The Lefts Hypocrisy On Glenn Beck Fear Mongering
57Principles Over Party
Make one search online about Glenn Beck and you'll see post after post of liberals lamenting how Glenn Beck is a “danger to America”. How he uses fear to incite... something. He hasn't actually incited anything, yet and the last time I checked he's not passing any legislation. I guess when you are a big-government progressive in pursuit of that elusive Utopian society, you can't afford to allow someone like Beck to speak his mind.
It seems rather comical to me that the same liberals who seriously think Beck should be taken off the air because of his fear mongering, don't have a problem with President Obama's incredible fear mongering. Where have they been the last year? His fear mongering has lead to incredible changes to our country, unlike Beck who is merely an opinion commentator. So let's look at the fear mongering from Obama, shall we?
- We must bailout the banks, or we won't be able to get loans.
- We must pass the stimulus, or we'll see unemployment rise. We passed it and it rose anyway. Higher than Obama projected if we DID NOT PASS IT AT ALL.
- We will go bankrupt, if we don't pass this particular health care bill.
- Afghanistan: “We know that Al Qaeda and other extremists seek nuclear weapons, and we have every reason to believe that they would use them”.
Is this guy a Republican? The point here is that both use FEAR to make political points. The key is that we must be able to tell the difference between what is rational and irrational. Something the liberals who complain about Beck's fear mongering don't think we can do. In fairness we have have succumbed to fear mongering, but now that our civil liberties and economic freedoms have been eroded since 9-11 under the guise of “crisis”, I think the people are awake and extremely paranoid of anyone using fear to enact great change. This is why Obama's poll numbers are tanking.
As a result of 9-11, progressive politicians (like Obama) have figured out that to get legislation passed they have to create a sense of crisis. Like a used car salesman yelling, it's got to go now! They have used this repeatedly, and President Obama has darn near worn the thing off. So liberals and progressives, if it's fear mongering you hate – you can criticize Beck for that. However, Beck is not a political figure and holds no actual power, so it seems rather odd to me that his fear mongering, while resulting in little change is so bad, while President Obama's fear mongering, which is going to result in transformational changes to our country, is completely fine.
Truth is, it's not the fear mongering you hate. It's simply how Beck's fear mongering makes your favorite political leader look bad. That's all. Lose the party, focus on the principles. This is why I'm a Ron Paul libertarian who Sean Hannity hates. If Sean Hannity hates you, you know you're doing something right.
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I read your response and I appreciate you leaving a comment. The number of people on Washington - Why, does it matter? The FEMA camp thing - He tried to debunk it, couldn't. So he hired one reporter to do a further investigation into one of the videos - then they debunked it. End of story.
It's ironic to me that leftists are more concerned with the "checks and balances" of Glenn Beck, than they are with the lack of checks and balances in government.
When it comes to Beck, I just wish liberal democrats would focus more on principles and less on personalities. Because largely what they hate about Beck is how his interpretations hurt their favored political party or operative. Something I could give a crap about, except for maybe Ron Paul. But he isn't political, he's principled.
If it were the end of the story, I'd be happy, but there are still people out there pushing his death camp idea, and he had and has every opportunity to check facts before opening his mouth. He is not a serious journalist, his show is not serious news, it is all opinion. Why then does he have a full hour on a network that bills itself FOXNews? If they are about news, that's fine, but BECK even admits he is no reporter, no journalist, just a guy with an opinion. Would I allow a guy who played a doctor on TV to do my operation? I doubt it. Why should Beck be allowed to play a news caster on TV?
Opinions should not be confused with facts. What he does is and can be misleading, presenting his ideas as if they were true simply because he says so. Yes, the Left does and has done this as well, as I admit to and can even attest to. That doesn't make it any more right for Beck to be given a platform to spew out misinformation.
As concerned Americans I would love to see people on both the Right and Left reject this kind of misleading garbage and demand that ALL networks get the facts right before giving it out as news, and that all news networks reject this flashy, provocative kind of program which does not live up to the name of being a news program.
Cheers! Happy New Year!
