fear, and fear breeds racism. MMFA does a wonderful job of taking conservative information out of the context from which in originated and using it to scare the daylights out of the liberal panty-wastes into believing that the cons are out to destroy world. Quit being ignorant.
Give me an example of Beck being a "racist".
I have not listened to a lot of beck (a few hours is all I could take). I have heard it all before. He basically regurgitates dumbed down versions of the right wing talking points. I feel sorry for him for destroying a great deal of his brain cells with massive quantities of alcohol. I saw him being interviewed in regard to his alcoholism. I think he is trying to be a hannity clone. I believe CNN was attempting to capture more of the die hard Faucks Noos demographic. He just kind of makes my stomach churn. Its like watching hannity on 100mgs of Valium. Rather watch the door on my microwave oven.
Oh God
How can someone who is so obviously gay also be so right-wing?
Just ask Ted Haggard, or James Gukart aka Jeff Gannon.
becks gay? I did notice he is constantly shifting his sitting position.
I said that the Troglodyte string-pullers are grooming this Happy-Faced ChristoFascist Troglodyte to be the next Rush Limbaugh...could I be right? Rush has soiled himself with his drug problem...Glenn is a squeaky clean Mormon...a perfect new Pious Piper for herding the Evangelicals into the voting booth.
You guys are sooo weird. How many of you have actually listened to his program? I will be preparing myself for a completely honest answer...I have listened to Glenn Beck since he was basically a one station affiliate guy on 970wfla in Tampa Bay. All the names labels you put on him are completely the opposite of who Glenn Beck is.
Unfortunately, yes. Had to turn it off after a short while.
Anyway, check out this link to see what more of the things this talented "nice" guy talks about:
http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/glennbeck
HAHA..'I listened a short while' -----and then you list MM group of ridiculous complaints? Please, get a clue. You have no idea who glenn is other than a few quotes from the hundreds and hundreds of hours the man is on air.
If there were a MM for this site, by the way, it would be funny to see how many of YOU would get slammed for the attacks YOU post about Glenn and others. Troglodyte, racist, fat, hick, crazy mormon etc, etc. It's almost like YOU DO the same things YOU complain about him doing.
If you people can't take a joke about Kucinich and his wife, then you should also ban the daily show. Because when your idol Stewart makes jokes like that, you eat it up.
magnolia's link has dozens of beck quotes just from this year alone.
John Stewart doesn't really do jokes. He reads the news straight and gets his laughs from the newsmakers themselves. He doesn't need to take cheap shots at the families of those he mocks. Not unless the family members set themselves up for ridicule.
Your post shows you know as much about comedy as you do about current affairs.
Stewart makes no claim to be anything but a comedian, just like George Carlin.
Beck on the other hand wants to be both a comedian and political sage. He's much too dimwitted to be anything more than a clown.
beck wants to be a comedian? HUH!! I don't get it. CNN should start the "No beck ZONE" He has a shot at being funny if he were to start drinking again. His days are numbered
"HAHA..'I listened a short while' -----and then you list MM group of ridiculous complaints? Please, get a clue. You have no idea who glenn is other than a few quotes from the hundreds and hundreds of hours the man is on air.
If there were a MM for this site, by the way, it would be funny to see how many of YOU would get slammed for the attacks YOU post about Glenn and others. Troglodyte, racist, fat, hick, crazy mormon etc, etc. It's almost like YOU DO the same things YOU complain about him doing.
If you people can't take a joke about Kucinich and his wife, then you should also ban the daily show. Because when your idol Stewart makes jokes like that, you eat it up."
Now what I should have said, is that I listened for awhile, on many different occassions, and have also caught his show here and there. While I'm not a fanboy, such as yourself, I have heard him enough to know one thing about Beck. He is as ignorant as the day is long, and does nothing but attack democrats, and make really outrageous statements which he does to try and put himself out in the front of things, and to make him look like the next Limbaugh. Fortunately for him, most of what he says just makes him look like an idiot.
What makes the complaints I posted from this site ridiculous? Exactly what in those comments and or postings do you not agree with? Or are you a Beck dittohead and just agree with the insance things that regularly tumble from his mouth with an astonishing frequency really. Whatever happened to the old rule of, "If you can't say anything nice maybe you shouldn't say anything at all?"
