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.
