I Am A TV Junkie

We Have a Winner! The TV Host Most Likely to Cause an International Incident Is ...

Oh, like you didn't know!!!

(Photo illustration above by me.)

TalkingPointsMemo.com:

On his radio show Monday, Glenn Beck announced that he'll be holding a "Restoring Courage" rally this August in Jerusalem, which he said would be a "life altering event" that the "very gates of hell" would try to prevent.

A post on his official site explains: "Taking a stand is not always easy, but now more than ever it is imperative that we live with conviction and do the right thing. It is time for us to courageously stand with Israel."

"I invite you to join me in Israel this summer to stand together and show the world what living a life of faith and honor really means," Beck said. "I invite you to join me in my quest to Restore Courage."

There is so many ways this could go wrong, but I'll tell you which way I think it could go. You know how there's something of an alliance between Israeli Jews and American fundamentalists forged by the fundies' belief that the Jews need to be in Israel for the rapture to come? And you know how those same fundamentalists believe that the rapture will leave behind those who don't believe that Jesus is our savior?

I believe that someone like Beck, with support from the fundamentalist Christians that watch and listen to him, could push this trope so hard that the supportive Israeli Jews might finally see the mean-spiritedness in the whole thing and pull away from those Holy Land visiting, Not Of This World bumper sticker-having, Christian Zionists who seem to want the Jewish people to exist only to further their ascension into heaven.

As if any of this really existed or made any difference whatsoever. Oh, you know how I feel about such things, such a waste of passion and energy and in some cases good intention (though I really believe it's all a scam, the whole business).

I'm not saying it's a bad idea to send a dry-drunk LDS Church member with delusions of grandeur and a rapt audience of fearful, angry, ignorant and undereducated trolls to a foreign country ...

Oh, sorry. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Your Guide to Glenn Beck's Goldline Problem, Handy Infographic (that even you home-schooled types can understand)

I thought there might be a problem with having a TV show where you scream and cry about the end of civilization and then tell people to protect themselves by buying gold from "your trusted source" that may or may not be sending you down the road to financial ruin.

I dunno, just a hunch.

Then again, most fans of Beck don't even know what's happening to them. They see an earnest guy looking out for them. Then again, not as many people as a few months ago are seeing him at all, ratings are dropping on his Fox Noise show precipitously.

If you've heard about this Goldline controversy but you didn't really know what it was all about and you want to, click over the jump for a great graphic that explains it all from Ritholtz.com's The Big Picture, and it's also posted with additional information at this link.

Got $4 Million? Celebrate New Year's By Buying Glenn Beck's House

 

Yes, it's for sale, all eight thousand seven hundred twenty square feet of it, on the block for a cool four mil. Anyone biting?

Check out the exclusive New Caanan, CT listing at this link from Realtor.com.

He's just a regular guy, just like you and me ... but more like Jeff Immelt, the GE Chairman that Beck used to harangue regularly until GE sold NBC-Uni to Comcast. Immelt lives in the same town.

Glenn, though, is just a regular guy, like you and me. Because we all have five full baths and three half baths on 2.8 acres with a view of a lake and a 26' by 18' kitchen.

And six bedrooms including a 22' by 16' master bedroom. And three private schools within three miles.

Just a regular guy. Like you and me.

Guardian UK on Glenn Beck: "The Republican Party ... is now a wing of Fox"

Interesting that a British paper (albeit the politically liberal one) is talking about Beck and the birthers and teabaggers and the paranoid delusions of the former alcoholic, ADHD-er, Mormon who supports gay marriage (at least he says he does)  and poster boy for Vick's Vapo-Rub and its tear-inducing qualities.

A taste of it here, but please click this link and read the extensive article from Gaby Wood at the Guardian:

One of Beck's campaigns featured a security system now being offered with some General Motors cars. It's called Onstar; it includes a tracking device in case your car gets stolen, and a speed limit you can impose so a thief can't get away in a high-speed chase. Beck's take on this was that since GM is now partly owned by the government, this was the government's "spy satellite", its way of knowing where you are at all times. Yet Beck positions himself as an entirely reasonable, non-conspiracy theorist. He's just like you: an ordinary guy who wants to know what's going on. He refers to others as "the nut-job fringes" and says: "the fringes are what's pulling us apart".

