December 11, 2009 09:00 AM
Barbara Walters promotes Glenn Beck's Insanity
I was flipping the channels last night and I came across an ad for one of those Barbara Walters "10 Most Fascinating People" specials, and this year she included Glenn Beck on her list.
What is ABC thinking? They only feed into his lunacy and make him go more insane by the minute. His nuttiness does hurt America. When did being a lunatic become interesting, Barbara? Sure, Bill O'Reilly is jealous, but who cares?
This is why our media are so screwed up. They take a far right-black helicopter extremist and tell Americans that he's interesting, No, he's dangerous. Just check out his role in Richard Poplawski's deadly outburst.
Shame on Barbara and shame on ABC.
always struck me as a very superficial type of person. Perhaps she is one of those rubberneckers who are fascinated by car wrecks.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
she is a ratings pig - as superficial an entity as is found in the media.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Izzat kosher?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
gone cwazy for ratings.
This is all part of the Corporate medias' assault on democracy.
Beck is one of Murdock's minions. He is a performer.
Barbara Walters is a performer.
They are making excellent money in service of the Oligarchs.
They will play their parts.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
life is scripted to that degree Alice? Do you think there is some bunker where a nefarious plot was hatched to buttress a shaken public's belief in Glen Beck's sanity by using Babwa as reinforcing? Wouldn't it just be easier to ascribe this to Walter's poor taste.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
There is no nefarious plot.
There is no bunker.
There is no script.
There is the purported free market.
There are corporate board rooms and the totalitarian regime found there about.
Eventually there could be one single Corporate Board room after all of the previous mergers lead to one final merger.
You must have the big picture.
Beck and Walters are in front of the camera.
Murdock and his ilk are pulling the strings.
I don't need to watch any of these segments to know that it is the same thing that has been going on for a very long time.
Goebbels and his Soviet counterparts could only have dreamt of the propaganda power of the American TV.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
the same big picture. Beck is not on television to push the agenda of some corporate cabal (unless they're selling gold). He's on tv because there is a market for his maudlin mawkish inanities and right-wing ravings. I'm quite certain his network's only concern is how to translate his ratings into earnings. Given the reluctance of many brands to advertise on his show they've got a bit of a problem. This is all about money. If there were a market for a Marxist revolutionary to daily call for the end of capitalism they'd be just as happy to sell advertising on that show. That's the big picture I see.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Media moguls were fairly conservative back in the 70's too (maybe not to today's standards), and we got shows like M.A.S.H., All In the Family, Maude, the Jeffersons etc.
Rupert Murdoch owns faux who owns The Simpsons, who frequently ridicule him, and are seen as mostly supporting liberal issues, but make a fortune not just in their shows internationally, but in toys and other spin-offs.
I'm sure the culture warriors hate Seth McFarland, actually I do too, but for different reasons, and yet it seems every year we get some new dreck from him courtesy of Rupert Murdoch.
Sitcoms which ruled the TV medium since the 1950's has been largely replaced by people behaving badly on Reality TV. TV executives go where the money is.
If you watch old Bob Hope shows, and others, he would actually take a break to talk up his sponsor Pepsodent, later that would not be the case, and reserved to commercials alone.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I will comment on each point and then see where we converge.
You are the one that keep's using words cabal and conspiracy. It is extremely powerful and rich people who want to increase their power and riches.
Without power they could LOSE their riches.
The market is encouraged. It has been manufactured, as in Manufacturing Consent, which I recommend that you read if you have not.
He IS dangerous.
Their first concern is profit.
However there are powerful people who want to wreck havoc on our democratic institutions. This furthers their general interests which can only be thwarted by a coherent government action that works for the common weal. Individuals working behind their corporate shields are doing this regularly.
This was my point to begin with. They are intent on disrupting democracy.
The corporate sponsors have no moral responsibility except to their shareholders. Even that breaks up a bit in the scheme of American corporate governance. Given that control AND ownership are not synonymous, witness CEOs with enormous golden parachutes after they have bankrupted their corporations.
However when public pressure mounts some sponsors will respond.
Power and Money.
I am quite keen on a number of things that Marx had to say, but not everything.
I am for the end of Capitalism, the Capitalists are destroying the earth. But I am also for democracy so make no mistake about my politics. But I am not certain they would put a really gifted pure intellect anti-capitalist on their TV with free reigns, which most certainly would not be me in any event.
Rachel Maddow is as close as you will likely get.
