I say this to the world: Dave Neiwert is my hero. Anyone who can seriously monitor the Fox News grind day after day deserves a medal of honor. I have spent a week watching, and come away with the understanding that a steady diet of what they serve over there will leave you sick, angry, and spelling-challenged.

I knew something was wrong yesterday when I had to stop and think about how to spell a word I've known how to spell forever. It was something simple, like "labelled." But I had to think about it for more than a few seconds. This is not like me. I am anal about spelling and rarely make a mistake. Using a spell-checker is a matter of pride with me. I could, but I won't. What evil influence could possibly be corrupting my spelling abilities? I found myself not even caring if I could spell it right just as long as I could be done with what I was doing.

And then it hit me. I realized yesterday marked a full week of watching Fox. I knew it had to be the culprit. As one who has banned Fox News from my house for years, it is never, ever on. But with Dave gone, I volunteered to monitor it for a week in his absence. I did learn a few things, about myself and about their techniques.

I learned there is a "theme of the day", set at 3AM California time when Fox and Friends comes on with their faux friendly little coffee klatch. Yesterday's theme was "Liberals are less civil than Tea Partiers." It began last night with Bill O'Reilly's ongoing claim that he's unfairly accused of being unfair. But today, it was the overriding, dominant theme.

Every show serves their own flavor of the theme inside the context of the main story, which happened to be the Wisconsin showdown with Governor Walker. Whether they were talking about the reporter punking the governor, or protests in solidarity with Wisconsinites, it is hammered home over and over and over and over again. No one is exempt or escapes The Theme, not even Glenn Beck. Watch here, as he takes a break from his incoherent ranting about President Obama making a statement about Libya while they were sleeping, and how that must have been because he had to coach his daughters or something. I'm convinced he was just pissed that his show was interrupted for it. Here's the clip:

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Just two days after his Beckapalooza, or the #doucheBeck rally, as we're calling it on Twitter, Glenn Beck rears his ugly head yet again, this time with a brand new "news" website, edited by former Breitbart denizen Scott Baker.

We talked to Baker today about what readers can expect from the new site, the team behind it and more. “It’ll be news and information,” he told Mediaite. “Some commentary and opinion stories we’re interested in that are being under-covered or not covered.”

People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”

There's another corner of the Internet to avoid...is "TheBlaze.com" some kind of dog whistle? Also, the Huffington thing? Not so much.

Will Bunch at Attytood brings us a story that's so bizarre, at first I thought it was a joke. It isn't. (The fact that anyone will pay the Beckster $10 a month during a depression to get Double-Secret Indoctrinated? That's a joke.)

I wish I could tell you that this is a clever photoshop on my part -- but sadly, no. This is the actual emblem of something called Beck University that was officially announced today by the king of all distorted right-wing media, although judging from the initial info its formal accreditation as one of America's institutions of higher learning may be a few years away (and there's no truth to the rumor that the Pac-10 immediately asked Beck U. to become a member):

From Beck's web site:This July, while others are relaxing poolside, head back to the classroom - from the comfort of your own home. That may sound like an oxymoron but Glenn’s new academic program is only available online.Offered exclusively to Insider Extreme subscribers, Beck University is a unique academic experience bringing together experts in the fields of religion, American history and economics. Through captivating lectures and interactive online discussions, these experts will explore the concepts of Faith, Hope and Charity and show you how they influence America’s past, her present and most importantly her future.

I guess you could call this "the Harvard of right-wing radio universities," in the sense that, well, to my knowledge there aren't any other right-wing radio universities. Unlike Harvard or Yale, where Beck was a half-term (sound familiar?) student in one theology course after his ex-friend Joe Lieberman pulled some strings, Beck U. is strictly a profit deal. Only by paying Glenn Beck Inc. to become an extreme insider($9.95 a month, or $74.95) can you enroll on Beck's pseudo-cyber-campus. How else do you think Beck expects to sell that $4.25 million manse and move into bigger digs?

In addition to the myriad other reasons, one thing that guarantees that Beck U. won't be showing up in the U.S. News and World Report survey anytime soon is that 33 percent of the faculty is a fraud. That would be the Christian-oriented pseudohistorian and Texas schoolbook perverter David Barton, whose sins against knowledge have been chronicled here in the past. Students at Beck U. can also learn economics from a Beck pal, David Buckner, with a mediocre pedigree (he has been an adjunct associate professor not of economics but of psychology and education at Columbia) and also from an actual professor who somehow sneaked in there, LSU's James Stoner.

The school motto is "To tyrants, uprising -- obedience to God." Or Beck, depending!

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Glenn Beck had another one of those moments yesterday on his Fox News show, talking about the G20 Summit in Toronto:

BECK: Anyway, President Obama was there, and, um, he said something that kind of tripped my Marxism alarms. Here he is.

Mind you, Beck's "Marxism alarm" goes off all the time, with increasing shrillness and volume. It's kind of like the guy who sets his car alarm to such a sensitivity that it shrieks and squonks if you so much as walk within twenty feet of it.