No, I didn't know about Beck's Onstar problem, either. And about his "nut-job fringes" remark, all I can do is make reference to a pot and a kettle and you know the rest. But it doesn't seems to bother his viewers, as Ms. Wood remarks:

His 5pm show on Fox now claims 3 million viewers; his syndicated morning radio show has 8 million listeners; he has several bestselling books, including a novel and a children's book; he has his own one-man touring stage show and, as of last week, conducts political rallies. (His earnings in the year leading up to June 2009 were estimated by Forbes to be around $23m, and they are set to increase.)

Still, there are 300 million plus Americans, and fortunately most of them are either shaking their heads in amazement or dismay or actively debunking all his claptrap (that group would include moi). And I find it particularly vexing that this guy, who lives in New Canaan, CT, home of the biggest wage earners in the country including the CEO of the parent company of Beck nemesis MSNBC, gets away with leading a populist uprising, albeit an uprising of seemingly uneducated or bigoted Americans.

I totally get that there are enough people out there, between those fashioning their tin foil hats and those who still just despise the fact that (their words, not mine) "that n***** is in the White House," but it embarrasses me that people in other countries are figuring the same out.

Embarassed that we still have this race problem in this country, embarassed that people don't read enough to know what he says is total crap, embarassed that a high school grad who is nothing more than a bad entertainer has such sway over a swath of Americans.

And one more thing ... how is it that Beck supports gay marriage and still gets all this ink from the LDS Church (Mormon) press? It seems they can be awfully selective in their hearing.

Report -- Car Crash Victim Unfortunately Not Glenn Beck

From The Onion, natch.

Mother of the victim: "There's no harder thing than having Glenn Beck outlive your child."

Question of the Day: Does Beck's audience know he's a Mormon? Because my impression is that the Fox Noise audience was key in quashing Mitt's Presidential bid in 08.

Talk amongst yourselves, clip after the jump.

Tears courtesy Vicks Vapo-Rub. Details at this link.

Video -- Glenn Beck: McCain Would Have Been Worse President That Obama or Hillary

The quote comes from a show debuting online in less than two hours called @KatieCouric, a web-0nly show where she'll interview people who are interesting but not interesting enough (or too controversial for, maybe?) the CBS Evening News or 60 Minutes.

Today's guest? Howard Beale + Stupid + Dry Drunk + Crazy + Mormon = Glenn Beck.

And, now that his big 9/12 event has come and gone, I guess he feels safe to tell the teabagging crowd that watch him with their tin foil hats on that John McCain would have been worse for this country than either of the two Dem frontrunners ... including that "Marxist, Fascist, Nazi, Commie, Kenyan euthanizer of your grandma."

They won't be loving that now, will they! To all of them I have to say, "Sorry about your fearless leader talking out both sides of his ample ass, but crazy, stupid, LDS Church-going dry drunks will do that, you know. Even if they live with the rich people in New Canaan, CT."

Watch the clip after the jump, and then click over to the @KatieCouric page at CBS News to watch the entire interview at 7 eastern time.

I wonder if Beck will play this clip on HIS show today? I wonder if he has the stones to alienate his core audience? Maybe if he sends them all Reynolds Wrap coupons afterward.

For that hats, you know.

Beck graphic courtesty The Disorderly Report.

Olbermann Video -- Howard Beale + Stupid + Insane = Glenn Beck

You walk by the TV when he's on (not in your home, because you're smarter than that, but at an airport or in a restaurant or Dick Cheney's house) and you'll think he's kidding.

But he's not.

I would worry about the scads of hate mail I should get after calling Glenn Beck a stupid, insane version of Howard Beale, the character Peter Finch made so famous in the motion picture Network, but I don't think those people can turn on their computers without fearing that the little teeny tiny people who pushing the letters and pictured around in the series of tubes that is the internet are trying to ...