I have noted how I think that picture is incomplete.
Extremely rich and extremely powerful people understand the system and how they can go about manipulating it.
The Robber Barron Jay Gould proclaimed that he could hire half of the working class to kill the other half.
Today it is a much cheaper and simpler proposition.
All they need to do is run someone like Glenn Beck on the TV who agitates half of the working class to kill the other half.
The television is the propagandist's dream come true.
Power AND money is the big picture I see.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
"This was my point to begin with. They are intent on disrupting democracy." No, I don't think they are. They are intent only on making money. Any damage or disruption of democracy is entirely incidental. Perhaps you will forgive my use of the words "cabal" and "conspiracy" but they seem implicit in your original statement about an organized MSM assault on democracy under the control of oligarchs. Unless they were publicly proclaiming their plans to assault democracy I think both those words must apply.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Have you read Manufacturing Consent?
Or Marx?
For Marx the story of human societies is a matter of class and power.
Power determines class.
Power enables the acquisition of riches.
Without power, the riches can be lost.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I read it a long time ago but that does mean I agreed with everything in it. One can see that from time to time a confluence of interests will cause various groups to bend public opinion to their common end. In most cases such commonality of interest does not exist. This is one of those cases to my mind. If the various networks and cable sources had such a commonality of interest there would be no Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. The fight for ratings makes any common message impossible. Unfortunately there are more idiots watching tv than non-idiots and marketers and programmers go for the numbers.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
He was the robber baron who robbed robber barons. When he got into a cut throat freight rate war with Vanderbilt he managed to make yet another fortune by buying and shipping huge quantities of western cattle to the east and below cost by shipping them on Vanderbilt's railway. He was a devious bastard.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
There you have it, there is no cabal, there is no conspiracy.
There are powerful people who are intent on increasing their power and riches.
The government can limit that power either through acting for the common weal, or by acting to enable and protect one group of the powerful.
Our government has long ceased to act out of interest for the common weal.
Have you read Predator State?, I recommend it.
You can admire Jay Gould all you like, but he would have run you over in an instant.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
many others, I imagine. That was, I point out, a "sneaking" admiration.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Peter and Alice:
If we could just look at a few facts—
—less than 400 people on this entire planet own or control better than 45% of our world's resources. Most of these people are old, white men; most of these men are old money. Don't take my word for it, do the research yourselves.
—capitalism is now our species' dominant form of economic behavior. The great philosopher Karl Marx predicted this inevitability, just as he predicted capitalism's ultimate failure as a system of exchange. Which begs the question: will our generation live to witness the collapse of capitalism?
—capitalism, by definition, results in rampant hedonism. The corporate megalomaniacs who've ratcheted up their quest for more power and more money are destroying our democracy with their narcissistic greedy grasping, even though that is NOT necessarily their agenda (since maintaining a facade that the US is a democracy does much to protect their wealth, and the system that helps them amass their wealth).
—the Corporate Megalomaniacs no longer expend as much energy appearing 'democratic' since they now own and control the vast majority of our media. Many erudite individuals have warned us about predatory and exploitative advertising in all of its various guises (The Hidden Persuaders by Vance Packard, and Four Arguments for the Total Elimination of Television by Jerry Mander, are just two of many). However, since well before the publication of The Engineering of Consent by E. L. Bernays, manipulative advertising has been an essential tool of capitalism. Conspiracy is unnecessary, given the efficacy of manipulating public opinion.
—change now occurs exponentially, and has been exponential since the advent of the internet. Our species has produced more information in the last five years than we produced in the entire preceding 5000 years! Thus, any attempt to develop a meta-analysis of our species' current situation will require much time and energy—much more time and energy than can be expended in a few posts on a partisan blog.
—all members of our species share responsibility for our current state of affairs, either through inaction or through deliberate action. Blaming and shaming each other for this fact is a divisive and damaging waste of time and energy. Unless and until we can stop playing this blame and shame game, we're unlikely to progress as a species.
—overpopulation remains the most threatening elephant under humanity's living room rug. Hundreds of thousands of us die of hunger or malnutrition every year. As we continue our mindless plundering of our planet, economic collapses will be just another catastrophic event we must face as we struggle to evolve, and give primacy to our spiritual selves.
I feel like Marge Gunderson, shaking my head and sighing, "I just don't understand it..." The angst, the resentments, the sarcasm, the hate, the bigotry...when and why did all these nasty human traits become the framework within which we experience one another?!?
