Watching Beck

Due in no small part to the feedback that I got from friends who attended the Glenn Beck rally on August 28th, and a series of emails that I exchanged with a dear old friend, I decided to try watching the Glenn Beck Show on Fox for a week. I recorded the show on my DVR and watched after it was on. Here are a few observations from my week with Beck:
  • He is not paranoid but does at times come across that way.
  • He seems sincere in his belief that America is headed in the wrong direction.
  • He uses words like Socialism and Marxism to describe the government.
  • He seems to think gold is something people should be buying.
  • He reminds me of some of the Pentecostal preachers that I have listened to.
  • He communicates in a snarky fashion - kind of like the Ziggy above.
  • He preaches a dogmatic and narrow blend of faith and patriotism.
  • He mocks things that people have written about him in trashy tabloids.
  • He appeals to people who are very angry with the government.
  • He blasts both Republicans and Democrats.. especially progressives.
  • He rarely has guests and prefers to preach his way through his show.
I may be wrong on these as I only watched for a week. I will not continue to watch as Beck simply does not appeal to me but I do now understand why some love to watch his show.

Have you watched Beck? What one thing do you like or dislike the most about his show?

5 comments:

  1. The critique should NOT be about Beck. It should be about his message.

    None of his message is listed in the evaluation. The evaluation is all about "Beck this, and Beck that."

    Consider this analogy: the Titanic is sinking – a passenger frantically burst into 1st class dining and shouts, “We’re sinking”! An annoyed diner says, “I don’t like this guy. Sounds paranoid, he cries a lot, and he has two different socks on. I’m not going to listen to this guy anymore. Hey, I wonder why the ship is tilting and my glass just fell off the table? Oh, well. Waiter! Where’s my latte?”

    Who told us about Van Jones, the openly avowed Communist that Obama appointed?

    Who told us that the US is about to lose it majority vote in the IMF do to a “progressive” rule change. (The result will be catastrophic)?

    Who told us about Bernadine Dorn, a co-founder of the Weather Underground, who is married to Bill Ayers, and who said this about the Charles Manson murders at a Weatherman “War Council"; "Dig it! First they killed those pigs and then they put a fork in pig Tate's belly. Wild!" Offing those rich pigs with their own forks and knives, and then eating a meal in the same room, far out! The Weathermen dig Charles Manson”.

    “Dohrn and Ayers recently resurfaced into news headlines as presidential candidate John McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin publicly denounced ties between Ayers and then presidential candidate Barack Obama.[34][35]”.

    Two hundred thirty years of the American experiment is going down the drain right before our eyes. And we are doing all we can to help it along.

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  2. I think that the credibility of the one yelling “We’re sinking” will always be a factor. Sometimes you cannot separate the message from the messenger. After all, he chose to call the show by his own name - these folks always do.

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  3. Beck has a red phone, the number of which he has given to the White House staff. Beck says, "If I ever state a falsehood or something misleading, call me right then and there during my show. I will answer." The red phone has never rung.

    I would say that you started out by not addressing any of the issues, but rather saying things like, “He communicates in a sparky fashion.” Now I see a vague, “lack of credibility” statement.

    So I am throwing the ball back into your court. What are you talking about? Make the red phone ring.

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  4. I would offer that the red phone may be a part of Beck's ego issues. Why not take calls from anyone who disagrees with him? Why only the White House? Why not bring progressives or even conservatives who disagree with him on the show?

    One day this week he had John Stossel on his show. Beck said that they disagree on some points around libertarianism but he chose to not debate issues but simply use Stossel to rubber stamp his ideas. I think that viewers would have enjoyed (and learned something) if both men had debated an issue. Sadly I do not think that you will see this kind of debate on Beck's show.

    My purpose in writing this post was not to debate issues - I have done that a lot in past posts. Yesterday I was just commenting on a week of watching Beck. Something that an old friend asked me to do. I am sorry that if my thoughts about Beck offended you. Perhaps I should not have watched or dared to criticize the prophet.

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  5. Bob,

    It is really cool that you watched Beck for a week. Maybe I should make that commitment myself.

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