See genius, this site is not about the attacks and or comments that we make. It's about what comments and or attacks actual political pundits and alleged news people make in the media, which go out, and are seen and or heard by many other people than who read this site. And our comments, for the most part, are just our opinions, which are sometimes backed up with facts. The attacks made by posters here have no bearing on society in general, while attacks and misinformation spewed forth by Beck and his ilk do have an effect, such as misleading the American people that what they are saying is true, this site is here to correct the record.
We might do some of the same things that he does, but our "listenership" is not as wide. If someone wanted to start a site about the comments section of MM, now that would be hilarious. We're not public personnas around here (some of us might thing we are, but we're not), and therefore what we say as a comment on a section of a website that doesn't get a ton of traffic, is, as I said before, somewhat inconsequential. Now, if you have a problem with the information that MMFA actually presents, and have a problem with their sourcing, and or their correction to the misinformation, please, feel free to post a correction, with backing information in the comments section here. I'll check it out, and then make my own decision.
Beck is not a comedian. Jon Stewart is. Jon Stewart has a news satire show on COMEDY CENTRAL. Glenn Beck has a show on CNN. When Jon Stewart makes jokes, they are actually known to be jokes, because he is, once again, a comic. Glenn Beck says these awful things about people, because he's an idiot, and not funny. It's not surprising to me that you don't see the difference between Stewart and Beck. One, trying to make people laugh, and does quite often (while skewering everybody in the process right, left, and center), and one who wants desperately to be funny, but is just an ignorant bigotted twit.
I like ignorant, gay, stupid, alcoholic people on the radio and CNNHLN who attack Democrats. Doesn't everyone?
i've listened to beck and o'reilly and limbaugh.... same old same old. bush good, democrats bad.
You obviously haven't listened. Glenn is not at all a Bush fan.
then just exactly who is he a fan of? all he does is attack democrats.
He has been attacking Bush for almost the entire duration of his television show being on air. He calls people of both parties to the carpet when he disagrees... something that diehard Libs or Cons can't seem to do. There is emotion on the far left and right, then there is reality somewhere in the middle.
Actually, I have listened to 970 for many many years. I live in Tampa.
Glenn Beck is bigoted, a misogynist, racist, sometimes an idiot, and has the inflated ego of many famous megalomaniacs.....etc...etc...etc.
There was no other radio host that ticked off my last nerve more than Beck did.
AND OH YES HE WAS A BUSH FAN, I LISTENED TO HIM. then it became a little LESS popular to kiss bush's butt every 2 seconds on the radio, and he slowed down his rhetoric.
I DO KNOW I LISTENED.
Have you listened in the past month? Have you heard ANY of the Beck rants about how Bush has sold out the conservatives that got him elected? He's been on this rant for months now. Your informationis outdated and wrong.
That whole line about Bush selling out the Conservative movement is more RW fantasy. GWB did not change. In fact, the act he's been playing for his entire political career is that of a man incapable of change. Bush's corporate favoring, public ignoring style of government is exactly what he promised and exactly what the conservatives endorsed all those years. Now that he's failed and more than half of the American citizens who were behind him have joined the other half of us who never were suddenly the conservatives want to claim he was never one of them.
it's become easier to criticize bush now that a lot of the public has turned against him. but, as noted, there is nothing that he is doing differently. he's made no changes.
He is, however, an idiot. And, yes, I've listened enough to know. While he is not always wrong, and not always a GOP water-carrier, that doesn't excuse his frequent excursions into stupidity and bigotry.
Maybe beck is trying to get a "hook-up" with ralph reed or sean hannity-waste. When I first saw him I thought the Pillsbury Dough Boy had dieted. Considering the vilriol the right wing talkingheads spew forth this site is tame.
The Washington Post should hire Borat. If anyone of you think I'm being silly because Borat isn't for real have any of you ever read the Washington Post?
I never saw a reply to this when I posted it yesterday, so I'll ask it again. To all you supporters of a free market media why, if Beck's ratings are lower now than when he started last year, isn't it working the way y'all claimed when you were so vehemently opposed to any sort of return to the fairness doctrine? Beck is living proof that everything you claimed would happen isn't happening.
You would have to ask the honchos at CNN how long they intend to keep Beck on the air if, over the long haul, his ratings continue to decline. For them to continue airing a program that keeps getting trounced in the ratings so they can advance some political agenda would be a horrible business decision, and I would imagine their stockholders would feel the same way.......and they would begin to dump the stock, driving the price down, decreasing the worth of the company.