At what point does an entrepreneur become a capitalist? What is the threshold that must be crossed before Mom & Pop’s restaurant becomes the means by which our society is destroyed?
While I agree that the logical conclusion to capitalism run amok is one giant monopoly, I disagree that capitalism must be dismantled. Small businesses must be profitable in order to sustain. Successful businesses do grow. At what point would you stop that growth? Would you close down Mom & Pop? Outback Steakhouse? McDonalds? Certainly you would not want to close all restaurants (just for example), but would you not allow Mom & Pop to open a store selling baking goods next door to their restaurant?
I would like to know your alternative to this.
... can affect the "market" price.
Mom & Pops can't affect the price of a greasy spoon meal the way Exxon, BP, and Shell can affect the price of a gallon of gasoline.
As soon as players can affect price, they will - to their benefit and to the detriment of the system. If the players are sellers who can affect price, then they will under-produce and sell at an inflated price. It is in their financial interests to do so.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
This then is the problem. As soon as Mom & Pop have enough restaurants that they can buy cheaper in bulk and effect Granny’s restaurant down the street by under pricing, they have to be stopped; otherwise Granny’s gets run out of business.
It’s the same problem, only I'm using a smaller scale.
The question still remains though. What is the threshold? At what point to you stop Mom & Pop from expanding?
I hold that when an entrepreneur works along side their employees they are middle class.
Once they remove themselves entirely to the realm of strategizing in capital then they are pure capitalist.
That probably occurs around twenty employees.
Marx wrote at a time when it was possible to imagine different ordering of society, because there were still many examples in the world.
Today they have all fallen.
I am not such an intellect that I can tell you how a society can be ordered in a more perfect way and harmonious way.
I know enough to confidently tell you, the way we are going. the über Capitalists running amok will destroy us all.
Marx could not have foreseen the matters of the environment.
Many people who still look to Marx still can't see the environment.
Everything is a subset of the ecology.
This is an interesting piece at the Oil Drum which is an interesting site, here
We are depleting the ability of the earth to sustain us.
Capitalism will fall, my fear is that it will fall only with the fall of humanity.
Capitalism where it does not know how much is enough is what must be ended.
If that requires that we end it completely, I am for it.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
point of view Alice. Permit me to give the small business point of view for such I have been for twenty-five years. The number twenty-five that you have given is entirely arbitrary. This much is true: every single employee added to a payroll requires some time and attention in the form of required tax submissions, training, workmen's compensation filings and at some point one has to hire even more people, specialists in those functions, to deal with it all. At the same time the business owner has to carefully monitor cash flows to ensure that payroll and suppliers are paid in a timely fashion and the bankers are happy and the government is happy. It is a giant juggling act and I invite anyone who thinks this is easy to jump right in and join the fun. Just so you know: most banks won't loan you a nickel unless you pledge just about everything you own as security so if things don't work out you lose everything.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
I would never say that it is easy for a small business owner.
The oligarchs are intent on driving you out of business and picking through the remnants in a fire sale. Or failing that, making it as difficult as possible.
The big banks are now in a position of describing their balance sheets as they see fit. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury will guarantee that they will not fail.
The small business owner could dream of such largesse, and power.
That is the system that we have, crony capitalism.
If you are not one of the cronies then you have a problem.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Fri, 12/11/2009 - 11:36 — Taarak
The question still remains though. What is the threshold? At what point to you stop Mom & Pop from expanding?
_____________________________________________________________________
That's an interesting question since one could distinguish between the natural monopolies of inventors like Alexander Bell and decendants running corporations versus the new meritocracists who don't own the corporations they head, they supposedly earn their position, and more often than not only by virtue of birth and placement.
They rise up supposedly through corporate bureaucracies, but the only time you hear about bureaucracies is when they use it to to decry government regulations and auditors, who rise up through a series of Civil Service Examinations.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
In addition to Manufacturing Consent, read practically anything by McChesney, Bagdikian, or Zinn and the argument for class power hidden under the guise of "free market" becomes pretty clear pretty fast.
One of my favorite takes on it all (can't remember where I saw it) was that we shouldn't worry about what Orwell thought but more what Huxley wrote about. Orwell wrote about a police state that brought the people to its knees through force. Huxley wrote that the people would be brought to their knees by willingly giving up rights in exchange for security and fun. Huxley's world is actually more nefarious than Orwell's because it gives the illusion of choice.
Babs & Beck propagate the Huxlian view.