Chef Jeff
I guess I'm a bit confused. What NEWS organization hasnt gotten something wrong and issued a retraction? Even though, Beck is not a news guy as you and he have both said. This all much ado about nothing. If you want just straight up news, get it from elsewhere. Glenn Beck lead to the dismissal of Van Jones and has uncovered numerous scandals from within the White House and this presidency in a little under a year. He's no different than (maybe) John Stewart, who I also like.
I remain convinced that the objection to Beck is largely political.
My problem with Beck is mainly that he has a primetime television show to promote his lies. And he is a liar, for just some of the lies look at the links below.
It is irresponsible and dangerous for Beck to say things that aren't true, consistently, from a position of authority. And it is even worse for Fox to provide a platform for this to happen over and over again.
Plus Beck has actively promoted the Tea Parties on his show, which is even worse than telling lies.
Fox News and Glenn Beck are actively organizing against the President and spreading misinformation. Not good things in a democracy.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Glenn-Beck-and-Sean-Hannit
http://www.factcheck.org/tag/glenn-beck/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/personalit
Media Matters does a much better job of watching Beck's lies.
In Response to William R. Wilson; President Obama has lied numerous times is the most powerful man on the earth and his platform is a little larger than Beck's.
Standing up to the President and congress is very much a good thing in our constitutional republic. The President is not a dictator or king, last time I checked. For the most part, Beck has been right in his claims and when he's made mistakes he has lead his show with them.
Glenn Beck's (semi) libertarianism is a balance to Obama's progressivism. I'm a libertarian and don't agree with Beck on everything, but I appreciate the fact that someone out there (with the platform) is willing to vet our President finally. The true story of 09' (if anyone was willing to cover it) was how Beck was able to easily uncover all of his stories without much effort, yet during the campaign the mainstream media never bothered.
I am not a fan of Sarah Palin but the way she was treated, versus the way Obama was treated was night and day. The media love affair and anointment of Obama was much more dangerous to our country than anything Glenn Beck has ever said or done. Of course, when I say "our country" I am not referring to the "our homeland" or the government. I am referring to our constitutional republic, something both parties no longer support.
The left suddenly seems less concerned with speaking "truth to power". Maybe it's just easier to see all of this as an anti-war libertarian. I have no party and I'm used to both of them failing.
I'm not American and I don't want to get involved in a domestic squabble. On the other hand, the thing that I'm aware of when I drop into political forums here or catch US TV on cable is a lack of respect for truth.
In the health care debate, for instance, there were so many down right fabrications that were obvious to anyone from the UK yet apparently swallowed whole by US audiences. One line was that Steven Hawkins would never get heath care in the UK because he was too old or far gone in some way. Of course, Steven Hawkins has relied on the UK health system from birth.
Another line was that the US has the best heathcare system in the world. Anyone familiar with the carefully gathered national statistics on health can dismiss that in an instant. It doesn't even measure up to the cash starved make do and mend UK system in any important measure and costs 3 times as much per head.
There were so many obvious falsehoods spread through mainstream media it made me wonder if any kind of genuine debate was possible. It has also discouraged me from following US politics. No debate seems trustworthy in a way that debate generally is in other western countries.
Then I caught some of Glen Martin on the net and I started to understand. If you want to live in a sane country you need sane debate. Mr Martin really doesn't help.
p.s. Try nationmaster.com if you want a mountain of stats that compare institutions and their performance in different countries.It comes courtesy of the CIA factbook, the OECD, the UN and individual countries fact gathering bureaucracies. Stats may not always mean what they appear to mean at first glance but they are a better starting point than fantasy.
Chef and Bill. Are U friggin kidding me? What LIES? Admit it. You have nevr even watched the show. I watched YOUR sources links. The entire page I went to first was made to be completely anti-beck. You call that a legitimate source? LOOK AT IT! hubpages.com. Are you insane? In their youtube video about glen beck, they overdub his voice and make him sound gay. Funny because he is actually for gay rights. The rest of the page takes old republican things like "family values" and then asks if he is really promoting them? First he is NOT a republican! He is a libertarian! These are buzzwords from the republicans from the 80s. Dick Cheney is NOT Glen beck by the way. Next is "factcheck.org", which is NOT a fact checking site. It is owned by the LEFT. The Anenburg foundation is a socialist group of thug politicians. Nice source. I am not evn going to BOTHER with your third "source". None of them are saying anything that can be called anything but their opinion. They take things out of context and lie to make you think Beck did something he didn't. If Beck did that, then I would not watch him. As soon as a person resorts to lies and con-jobs to make an accusation, I am done watching.