Eventually, if that continues, this political agenda that many intimate these huge corporations have, wouldn't be worth a damn, if nobody's watching. So they operate in such a way at their own peril.
I read today that Bernard Shaw is disappointed that CNN now seems to want to be a clone of Fox News. He doesn't like the fact that they're adding more opinion and showing less news.
I got the impression from the article that Bernard feels that they're trying to re-invent CNN. If that's the case, then part of their strategy could be to stick with a loser until things turn around.
I agree with you. Cable news is far different than it was just 10 years ago.......probably thanks to Fox for bringing a radio talk show mentality to cable news, it is very disheartening. It used to just Crossfire on CNN where you'd get the screaming matches, now it's nearly every show....it's all very tabloid and opinion based anymore.
And can we just retire Larry King please!
Crossfire used to be a great show. Tom Braden on the left and Pat Buchanan on the right. Not a lot of shouting and no studio audience.
That was back before Pat sprouted horns.
It was good, even w/ Michael Kinsley.......also back when Bob Novak could speak in complete sentences without looking sauced like he does now.
Are we that old to remember that???
No, never too old.
That was before Novak was bitten on the neck. Every time I see him now, I hear Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor playing in my head.
Ah, yes, remember when it premiered?
Don't you just hate it when there is more than one news outlet. I get so confused. I want it like in the good old days when CNN always had the news to its self then I knew exactly what to believe.
Year to year Beck's ratings are higher than when he started. None of you people have any idea what you are talking about at all. Not even close. Get a clue.
I think when you start a show, you have zero ratings, seeing as it hasn't been on yet and nobody could watch it.Ratings couldn't go down after you start.
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/the_scoreboard_monday_june_4_60409.asp
here's a clue, Becks ratings are going down. Live with it!
http://achorn.blogspot.com/2007/05/glenn-beck-ratings-report-may-21-25.html
Ow, that's gotta hurt...
Wow, Beck beat both Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough in the "money demo" Sorry, I dont think he is going anywhere soon.
Good for him! He is beating those that he needs to beat.
SNOOPY:
You have to understand how the rightwing "DEFINES" a free market, to understand how their support for it works.
Take the oil industry. "It's supply and demand, a free market!" they claim, "So the price is out of the industry's control ... and the government should NEVER interfere!" they hasten to add.
So, if the price is set, where do they get their supply? All the same place, all the same price? Amounts don't matter? How much petroleum is imported from Iraq? And at what price? And who is getting that money? I'd sure like to know, but THAT part of the "free market" is secret stuff. We citizens can't know, and can't ASK.
All those overseas deals are made possible by GOVERNMENT arrangements, and those arrangements are made cozy by lobbiests and contributions and smoothing the way by government action every step of the way, from incentives for cooperation in the form of taxpayer dollars in "aid", to outright WAR.
So, the entire STRUCTURE of the "free market" for oil is a web of government action. When the oil companies say they detest government "interference", they mean of course any government action that seeks to make them accountable, or investigates their methods, or inquires into practices on behalf of the American public. All the government stuff that FAVORS the oil corporations, that's GREAT government "interference". But, then it's not a "free market", is it? It's manipulated 18 ways to Sunday, and all to favor big oil at the expense of the American People.
Petroleum has to be REFINED, and so the Oil Companies can't control that part of "supply". Except, the oil companies DO control the refineries, and they can manipulate the "supply" to suit their whims. In the contract ENRON had with California for energy supply, the price was fixed ... with one exception: It was tied to output of refineries, and if gas availability dropped, that would trigger the ability to charge premium prices. Guess what? The Refineries shut down, went offline for "routine maintenance" SIX AT THE SAME TIME, and this produced ... quietly but certainly ... the shortage needed to trigger the higher prices.
"Erectile Dysfunction" drugs are in great competition in America. You can't turn on an hour TV program without seeing at least three or four different ads. Insurance companies, same thing; lizards and promises of "prompt payment" and all manner of competitive pitches to get you to buy insurance from X Company instead of Y Company. Businesses in true competition spend a large segment of their yearly gross on ADVERTISING. Yet, one can go DAYS without seeing an ad for an oil company. A key indicator of healthy competition is missing there ... which indicates NO NEED to vigorously compete. ALL oil companies are making record profits, and they LIKE it that way. Never again will we see "Gas Wars" where prices are lowered sometimes by the hour, as gas stations across the street from each other compete by trying to attract customers with lower prices. Now, it's all a big collusion by like-minded executives who golf together.
