Goldberg Defends Beck
In a really good USA Today piece, Jonah Goldberg points out why conservatives might appreciate Glen Beck rather than excoriate him.
Still, much of the anti-Beck backlash (He's an extremist! He's paranoid! He's hate-filled!) from the left is hard to take seriously. First, this is a crowd that lets Michael Moore and Janeane Garofalo speak for them, and that celebrated the election of unfunny man Al Franken to the Senate. If you think it's racist to oppose Obama's health care reform efforts, it goes without saying that you'll think Beck is an extremist. This is what liberals always say about popular right-wingers, including Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley. For over 20 years liberals, including Presidents Clinton and Obama, have insisted that Rush Limbaugh is everything from an unpatriotic hatemonger to an enabler of domestic terrorism. It makes sense that they'd give Beck the same business.
Goldberg shows the contrast in media treatment between Beck and Jon Stewart...
Stewart's M.O. is to launch lightning attacks as a left-wing pundit and then quickly retreat to his haven across the border in Comedystan, but Beck must be pelted from the public stage for blurring the line between theater and punditry? Really?
...then continues by pointed out the strangeness of the "serious" punditry who get even more of a pass for their own outlandishness.
Over at MSNBC, which until recently floated no end of paranoid theories about neoconservative plots, Beck is boogeyman for his sometimes bombastic rhetoric about fascism and whatnot. Some complaints have merit, but this is the same network whose favorite conservative pundit is the populist Pat Buchanan, not even a Republican, who has written a book explaining why World War II was a mistake and how Hitler craved peace. Meanwhile, Keith Olbermann's shtick is far more dishonest: He pretends he's Edward R. Murrow reincarnated when he's really Al Franken with more important hair.
My theory? Beck is richer, more talented, more successful and more popular than his detractors. But jealousy and envy are popular, too.
He's also funnier and smarter than them. and has more fun.
ReplyDeletei forgot, and now he's richer than them. oh the agony!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Goldberg is so funny, so spot on, and such a good writer. ;)
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of sounding like a total fan boy, I always enjoy Jonah even when I disagree with him, which isn't too often and is usually only slightly, and I think one of the reasons is that his writing is so succinct, so logical and effortless to read. And humorous whenever possible. This is why I like K. Shaidle, with whom I disagree more often, and just about anyone else who I bother to read.
ReplyDeleteBut of all the attributes which I value, brevity is king.