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
to read all of those for the reasons cited in my post to Alice(above your post). On the brighter side I didn't have time to join any class movement to suppress my employees either. I was never really aware that I was any different in class from them. Nor do I believe so now.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
Several of my previous comments;
on class here
on the important work of UCLA historian Robert Brenner here
on Brad DeLong and the Marxist economist Michel Kalecki on Capitalists and their recessions here
On 100 years of corporate propaganda here here and here
The consciousness of class has been largely erased from the American psyche. The working class have been erroneously described as middle class, to insulate against their agitation by suggesting that they have power that they do not have.
You may be quite a nice person, but when you are an employer, you have a position of power.
Your employees may think you ever so nice, but they will defer to your power first in your relationship.
They understand that intuitively. If not, they will probably not last in your employ, however nice you are.
Power in human relationships is fundamental.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Power in human relationships is fundamental? I would encourage you to read Beyond Power by Marilyn French.
Hierarchy is anathema to me. Hierarchy as our species' power structure directly contradicts 'equality' and individual freedom. Yet, we humans seem to believe that hierarchy is natural, if not inevitable. This is our species' puerile hypocrisy writ large...
If our species ever matures beyond the need for a hierarchical social structure, it'll be an evolutionary quantum leap!
I will interested to read Beyond Power by Marilyn French.
My statement is on the basis of class structure and I will certainly be interested to see what, if anything, she has to say about that.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The trouble is too many self-professed Marxists and Socialists have coopted the Bourgeoisie's view of people as merely pawns to be manipulated, economic pawns at that.
Anything else that might interest the pawns is considered a "distraction" from the "true" issue.
It's as fundamentalist as the Talibaptists, the Dominionists, the Free-Marketists and the ron paulists.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Everything should interest the pawns.
First and foremost though is their liberation from the tyranny of the ruling class.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Thank you, you are probably onto something with Huxley.
One more of the complex elements to consider and probably be distraught over.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Huxley wrote that the people would be brought to their knees by willingly giving up rights in exchange for security and fun.
I agree.
No one has mentioned:
-Huge populations
-Individual behaviour
-Group behaviour
-Crowd behaviour (different than group!!)
-Consensus/conformity
As I'm no expert on these things, I can only rely on my own life observations.
With our huge population groups, information is all second hand. We don't witness everything that goes on: we are removed from the scene and given a narrative. These narratives are manipulated and fed to us via mass communication, and may be carefully crafted, as so many are. These narratives are often, and probably usually, manipulated by the small few with "power". We are not engaged; we live vicariously; we are told. And there are so many, the average individual can't possibly keep up, so it's really disinformation.
Beyond the power structures/dynamics, where Alice is so well read, I stand back and observe the public. The above list is critical to understanding human life and behaviour, here, in 2009.
In a way, we live so much from afar, peering in through some sort of window or keyhole. We are not inside, we are not privy.
This is fabulous for those that want to influence politics, religion, and society. Look around and observe: How many want to be against the flow? But that flow is fed to us "from above", and not always in our interest.
It may not yet be one grand plan, but it's moving that way ever faster.
far left loon >.<
Many a pilgrimage began with the rejection of the path more easily taken.
Wouldn't it be easier to not challenge Alice?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
But she knows how to argue her points.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
"Eventually there could be one single Corporate Board room after all of the previous mergers lead to one final merger.
You must have the big picture."
Some might see the Divine Hand above it all.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Now you have gone all kookie on us.
Being ever the atheist show me where I ever said anything that points to a supernatural.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
We do have things in common Alice. I too am a non-believer. It is a side effect of my Stewart-Maher disorder and the acute sensitivity to bullshit that is the primary symptom.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
This is kabuki, and they are role playing.
Beck is the boogeyman who not only helps ensure that criticism from the right defines the narrative, but also serves as a warning about what could happen if Our Leaders aren't followed.
Walters is the legitimizer. She reinforces the "criticism from the right" narrative, and, by osmosis, lends her "Seriousness" to Beck and his insignificant wingnut fringe.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Great deconstruction fiver.
This is just a script whose elements can be broken down and recognized from theater/journalism classes.
I always like to imagine what the director is telling people to do, say, and how to act. Some of their instructions must seem pretty absurd in reality. Until they are stitched together in the editing room to create a masterpiece of deception like this.
Read Cat's Cradle. Bokononism works. Hail Vonnegut!
Beck should be put in jail not on TV.