• Steal their thoughts ...
• Euthanize them ...
• Indoctrinate their kids, or ...
• Redesign the tin foil hats they wear to prevent Sasha and Malia Obama from scrambling their brains.

BTW, my calling Beck stupid and insane has nothing to do with his claimed dual diagnoses of ADHD and alcohol addiction, the latter of which he says is controlled by AA and his faith.

He's stupid and insane on top of his ADHD and addiction issues. Not just stupid and insane, but now an analyst of public art and architecture, as you'll see in the clip, which is after the jump along with more about Glenn.

Video -- "Death Panel" Inventor Betsy McCaughey Tonight on The Daily Show

And I have a Daily Show clip you have to see all the way to the end just to see how Craig T. Nelson (Coach, The Proposal) makes a complete ass out of himself, when he tells Glenn Beck he was on welfare and food stamps yet no one helped him out.

That might be the fastest anyone on Fox Noise every contradicted themselves. Not just in the same sentence, there wasn't even punctuation separating the statement and the contradiction.

Get after it, Jon. And not in a cutesy, funny way, either. Slam McCaughey, who has a history of lying about any political issue that will get her traction in the media.

Gawker:

Betsy McCaughey is a professional liar. She lies. The things she writes are untrue. They are not even "distortions." They are made-up.

(snip)

Her first stab at derailing this year's health care debate came with a Bloomberg column about fictitious health care rationing hidden in the stimulus bill.

In a July 24 column for the New York Post, McCaughey smeared Ezekiel Emanuel (the nice Emanuel brother) as a murderous "deadly doctor."

In a radio interview with Fred Thompson, McCaughey got more explicit, wholly inventing mandatory death panel sessions American seniors would have to face every five years.

And, thus, "death panels." From Betsy to Rush to Sarah Palin to Chuck Grassley to your own old relatives forwarding you crazy shit, probably.

More on McCaughey and the clip after the jump.

Take Action! -- Boycott iTunes Until Apple Pulls Their Glenn Beck Ads

And no iTunes gift cards and no new iPods, and if you're thinking about that new Mac Book Air, just wait.

Because a progressive company like Apple should know better.

The Brainstorm Tech blog at Fortune:

The issue is an iPhone ad that appeared on the Aug. 7 broadcast of the Glenn Beck show on the Fox News Channel (NWS).

Under pressure from advocacy groups, more than a dozen companies, including ConAgra (CAG), Geico, Procter & Gamble (PG) and Progressive (PRG), have pulled their commercials from the conservative commentators' show. (See here.)

The boycott was launched last month by ColorofChange.org after Beck made remarks on Fox and Friends that labeled President Obama a "racist" with a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

The campaign was picked up by Democrats.com, which provided its members with a list of advertisers and an e-mail form letter that threatens to stop buying the sponsors' products as long as they advertise on Fox News. The organization set a goal of 100,000 letters; as of Saturday morning 46,575 had been sent.

Leave a comment after the post, it will be your show of solidarity.

We show our numbers we show our strength.

Glenn Beck Loses Advertisers GEICO, Proctor & Gamble, SC Johnson, Progressive Insurance

Well, that's a beginning.

THR:

Geico has pulled its ads from Fox News Channel's "The Glenn Beck Program." Lawyers.com, which is owned by LexisNexis, also has vowed not to advertise during the program, according to Color of Change, an African-American online political organization that has been spurring advertisers to stop supporting the show.

Additionally, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance and SC Johnson all said their ad placements during the broadcast were made in error and that they would correct the mistake.

The controversy stems from Beck's comment that President Obama is a "racist" with "a deep-seated hatred for white people."

Geico spent more than a half-billion dollars on ads last year, according to the Nielsen Co. It spent more than a quarter-billion dollars for the first half of 2009.

Interested in writing a letter to Fox about Beck? There are a lot of ways to do that, but I think this is actually the best way to get Fox Noise's attention. They do love their money.

Go to ColorOfChange.org for more information on an advertiser boycott and the petition to advertisers.

Have a caption idea for the image above? Leave me a comment below.