So, when a rightwinger starts talking about "free markets", they have no idea what they're talking about. The system is rigged; oil companies making record tens of billions in profits ALSO RECEIVE BILLIONS FROM THE GOVERNMENT, in "subsidies" and "depletion allowances" and a hundred other damn ways.
The rightwing doesn't want Free Markets: they desire Plutocracy ... and with the GOP, they HAVE it. And the American people get screwed daily.
Does anyone find it strange that Beck can stay on with low ratings as long as he tows the right wing line. Yet Phil Donahue's rating was high and he was yanked off the air for having anti war guests on his show.
In the case of Beck and Donahue market was not the factor. The factor is that of the propaganda filter within the media. Beck's staying power and Donahue's getting the boot is proof of the media filter.
It proves nothing. Anyone can cherry pick one instance or a couple to try and make a point. You will need to establish some pattern over a period of time for your "proof" to have any credence.
How about Disney dropping Hightower when he was KILLING in the ratings, or the NYTimes firing Sydney Shaumburg one of Americas most celebrated newsmen AFTER he won a Pulitzer or Cerra when she wrote about the troubles with the Long Island power plant EVERYTHING she wrote being shown accurate in the fullness of time, The Kwitney report being dropped by PBS the year after it won the Polk award? See the documentary Fear and Favor in the Newsroom and you get a different take on this.
Who?
Cherry picking? Hardy har har. The media gave practically all attention on Khmer Rouge and none on East Timor. This has nothing to do with the market. It has everything to do with the fact that the atrocity in the East Timor was U.S sponsered. How can an event which is one of the worst massacre relative to the population since the Holocaust get no media play? Yet we can play up Khmer Rouge to no end.
The same is true given how much Israel get plenty of play when one of theirs gets bombed and the Palenstinians will get no play even though 10 of theirs get killed by Israel and the 10 are innocent Palenstinian children playing on a beach.
Market is good when selling toothpaste but it's not a factor when presenting the real world to the public.
You are right. Conservatives get all the big gigs in the news media. Good observation.
C'mon people... try some perspective just once around here. Beck says what many people say, he just happens to have a radio show and television show. The Kucinich thing is being totally blown out of proportion by the over-sensitive left. And who the heck around here can complain about Beck calling Hillary a b-itch? There are far worse things said here. Glenn happens to hate most everything Hillary stands for, he's entitled to his opinion.
Try watching his show from the beginning. Try out some of the YouTube videos out there. Glenn is about as patriotic as they come. He overcame alcholism and drug abuse, turned his life around years ago and is trying to make America a better country.
So stop the namecalling and provide some substantive answers. If you live off of the quotes and transcripts without the necessary intent, body language, tone and context, you are not qualified to judge him as you do. Give it a try with an open mind. Stop the hate...
C'mon nothing. I think you need a new peer group if they sound like Beck. The man says some of the most profoundly harmful things and promotes out right lies and junk science. Set your standards higher. And btw, certain things should not be said on the public airwaves whether you think people are thinking them or not. Civil discourse needs basic respect and facts are nice too. Beck just doesn't live up.
Libs have blasted Beck for offending Muslims by asking Minnesota Congressman Ellison if he was one of the good guys or not. He took TONS of heat for that. Everyone here onthe left agrees, right?
Well,
In the news today: "The Muslim congressman from Minnesota who used a Quran for his swearing-in ceremony now is associating with a Muslim group accused of fomenting violence against Jews and Christians and either should distance himself or resign, say critics."
"In an article at FrontPage Magazine as well as in a news statement, Kaufman said: "Not only is it a conflict of interest for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives to participate with such groups, but it is, as well, an issue of national security. Those in positions of power must demand an end to Keith Ellison's dangerous and bigoted associations. Either that or they must insist on his resignation."
Is he a bad man? We don't necessarily know. But he continues to associate with organizations that do NOT have the best interested of America at heart.
Beck is as "patriotic as they come?"
PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.Ambrose Bierce
Sorry about that. Don' know why it happened. Bierce defined a patriot as,
One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.
And now some deep thought from CANNoN......
".... And who the heck around here can complain about Beck calling Hillary a b-itch?....."