Especially when you see what set it off this time:

Obama: A strong and durable recovery also requires countries not having an undue advantage. I think we all have the same interest -- and that is, the United States can compete with anybody -- as long as we've got an even playing field.

Somehow, to Beck, this sounded vaguely Marxist. But in fact, what Obama was saying was classic American capitalism. Because he was talking about the disadvantage at which currency restrictions force us to play:

"A strong and durable recovery also requires countries not having an undue advantage. So we also discussed the need for currencies that are market-driven," Obama said. "As I told President Hu yesterday, the United States welcomes China's decision to allow its currency to appreciate in response to market forces."

In fact, American presidents have advocated a "level playing field" within the world's markets for decades. Bush pushed it. So did Ronald Reagan.

What, does Beck think the USA should compete at a disadvantage? Or does this mean he thinks that free-market capitalism operates on an uneven playing field, and that capitalism and fair competition cannot coexist?

Because that, you know, is actually a classic Marxist position.

For once I wish Glenn Beck was right:

On his radio show, Beck stated that while "Obama did inherit a bad situation," "he has made it 1,000 times worse and created a situation to where the state can grab power like crazy." He then pointed to the financial reform bill as an example of government's "frightening" power, saying that under the bill, "they can grab companies" that "they think" are "a danger to the nation." Gray added: "[T]hat's any company that they deem big enough to harm the economy, they can take control over."

From the June 25 broadcast of Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program:

BECK: Yeah, Barack Obama did inherit a bad situation. Now, what has he done with that situation? He has made it 1,000 times worse and created a situation to where the state can grab power like crazy. What is in this new financial bill, they can grab companies. They think that it is a danger to the nation? They can just grab it and shut you down. That's a little frightening with that power.

GRAY: And that's not companies who've taken stimulus, that's any company --

BECK: Any company.

GRAY: -- that they deem big enough to harm the economy --

BECK: Any company.

GRAY: -- they can take control over.

BECK: Now, let me ask you this. Could you say that Fox News?

GRAY: Yes.

BECK: You darn right you could.

GRAY: Yes.

BECK: Could you say that talk radio is?

GRAY: You bet.

BECK: Of course you can.

GRAY: You could take control of Clear Channel.

Maybe Chris Dodd snuck in a provision somewhere that we don't know about and this could happen. Conspiracies are everywhere for the man that cherishes golden plates and opines like a true John Bircher.

On the flip side, Beck sure wishes blacks didn't own MLK day.

Oh, and "too many" have gotten lazy and distorted Martin Luther King's ideas.

Yep that's Beck, the most idiotic man in the media. Well almost. Wingnuts everywhere are having a hard time understanding what's wrong with that comment:

@DanFosterNRO offensive b/c Beck wrong 2 say blacks think that or b/c blacks DO own MLK?

I guess it just doesn't occur to these people that any discussions of "owning" an African American civil rights icon are, by definition, offensive. To then derisively tell blacks that they don't own him and then in the next breath say they have gotten "lazy" and distorted his ideas is so obviously outrageous that I have to think they are being purposefully obtuse. This isn't political incorrectness, it's just plain old crude stupidity...listen in here.

Now this one we all know how offensive even the suggestion of this idea made by Beck is.

The wait is over: Glenn Beck's terrible, awful, no good, very bad novel comes out tomorrow. And you know what would be funny? If everyone who bought The Overton Window for pure joke value, did it with a link that directly benefits Crooks and Liars. Bwa ha.

If you don't have stomach for that, there are two other options: read the terrific crib notes for Beck over at Media Matters, and instead buy the book Over the Cliff by our own Amato and Neiwert (reviewed here).

Open thread below...

I started this series using Doughy Pantload as the first example of how the conservative movement supports their authors. They make sure that even if they write pure fantasy accounts devoid of reality that it sells as non-fiction, the better to persuade the less-engaged out there of their warped point of view.

Is there a bigger recipient of wingnut welfare out there than Dinesh D'Souza? He's been at the trough of wingnut welfare his entire life, writing book after book for Regnery Publications blaming everything under the sun on liberals, secularism or godlessness, and gays. At least Beck isn't trying to make believe his new book is covering historical events. Okay....maybe HE is. Bad example.

Dinesh wrote a book that blames Liberals for 9/11 and claims that Bin Laden and I have the same agenda.

Timothy Noah makes Dinesh look like fool in Slate, if you need more. Dinesh D'Souza's Mullah Envy: A leading conservative thinker blames 9/11 on liberalism.

David Neiwert and I have written a book that isn't guided by the arrogance that we are part of a superior religion guiding us into the grace of Heaven and all you non-believing gays are destroying the culture of the world. Unlike Dinesh, we prefer to write a book based on facts.

Just a few other reasons out of a gazillion to support real authors...

And buy this book.

Yes, I'm going to a great conference hosted by Campaign for America's Future this week. I'm flying to DC Sunday.

