Fox News’s Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star

[groovedaddy]

“You are not alone,” Glenn Beck likes to say. For the disaffected and aggrieved Americans of the Obama era, he could not have picked a better rallying cry.

Mr. Beck, an early-evening host on the Fox News Channel, is suddenly one of the most powerful media voices for the nation’s conservative populist anger. Barely two months into his job at Fox, his program is a phenomenon: it typically draws about 2.3 million viewers, more than any other cable news host except Bill O’Reilly or Sean Hannity, despite being on at 5 p.m., a slow shift for cable news.

With a mix of moral lessons, outrage and an apocalyptic view of the future, Mr. Beck, a longtime radio host who jumped to Fox from CNN’s Headline News channel this year, is capturing the feelings of an alienated class of Americans.

In an interview, Mr. Beck, who recently rewatched the 1976 film “Network,” said he identified with the character of Howard Beale, the unhinged TV news anchorman who declares on the air that he is “mad as hell.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/business/media/30beck.html?th&emc=th

[Teaser]

1. fascism on the march

.

[groovedaddy]

4. Amen! Can we stop it before it's too late? n.t

[TheCowsCameHome]

2. Glenn Beck, freak of nature, perfect fit at Fox.

Really.

[tridim]

3. He's "mad" alright

As Led Zep would say, sometimes words have two meanings.

[Tikki]

5. Fox News's Bad, Apocalyptic, Fearful Razing Stir......

Tikki

[ixion]

6. where was this "populist rage" meme under EIGHT FREAKIN' YEARS of craptastic

BushCo tyranny?

It must be really nice to have a national platform to express faux outrage after spending the last eight years deriding people for expressing their outrage.

And the fact that the NYTimes article doesn't mention is is intellectually dishonest and poor journalism, IMO.

[groovedaddy]

7. I agree with you. MSM went right along with the bullshit foisted on us under Bush

as well as all the cheer leading for the financial industry.
And, you know, people should be pissed (and many of us were with Bush & co.). Now that the econmic train is coming off the tracks, msm needs someone to blame besides themsleves. They are trying, with limited success, to lay this at the door of the current administration. This is why President Obama has to be so careful in how he portrays his administrations efforts to prop up a failing system. Firing G.M.s ceo is all well and good, BUT it should have happened to every ceo at a failed financial institution too.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

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[gordianot]

8. Beck wants to become the new Limbaugh with a dash of Father Coughlin.

He portrays one who is completely unhinged by indignation, however there appears to be some organization with this madness. Eventually someone is going to really start listening to his twisted and crafted populist agenda, by then it may be too late. He has enlisted major whack jobs like Chuck Norris and is openly advertising the creation of resistance cells against what remains of our poor battered Republic. Hard times are the best friend of demagogues, Beck is a demagogue wannabe of the first order. Yes, this guy is working up a struggle.

[Vinnie From Indy]

9. It seems the New York Times is still working hard to pimp the right wing message

The NYT has become another propaganda sheet. How can anyone trust that newspaper again after it's performance during the Bush era. It seems that they routinely write crap like this. Rather than discuss Beck's obvious calls for violence and FOX's complicity for airing it, they discuss Beck as a rational person simply giving voice to aliented Americans. They must have forgot to mention that this particular strain of voiceless American includes the likes of Timmy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph.

Gee, thanks New York Times!

[ladym55]

11. No kidding

Glenn Beck is downright scary. He is calling for armed insurrection. Then when violence occurs, M$M like the NY Times, will wring their hands: How did this happen???

Glenn apparently lives behind 6-foot walls in Connecticut. That in itself is pathetic since he lives in a very exclusive area, but he's AFRAID of being attacked.

Where is the NY Times calling him on the carpet for hate speech and demagoguery???? :grr:

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. Mr. Beck, the difference between you and Howard Beale was when

HE said he was 'mad as hell' he meant ANGRY - not fucking insane.