... but a padded cell.
..FEMA concentration camp.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
for that whole ABC "News" report twisting Jon Stewart's "comedy" show by editing his quote to appear he was a climate change denier.
Shame, shame, shame on you ABC "News"
There was something about it on other sites but I don't know how to make an active link, sorry.
because there is more actual factual credible information in a 1/2 hour of "comedy" by Jon Stewart than in these corporate so-called "news" reports.
...also where a good bit of my reading list comes from...
Media is a reflection of a society, as is government.
"The medium is the message." - Marsh McLuhan
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
Marsh? Never heard Marshall McLuhan reffered to as Marsh.
But if we are going into McLuhanism let's be accurate because the real message of "Marsh" teachings is about Hot and Cool.
From Wiki- "In the first part of Understanding Media, McLuhan stated that different media invite different degrees of participation on the part of a person who chooses to consume a medium. Some media, like the movies, were "hot" - that is, they enhance one single sense, in this case vision, in such a manner that a person does not need to exert much effort in filling in the details of a movie image. McLuhan contrasted this with "cool" TV, which he claimed requires more effort on the part of viewer to determine meaning, and comics, which due to their minimal presentation of visual detail require a high degree of effort to fill in details that the cartoonist may have intended to portray. A movie is thus said by McLuhan to be "hot", intensifying one single sense "high definition", demanding a viewer's attention, and a comic book to be "cool" and "low definition", requiring much more conscious participation by the reader to extract value. Any hot medium allows of less participation than a cool one, as a lecture makes for less participation than a seminar, and a book for less than a dialogue."
What has happened is that FOX and folks have worked hard to turn a cool medium into a hot one requiring less effort and work by the viewer to process the images and information.
It's McLuhanism for Tyrants.
on medium and message. He was also pointing out that we tend to focus on the obvious - the message; when what we need to focus on is the medium - the structure or causes or purpose in the background.
In Gestalt terms, there is the ground and there are figures. We see/hear the figures, the action, the words (Beck, Rush, Walters, etc.) and focus on and react to that. But, we remain unaware of the ground upon which they act - the underlying reasons for the selection of the medium and how/why it affects us.
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
"Electric circuitry confers a mythic dimension on our ordinary individual and group actions. Our technology forces us to live mythically, but we continue to think fragmentarily, and on single, separate planes." (McCluhan, 1967: Bantam Books, p. 114)
We humans tend to be both egocentric and ethnocentric. I meet so many individuals who are in 'react' mode; whose responses tend towards attacking--as though they feel threatened by me or my random utterances. I am reminded of one of my fave quotes from Firesign Theatre: "We're ALL bozos on this bus!"
Gandhi's admonition: "We must be the change we hope to see in this world" remains the framework within which I effect my feeble attempts at political activism...
is an insightful observation. Almost all of Fox News programming is designed to stimulate pre-existing reflexes of their target audience. Everybody does that to some degree or other but Fox carries it to extremes.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
"Almost all of Fox News programming is designed to stimulate pre-existing reflexes of their target audience."
Totally!! The viewing audience is American, steeeped in America is #1 from birth. Make sure tha backdrop is a lot of flags, "In God We Trust", and mention patriotism and any of the pantheon of American (war) heroes.
EDIT: In a mass-media age symbolism defeats substance.
far left loon >.<
I think that goes along with what's being discussed above about some kind of corporate conspiracy or collusion.
To propagandize the carrier medium has to be of depth
(Excepting Argumentum ad Populum and Baculum faux's forté),
Most of the so called "liberal" media is actually infotainment, lacking the depth to propagandize.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
is for good people to do nothing. But in America, not only do we do nothing, we join in on profiting off it. yeah...it's entertainment until one of the nutbag teabaggers draw first blood and yes even you, barabra walters, will be guilty of being complicit in celebrating this monster that prays and profits off unrest.
Just so much insanity, lies, and bullshit.
The only place you can go to get more of it is fox!
Maybe Babs is wanting an in on this "new gold rush" Beck's been talking about!
...just to get an audience. Using bag lady Barbara's criterion, global mass murderers Osama, Dubya and Cheney should make her shit list annually.
... I'm all for busting on Glenn Beck, and I have a track record to show it, but this interview wasn't done to make him out to be a hero. Sure, the interview barely scratched the surface of Beckistan, but it left open the dubious question of why Beck is inciting violence and being a general political clown. For the fame? For the money?