As far as the "Death Camps". HE is not the one who reported this. The person who initially did is Alex Jones. He is the biggest anti-bush, cheney, AND Obama reporter out there. He was out to debunk it. He eventually did debunk it. He said initially how insane it was then debunked the whole thing. Of course you don't show the whole clips, so you are lying when you say it. Showing a clip without the whole thing is LYING.
We have a president who lies every single day to the American people. You could care less.
Right now Obama, who Beck has exposed to be completely surrounded by Marxists, is in control and is corrupt to the core. You do not care though. Obama has threatened the rest of the government to pass his VERY unpopular government takeovers. He let China fly their flag at the White House for the anniversary of the Communist revolution! He is funding foreign OVERSEAS deep-sea oil drilling, while stopping ALL drilling here. He took over GM. He put YOU, me and every other American in more debt than you can imagine. His empty promises from his campaign are all just that.... empty. This is the MOST NON-Transparent administration in the history of the country. He has stepped UP the war in Afghanistan. A war for WHAT? We don't know because he has never talked about it. There is no news from either war, ever since Bush left! Where are all you anti-bush activists now?
I think instead of spending so much time lying about Beck, who is seriously trying to warn you by connecting all the dots for you and showing you what Obama and his minions do not want you to see, you should spend more time looking into who is running the country.
Your accusations of Beck, while never mentioning the HUGE, obvious, everyday lies of MSNBC, Commedy Central, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, etc. is completely unbelievable. I mean..... REALLY! Beck isn't using kids cartoons filled with propaganda to indoctrinate you. Commedy Central IS. The Left IS. Your phony anger trip at Beck is really annoying. Wake up! Now lets do a piece on the Lies of Maddow and Olberman. Talk about BS!
Chef Jeff 2 years ago
To me it's not a matter of Right vs Left. Beck has been called out and shown to any reasonable point of view to simply have made stuff up in order to get across his point.
The crap about death camps by FEMA is a really good example of going way off the deep end. There are no death camps, but his viewers really believe there are because Beck said it.
Fear mongering is a popular way to get people on your side. Beck is not elected, as you say, but he has a loyal following of people who believe every word he says, yet there is no check and balance on what he says. He has influence, and he uses it to cause fear. That much is clear from his nightly performances.
Thus far I have seen no sign from FOX News to try to make him be more responsible for his rantings, and that, my friend, is bad for all of us. It seems they are simply glad he brings in the numbers. That is also bad. Popular ratings do not count as credible news. It is as if they desire to go along with the lies and made-up stories just to make money. Who does that sound like to you?
No person, no matter the political reason or backing, should be given such a platform to say things which are patently untrue and unproven. The Left has no right to lie about things, and neither does the Right, or the Middle or even the non-political.
Beck's insistance that 1.7 million people went to Washington D. C. on his 9-12 day is ridiculous. That would have been about three times the entire population of Washington D.C. and yet there are no reports from officials there of any extra police, medical or tourist measures having been put into place for this alleged number of people. When asked to verify this number Beck merely told his fellow FOX host that a university somehwere had confirmed the numbers. Washington D. C. generally has about 1.6 million visitors per month. Sales from 1.7 on two or three days would have sent shock waves of joy throughout the restaurants & hotels, but no such thing has been hinted at by the local Chamber of Commerce, hardly a Left-Wing organization, which would have been thrilled to be able to report such an increase in tourist income.
Satellite photos of that day do not show anywhere near 1.7 million people. Where did Beck get this number from? His imagination, I would presume. There is no credible evidence anywhere that I am aware of which even comes close to backing him up on this, yet he remains confident that he is right and everyone else is wrong. Why? It's the good old "Left Wing Media bias", Beck claims, which he said long ago was a fantasy. So do I believe him now, or do I believe him from back then?
With Beck it's hard to tell. He has changed for the worse since I used to admire him some years back. Quite literally, he has become as bad as some of the Left-Wing propogandists that used to be on TV.
Cheers!
Chef Jeff