Video -- Glenn Beck, American Douchebag, But Not the Biggest Douchebag

That would be former KKK Grand Wizard, former congressional candidate, and former ugly person (who isn't much better, even with all the plastic surgery he had before his Congressional run) David Duke, commenting on the RNC's election of Michael Steele as their new chairman.

If Duke has his way, he'll be taking a part of the party away with him and starting anew.

You see, Michael Steele is a black man.

Frankly, I would love to see this happen. Anything that leads to the destruction of the party of Grover Norquist and Tom DeLay is fine with me.

Olbermann's Worst Persons below.

LINK

Video -- Your Daily Dose of "Low Information" American Voters, Thank You Glenn Beck

Here for your review are  some typical American voters, sadly enough. If everyone in our country would watch this, we might actually get a law passed that makes you pass a basic competance test before you get to vote.

I would love to tell you that I don't know people like this but it turns out someone that I hold very dear has been thinking the same things lately, which I only found out when we spoke by phone the other day.

Her excuse was that she's been watching Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News. People, what have I told you about Glenn Beck? Well it's all at this link. Further, what have the media watchdogs told you about Glenn Beck? That's at this link.

And the clip (Glenn Beck not included) is after the jump. Hat tip to the person at Americablog who posted the link in the comments section.

And people, click over to FightTheSmears.com when you hear crap like this, please. Or even FactCheck.org. Glenn Beck isn't a newsperson, he's an entertainer with bad material who just won't go away.

I don't know if the person I want to see this will, but I hope she does.

Glenn Beck v. What the Buck?!: How Popular is Internet Superstar Michael Buckley?

Well listen to this ... Eric Boehlert, writing at SmirkingChimp.com (one of my regular haunts) says:

(Glenn) Beck's weeknight show on CNN Headline News attracted, on average, 305,000 viewers, 111,000 of which were among the crucial 25-54 viewer demographic that advertisers prefer.

In comparison, as of right now, the What the Buck?! clip that's in my upper left corner about Lohan and Amy Fisher (and more) has been viewed more than 724,000 times.

And there is no Fortune #48 company running ads for him all over broadcast radio, like Beck has.

I conclude that Michael Buckley is sixty-eight gaddagazillion times more influential on the world media stage than CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck.

Do you think that maybe that all this has something to do with the pain in Glenn Beck's ass that he needed surgery for? Do you?

LINK

And Glenn, you aren't a working stiff, you get invited to the Bush White House, so obviously you are a gang member. Gang of fools, that is.

One More Thing Before I Run Out, Olbermann Has a New Graphics Package

Extending to the "Worst Person" segment. Here it is from yesterday.

LINK

CNN's Glenn Beck is Such a Tool ...

... that he thinks the city of New Orleans needs ...

... more guns!

That's right, despite this from the Los Angeles Times:

New Orleans has the highest homicide rate of any American city. Rapes increased 44% in the first half of 2007 compared with a year ago.

And that's with hardly anyone being there. Imagine if all the residents of New Orleans had their homes to come back to, it would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

And that makes Beck yesterday's Worst Person in the World.

LINK

This Weekend's "Worst Person in the World" is Glenn Beck

Gee, what a surprise. I swear this guy Beck has the words "bully pulpit" tattooed on his johnson.

I figure that the "Worst Person in the World" on Friday also gets to be that for the weekend, too, right? After all, Keith doesn't do his own "WPitW" at home on Sat and Sun, does he? Wouldn't it be weird if he did?

Actually, what would be funnier is if Cosmo Kramer (not too soon for a Michael Richards aside, is it?) found the Olbermann set in the trash and moved it into his apartment and he did the "Worst Person" duties on the weekend.

Hey, it's at YouTube and you know that means I have to post it here, so here's that clip:

Anyhow, this is a good one, and I wanna take the opportunity on a Saturday to thanks YouTube user "CSPANJUNKIEdotORG" for posting all the great Olbermann clips I use here (well, almost all of them, actually, he's responsible for the ones with the really good picture and sound quality).

LINK

Isn't it nice that John Travolta is a psychiatric scholar, too? Hey, those one-on-ones with Xenu must involve a lot of homework.