Naturally there's plenty of things to hate about the guy, but this interview was neutral in this regard. I don't see the problem with it, aside from Barbara Walters asking him what tree he thinks he is. Exposure is a two-sided sword; once less-crazy people figure out he's telling them to root out the Marxists in government they'll join in the fight.
[EDIT] Whoops, clicked the wrong Post Comment button. My bad, LnL; meant this as an open statement in the thread.
I can agree with that, but my fear is the viewing audience may not be as intelligent as you, or most of the posters here.
far left loon >.<
After watching the ABC presidential debate with Tweedle-Charlie and Tweedle-George this surprises you?
Bottom line...none of these people are journalists, or even fake it well.
This is all entertainment. In the same way that the most-watched TV dramas make murder fun, the biggest and best-paid pundits are often the most outrageous. That's why Beck did as well as he did. And that is why Walters knows to exploit it for ratings.
Do you think it is an accident that MSNBC puts Pat Buchanan alongside true journalists? When these folks say outrageous things it helps them pump up drama and ratings.
What passes for journalism in this country is one of the reasons that we are the most socially backwards of Western nations.
Get used to it.
Yup.
far left loon >.<
... "them that already has, gets even more." Doesn't matter if it's money or media coverage. Usually it's both.
In the fantasy land called America, Beck is a Success Story. Rags to riches, et cetera, ad nauseum.
What a fun little ride on the swirly flush of capitalism's year-end human interest stories ...
..the Lonesome Rhodes character. "An Arkansas hobo becomes an overnight media sensation. But as he becomes drunk with fame and power, will he ever be exposed as the fraud he has become? " I sure hope so!
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
http://www.urinal.net/topfive.html
Check out number 6 on the list to see a urinal Dairy Queen actually had for women!
I stopped watching them when Stossel was pushing "greed is good" and out-sourcing jobs is good for America.
Note, they replaced Stossel with Chris Cuomo who may even be a bigger right-wing tool than Stossel, although it may be too close to call.
a big blowout when Glenn accused the girls on the train getting special treatment? Wasn't Barbara one of the girls including Whoopi? Now she's doing the kissing and make up.
....shininess, rubs off on her poor, tired, wrinkled act.
America would be a better place if beck,hannity, limpballs,oliar and a whole litney of other right wing nutbags would commit suicide or get raptured up outta here. I don't care as long as I don't have to see or listen to them again!
Well the wingnuts are out in force over at ABC, commenting. So ABC learn a lesson the GOP has yet to realize. Get close or support these Murdoch people and enter Hotel California. They will go after you should you refuse to play nice. You have their praise today, you will have their scorn tomorrow no matter what you do.
It is like nursing a snake back to life. When it bites you remember what it is...
I am sure they will bite you! You can take it to the bank.
one of the most vile & idiotic persons on TV, Elisabeth Hasselbeck
for that alone, barbara walters can go to hell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHjqg4yjyPg
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
So, after this primetime softball-lobbing session has aired, can the myth of the "liberal media bias" be buried finally, or does there first have to be a ratings-basement night of programming on NBC featuring Victoria Jackson, Gary Sinise, Craig T. Nelson, Jon Voight et al?
....become fascinating?
Obushamas Peace Speech apparently it kicked in full metal jacket today
Watch your wallet!
... what kind would he be?
I'm thinkin' there's gotta be a nut in there somewhere...
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Too easy...he wouldn't be the tree. He'd be the sap.
Or are the saps those that watch him?
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
is an Easter Island tree......
He could be any tree so long as its petrified.
ABC is the new FOX. They have been "trending" that way for years
Radix Omnium Malorum Avaritia
Never underestimate the persuasiveness of an Alcoholic, wet, dry or otherwise. Walters and her ilk only underscore how deeply attracted people are to the charisma of these people, while those who know better think that Walters and the rest of Beck's fans should get their asses to an Al Anon meeting as soon as possible. In case people have trouble with this concept let's not forget the last eight years and how eagerly the populace was to follow that other dry drunk. Codependency is as destructive as the disease it's in service to.
not 4. Perhaps that will help.
helps perpetuate the myths of 'endless consumption' and that 'more is better'.
GHWB was right about one thing...the American way of life is not negotiable...
but someday it will be understood that nature isn't either...
ABC isn't any better than Fox. They push the same wingnut ideas.
Get a clue Barbara Walters, Becko is one sick bigoted bastard, he is a dangerous wingnut extremist who promotes hate, fear, lies, and violence in order to take away our individual rights and freedoms.