".....So stop the namecalling and provide some substantive answers...." ".... Stop the hate."
So, Beck calling Hillary Clinton a b-itch is okay, and in your opinion, no one here should complain about that? But name calling on this site does bother you?
Your case would be better made if you had said that you find Beck's name calling offensive, and then make your case for less name calling here.
Whoops....misplaced the word "and" while making a correction!
So, Beck calling Hillary Clinton a b-itch is okay in your opinion, AND no one here should complain about that? But name calling on this site does bother you?
and I suspose you are qualified.....
YOU think it is ok to call a woman a B+tch I am sure. But on television and on radio, I think a little decorum is called for.
Being a woman myself, I am a little put off by MEN that call women B+itches.
Which does remind me that the mormon religion it's self is more than a little misogynist, and the is more than a little strange and if you can believe a guy (Smith) stuck his head in a hat after he dropped in a few stones in it and translated some mysterious tablets that "god" gave him and start a whole new religious sect with multiple wives and secret laws/rules, well I guess you can say anything. Including calling women b+tches.
But don't expect civilized people to think it is "hunky dory" because it is not.
I heard that WP Radio would have preferred to hire Charlie Manson but California State Prison, Corcoran wouldn't allow the broadcasting equipment to be set up inside.
So WP Radio had to settle on someone with a little less charisma.
Good one. Not.
Gee whiz Wally!!! Fox Noise has no standards, CNN lowers theirs, and now Washington Post Radio wants a piece of the gutter by hiring the Beaver. Gosh, does that mean Washington Post Radio is going to hire Michael Savage and Chuckles the Clown next?
Dear freinds,,look arround now.
Choose the nearest exit to your seat.
To avoid the dangers of panic.
Walk do not run to that exit.
And now we ask you to all shift on your sanitart pedistules.
And join us in that great old hym.
By order of P.D. (I want four part harmony here)
Toad away.
Toad away.
Toad away.
Toad away ooh.
Where do you go when your toad away.
A reading from The Book Of Punter. Chapter 3 verse 19. All we have to fear is Me.
Beck is the master of soft core bigotry wrapped up in the "ah shucks" I’m just like you, guy next door "it just occurred to me" feint. He takes the ingenious "how could silly ol’ me have a hidden right wing pro corporate agenda" to new levels. Reminds me of the old SNL classic skit Caveman Lawyer. I’m just a cave man and fire scares me so how could I be clever enough to dupe you. Some are either are taken in by this fake or you privately endorse it and end up defending more knee jerk wisdom and stifled logic. But that’s all a part of the crazy mix we call MSM isn’t it?
Becks numbers..... check the "money demo" http://insidecable.blogsome.com/2007/06/07/wednesdays-numbers-58/#more-6148
Perhaps this link explains why Bonneville is hiring Glen Beck...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonneville_International
Well, you've got it Petestern. While building a facade of a presidential candidate, the LDS will build the facade of gravity about Beck at the same time. He's a idiot, a bigot, racist, loser, and happy dancer dependent on the money and ambition of others--"...a(n) useful idiot for the owner class..."
All I hear from Beck is a heck of a lot of common sense. I think all this effort at characterizing him as some kind of far right fascist/hate-monger/shock-jock would strike most people who regularly listen to him as quite comical.
He's a capitalist, just like about 95% of us, but he's certainly no corporate apologist. He slams them if they deserve it.
He's concerned about Islamic extremism. Just like most of us are, and all of us should be.
He believes in God and goes to church. Just like all the Democrat candidates want you to believe they do.
And he's humorous. He jokes about Kooksinitch's wife needing a date-rape drug, not because he's seriously "speculating", but because he's trying to get his head around why someone that pretty and young would be interested in a little munchkin old enough to be her father. It was just a joke, just a schtick. Media Matters might just as well try to make an issue about something said at a celebrity roast, it would make about as much sense.
There's a reason why WPR is considering hiring this rascist/hate-monger/fascist. It's because he's none of the above.
Gosh, the guy had Al Sharpton on for the whole hour, and treated him with much more respect than he deserved. He went out and fulfilled his promise to march with him if he'd go after the hip-hop recording industry.
I think Glenn Beck is one of the few truly interesting shows left on cable TV. The Daily Show, and Steven Colbert are two others, and a joke about someone needing a date-rape drug is well within their repertoire.