David Neiwert and Susie Madrak will be there also so we can have a little C&L powwow. Progressive politics is the life blood of our country and I'm down for participating in the process and trying to get together with the people that feel the same way. CFAF has some of the most talented people in politics and I couldn't be more excited to be part of it.

I'll be on a cool panel with some very progressives minds at the AFN:

Tuesday, 9:30AM Ends 10:40AM Tea Parties, Beck, Bachman and Blarney

Tea Parties, Beck, Bachman and Blarney

Palladian Room

Eric Burns
John Atlas
Alex Zaitchik
John Amato
Digby
James Rucker

I've had a short video made to illustrate how right wing extremism has found its way from talk radio, radical religious figures and paranoid militia groups into the halls of Congress.

After the panel David and I will be doing a book signing which should be very different. David has done this a few times, but for me it's a first so...

I hope I see you there if you happen to be in DC.

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While CNN's Rick Sanchez isn't exactly an imposing media figure, and his "List" schtick doesn't exactly shake the world, but it does have an interesting quality -- it's drawn to a large extent from viewer input.

And so it was interesting that Glenn Beck's attack on Malia Obama and his subsequent lame-ass apology that really angered CNN's viewers. So Beck wound up on Sanchez's "List U Don't Want 2 Be On" this week:

This is apparently what many of you've been waiting for. It's around this time every day when I tell you who is on my list that you don't want to be on.

Sometimes we debate this throughout the day with my staff, our producers. Just about everybody gets in on the conversation. We take this pretty seriously, because it casts the person in a rather bad light oftentimes.

There seems to be, today, no debate, not from my staff, not from writers, not from my producers. And judging from what I'm reading here throughout the day on Twitter, not from you. In fact, you could say today's is a slam-dunk.

We are talking about the Fox News host and the radio jock who has been known to take repeated shots at President Obama, most notably at one point calling the president a racist. Defenders of this popular TV and radio personality say it's simply part of his schtick, but now many of you on Twitter and on blogs that I've been reading have come to the conclusion around the country and are saying that in this one case, he has gone too far.

Glenn Beck went on relentlessly last week on his radio show making fun of Malia -- Malia, the president's daughter. It seemed to go on and on and on, while Beck seemed to be literally -- you'll hear it for yourself, folks -- cracking himself up at the expense of an 11-year- old.

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Glenn Beck evidently realized that he had set himself up for endless mockery and serious public disgust by attacking Malia Obama yesterday on his radio show, so he promptly issued an apology -- of sorts:

In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism, I broke my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates. The children of public figures should be left on the sidelines. It was a stupid mistake and I apologize--and as a dad I should have known better.

As Keith Olbermann observed, in naming Beck his Worst Person in the World:

Well, that obviously changes things, because Beck at least has shown that he realizes his own hypocrisy, and he deserves -- wait a minute! He did the very thing he was apologizing for, and he did it in the apology!

Olbermann points back to the opening line of the "apology":

In discussing how President Obama uses children to shield himself from criticism ...

Olbermann observes:

In apologizing for putting kids into political debates, he put the president's kids back into political debates! This guy is so feral, that even in his brief moment of semi-sanity, he's still completely nuts!

It's also worth remembering that Beck's "rule" doesn't just pertain to children -- it regards politicians' entire families:

Beck: There's a difference! Leave my family -- leave people's families alone! I don't think I've -- I mean, I don't think I have ever -- I mean, I made this when it was Bill Clinton -- you don't go after Chelsea Clinton! You don't talk about the Bush kids! Now, the minute they get into politics, that's a different story. You leave the families alone! We've never done anything but protect the families, and question why the White House would bring their children into political debate. Leave the families alone!

As Zachary Pleat at Media Matters observes, Beck's apology is thus incomplete, by multiple standards:

Beck involved Obama's children in another attack on the president earlier this week, comments Beck did not address in his apology today.

Further, Beck limited his apology to just "my own rule about leaving kids out of political debates." But he has repeatedly stated that entire families are off-limits -- and he has dragged President Obama's family into "political debates" several times over the past year. In a sexist attack on the president's wife just last week, Beck referred to an image on the Drudge Report of Michelle Obama at a White House state dinner for the Mexican president and his wife, stating:

I don't think I've ever seen the first lady with her -- excuse the expression -- but with her breasts all smooshed up.

Beck has also repeatedly brought up Obama's parents on his Fox News and radio shows -- specifically in the context of discussing Obama's politics -- and more than a year ago, he made fun of President Obama's aunt.

Glenn Beck's apology is incomplete until he apologizes for all the other instances in which he dragged the president's family into his political attacks.

Indeed, probably the scummiest show Beck has ever put on was devoted to tearing down President Obama's late mother. He certainly never came close to apologizing for that.

But I think Beck's apology is incomplete in a much more important sense, as Karoli pointed out in her update: He failed to apologize directly to Malia Obama for mocking her, and to her parents for attacking their child.

Any real man making a real apology would have done that. This was not a real apology. This was half-assed ass-covering, at best.