A bigot who uses or promotes violence is a terrorist. Glen Beck is an evil, dangerous, right wing extremist terrorist. He is a danger to our society...
If this guy's interesting, I can't wait for your interview with
Manson.
Marilyn?
I think she already has.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Charlie.
Thanks Baba for giving this freak five more minutes of air time than he deserves. What was the point? If you didn't know who he was you wouldn't care and if you did know what he was you learned nothing new.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
... what's with the whole "exposure crank all the way to 11" and the smoothing/fogging filter in overdrive?
What, like we are not going to notice she is older that Moses? LOL
I thought that was weird too. But then no one on that program was the least bit interesting. I suspect they had a much longer list and those were the only 10 they could get.
Please, ABC is as conservative as the day is long. Furthermore, Walters may be a fossil but she is still pretty media savvy. Beck is a ratings draw, nothing more. But that ratings draw translates directly into big $$$. Doesn't take a rocket scientist intellect to figure out what's going here, and every day in the media. It's all about money, always has been, always will be.
yeah....when the Dixie Chicks were the No. 1 Enemy in America...
Walter lost her credibility a long time ago when she sank to talk show host. She used to be thought of as a journalist ... now she's a pathetic version of herself. Now this will be a new low for her and her desperate need to be relevant... Beck is a puddle of human goo.
admired Baba Wawa.
Gilda Radner on the other hand...
Gildna Radner for her excellent portrayal of baba wawa
of Walter's personna that Tina Fey did to Palin.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I wish there was a link to Baba Wawa interviewing Lili von Shtupp.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
She loves Rush Limbaugh just doesn't agree with his schtick (sp), HUH? Most likely thinks Hasslebeck is an intellectual heavy weight, puts up with the nonsense that comes out of Sherri Sheperds mouth, called Beck very sweet.....and several years ago she named Paris Hilton one of her most fascinating people. She has no credibility as far as I'm concerned
Baba still wants to get all touchy-feely with those she “interviews”. That’s HER shtick. That’s ok with me, but I don’t find her style at all fascinating. I would much rather see Rachel Maddow interview Glen Blech. THAT would be fascinating…
I wonder if she's asked him to come on her show yet? His comfort zone is Fox...but still, that would be awesome!
Beck isn't fascinating. The definition of fascinating doesn't apply to him at all. I'm not sure what word best describes him but fascinating is not it.
A puppy playing with a ball might be fascinating to watch. A baby playing with a toy might be fascinating to watch. Glenn Beck going ape shit crazy in front of a chalk board isn't fascinating to watch.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Barbara Walters became irrelevant a long,LONG time ago.
the Glenn Beck "role" in Richard Poplawski's deadly outburst is about
as non existent as intelligent thought emanating from Beck.
Poplawski posted a link to a Glenn Beck video on Stormfront. In his comments Poplawksi seems to take issue with Beck backing off on the existence of FEMA concentration camps. This occured long before Poplawski killed Pittsburgh police officers called to his house by his mother during a domestic dispute. That is "the role."
John Amato has posted more links to Beck than almost anyone I know and I would hardly say Beck has "a role" in Amato's efforts to promote health care reform.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I was surfing the web today and I came across one of those sites which reposts content from other sites in order to attract readers and sell ad space... The site posts Glenn Beck clips sometimes several times a day.
What is C&L thinking? They only feed into his lunacy and make him go more insane by the minute. His nuttiness does hurt America. When did being a lunatic become interesting, Amato? Sure, Bill O'Reilly is jealous, but who cares?
This is why our political blogs are so pointless and screwed up. They take a far right-black helicopter extremist and catalog, document, archive and propagate nearly ever utterance they make.
Shame on Amato and shame on C&L.
Actually shame on you for taking advantage of a site's generous everyone allowed to comment stance.
Interviews like Bawa Wawa whitewash the ignorant ramblings and rantings of the man, while sites like this one make it a matter of history when they start trying to deny what they've said in the past.
What you're doing is nothing more than a tu quoque and false equivalencies, both logical fallacies.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
made the list? Man Reagan's shining city on a Hill has come full bloom!
Keep those TeeVees on and stay tuned in!
and unlimited cable channels for all!
back when the rabbit ears proved too much of a technological threat
to mind control. What do you know about cable?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
(I could make urinals based on my favorite Fakes news characters!)
...but then again, no.