This is the same John Travolta that said you could be a Scientologist and celebrate Christmas, that there was not conflict in that.

Nancy Grace Loses a Job -- Well, It's a Start ...

... but I don't think we can truly designate TV truly cleaned up until Nancy Grace loses all TV jobs. On the heels of Catherine Crier being let go at Court TV in prep for their format change, the powers-that-be have announced today that Nancy "asked" to be let go from her contract. Now, why the conceit? Why can't they just say that Grace doesn't fit into their future plans?

And about that format change, it is best described this way (from RealityTVWorld.com):

Similar to what other cable networks like Bravo, VH1, A&E, and E! have done in recent years, Court TV has announced that it plans to undergo a "major branding initiative" that will shift its programming focus to "emphasizing real-life stories." 

Marc Juris, Court TV's general manager, said the decision to refocus on reality programming was done to target the "highly coveted psychographic" known as "Real Engagers."

Real engagers? What? Here, read this from the Time Warner press release:

"We have identified a very strong audience segment driving our prime-time success, an audience we call Real Engagers," Juris added. "These viewers watch a tremendous amount of television and love real-life action programming, real-life emotion and access to places they can't normally go. Now that we have identified our target audience, we can evolve our programming to serve those viewers, while also capturing the unrealized potential of our new consumer brand."

I just thought of a real engager. Her name was Mrs. Luca, and she was the lady who lived on my block when I was a kid who spied on everyone from behind the plants in her screened-in front porch. Back in the day, we used to call them "busybodies."

Still, re Grace, this is a start. Now, if Time Warner would just realize that having her on Headline News is tantamount to having a deal with the devil, we could all get about the business of showing the world just how much of a pig her colleague Glenn Beck is.

Yes, What Imus Said Matters, but Does Imus Matter? Also, is CNN's Glenn Beck Any Better?

I'm known who Don Imus was for many, many years. He was the morning drive guy on my first regularly listened to radio station, WNBC-AM in New York, which of course is now WFAN where he does this radio show which also gets simulcast on MSNBC.

Of course, I haven't cared a wit about Imus since I left New York for California in 1985. Well, really, I haven't cared since I started driving a car with FM radio in it, and that was a long, long time ago. So, I guess it surprises me that this mess has grown to these proportions. Not because what he said wasn't hateful, it certainly was.

I just thought that like a tree in the woods, if no one heard it it wouldn't make a sound. I guess more people are still walking those woods with Imus than I thought.

Personally, I think that Imus should have been off the air years ago. I also don't understand why his radio show is simulcast on TV. Why, so we can look at him? Geez, I can think of many things I'd rather be looking at. Moldy cheese comes to mind.

From what I can tell from reading around the web this AM, no one should be surprised that Imus is capable of the remarks he made about the Rutgers women's basketball team. You know what did surprise me, however, was on last night's AC 360, Anderson Cooper brought on CNN's own race-baiter, Glenn Beck, to talk specifically about Imus.

First off, don't you love when the other media outlets pile on? Doesn't it just display such an esprit-de-corps among the press crowd? Sheesh, they are piranhas.

But Anderson Cooper should have his ethical journalist card ripped from his Fendi wallet for even being a part of a broadcast where Glenn Beck speaks about anyone else's insensitivity to bigoted comments. For example, check out this link to a MediaMatters.org page where Beck seems to apologize for calling Rosie O'Donnell a "fat witch," but then adds, "But she's just so fat ..."

(Not for nothing, Anderson, but you could also be losing your gay card, too, even though you keep it locked away in a safe deposit box in Geneva with your old boyfriends and those parachute pants you wore in the early '80s.)

So, CNN has no business getting involved here, and I don't even have to mention the Noise Channel, although I just did mention them and their hateful crew of selective Bible-spouting fools (I mean you, Doocy and crew).

So, enough with the piling on. My suggestion is just make Imus go away for good and let him take Beck, O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter, John Gibson, Laura Ingraham, Rush and the whole class of them to your New Mexico ranch with you, where, if you like, you can all fight to the death.