Fireside Books

After recent events, some people might feel the need for a dose of accuracy.

Who is this guy and why are people listening?

Forget Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity—Glenn Beck is the
right’s new media darling and the unofficial leader of the conservative
grassroots. Lampooned by the left and lionized by the far right, his
bluster-and-tears brand of political commentary has commandeered
attention on both sides of the aisle.

Glenn Beck has emerged over the last decade as a unique and bizarre
conservative icon for the new century. He fantasizes aloud about killing
his political opponents and encourages his listeners to embrace a
cynical paranoia that slides easily into a fantasyland filled with
enemies that do not exist, and solutions that are incoherent, at best.
Since the election of Barack Obama, Beck’s bombastic, conspiratorial,
and often viciously personal approach to political combat has made him
one of the most controversial figures in the history of American
broadcasting.

In Common Nonsense, investigative reporter Alexander Zaitchik
explores Beck's strange brew of ratings lust, boundless ego,
conspiratorial hard-right politics, and gimmicky morning-radio
entertainment chops.

• Separates the facts from the fiction, following Beck from his
  troubled childhood to his recent rise to the top of the conservative
  media heap
• Zaitchik's recent three-part series in Salon caused so much buzz, Beck felt the need to attack it on his show
• Based on Zaitchik's interviews with former Beck coworkers and review of countless Beck writings and television and radio shows
• Examines Beck's high-profile obsessions (Acorn and Van Jones)
  as well as his lesser-known influences (obscure Mormon radicals like
  Cleon Skousen.)
• Zaitchik's writing has appeared in the New Republic, the Nation, Salon, Wired, the New York Times, and Alternet

Beck, a perverse and high-impact media spectacle, has emerged as a
leader in a conservative protest movement that raises troubling
questions about the health of American democracy.

In minute-by-minute detail, Patricia Smith tracks Hurricane Katrina
as it transforms into a full-blown mistress of destruction. From August
23, 2005, the day Tropical Depression Twelve developed, through August
28 when it became a Category Five storm with its “scarlet glare fixed on
the trembling crescent,” to the heartbreaking aftermath, these poems
evoke the horror that unfolded in New Orleans as America watched it on
television.

Assuming the voices of flailing politicians, the dying, their
survivors, and the voice of the hurricane itself, Smith follows the
woefully inadequate relief effort and stands witness to families held
captive on rooftops and in the Superdome. She gives voice to the
thirty-four nursing home residents who drowned in St. Bernard Parish and
recalls the day after their deaths when George W. Bush accompanied
country singer Mark Willis on guitar:

The cowboy grins through the terrible din,
***
And in the Ninth, a choking woman wails
Look like this country done left us for dead.

An unforgettable reminder that poetry can still be “news that stays news,” Blood Dazzler is a necessary step toward national healing.