"Trust no one, Mr. Mulder." - Well-Manicured Man
Kind of like when Time Magazine named Hitler Man of the Year.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Exactly right. Time's person of the year is not the BEST person, merely the most influential.
There is no denying that Beck is fascinating. Not fascinating in a good way, but fascinating nonetheless. C&L has certainly had a fascination with him.
http://the-billablog.blogspot.com/
I guess Walters was one of the 17 NYers who actually bought a ticket to The Christmas Sweater.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
I'm surprised that anyone's surprised by ABC's conservativeness. They're owned by Disney Corp. Although Walt Disney's been dead since 1966 (maybe 1965), while America was rolling out the welcome mat to Kruschev, when he was brought to Disneyland, which he wanted to visit, Walt personally stood in the way of the gates to block him.
I'm not sure how active his brother Roy is, but being essentially run by businessmen how liberal do you expect them to be?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I thought he was just laying low in the Frozen Dairy section at Knotts Berry Farm.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Funny you should say that. My Dad used to work for the "Farm" and the Knott family belonged to the John Birch society. They put Disney's conservatism to shame.
That aside. Walter Knott was a great man from what I hear.
long before Tyler promoted him as saving us from the rapid onset of Tricky Dick Nixon.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
When did the conservatives infiltrate the amusement park complex? My Dad also worked for Magic Mountain, and their owners were real corporaty. I worked for Marineland, and we were liberal, but failures, as the park closed in '85.
was required before you could sign a mortgage in OC back in those days.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
The problem here the way I see it:
Glenn Beck story gets over a hundred comments in a couple of hours.
A John Stewart link gets less than 20 comments in a couple of days.
When given the choice between a lunatic and a comedian, people pick the lunatic.
When given the choice between a lunatic and a rational man, people pick the lunatic.
But the choice of Jon Stewart is misleading. Many here get their Stewart fix live. And he doesn't make people need to pee on something.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
I agree with your observation of my misleadedness. I didn't mean to.
But, following that logic, if C and Ler's watch Glenn Beck all the time, wouldn't see so many of them on this site.
Does anyone have Glenn Beck's schedule.
later, man. Later.
Meanwhile, I suggest posts about Blanche Lincoln as your better example. Nobody comments on those except me pointing out nobody
is commenting.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
When you are the only commenter on a thread, is there an echo echo?
needling.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
There are still nitwits in this country who still hang on to every word that dribbles from Barbara Walters' lips like it was gospel truth?? Ever since that time many years ago when she asked some famous person what kind of tree he would like to be, I have considered her to be nothing but a Class A buffoon.
Katherine Hepburn - 1981.
You can find out here: http://www.paradiseawaits.com/Tree.html
I'm a hazelnut. :) (yes, I googled it)
far left loon >.<
Are you guys saying that Glenn Beck isnt fascinating? He's like a train wreck...you KNOW you shouldnt look but you cant turn away...as evidenced by the frequency he's featured on this very blog!
As for Jon Stewart, he conducted one of the most riveting interviews of the year with Jim Cramer. Poll after poll has been showing him to be more trustworthy that MSNBC, Fox, or CNN. This guy should be changing the face of the media to be less ratings-driven and more informative. The fact that HE isnt one of the most fascinating people can only be because she's had him on before. He's certainly more fascinating that Sanford's (soon-to-be-ex) wife.
I'm surprised she didn't actually honk on his bobo right there on t.v. She has become a parody of herself.
...make me really miss Beth Littleford.
congratulatory circle jerk "Good Morning America" had for Di-Anne Saw-yah this morning? I was waiting for Sawyer to start interviewing herself. What a narcissistic stroke-fest.
ABC is in the shitter - hell, all "mainstream" media suck.
Before enlightenment - chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment - chop wood, carry water.
Just a pack of ratings whores , $$$$$$$$$$$ , they do not give a rat's butt about anything else ! I wish Barbara Wa Wa would just retire to her rest home .
Insanity , it is what it is , there is no understanding it .
I just got a letter from the Socialist Party USA, apparently it's times to renew my dues.
It's funny getting a letter addressed to Comrades.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
"...and make him go more insane by the minute."
And this is a bad thing how? Because it might speed his inevitable melt-down?
I predict increased adulation/worship of this guy will be his poison.
Hurrah for ABC !
she has no morals this woman, she tries to be a serious journalist yet she gives this clown air time. pathetic old woman.
Comments are closed on this entry