I have to say something about the current state of the right wing in general and the right wing in broadcast media in specific. I was watching today as RINO Joe Scarborough was ripping the right from his perch inside the MSNBC birdcage where they keep their pet conservatives, over the weekend, I read the articles by Ross Douthat and David Brooks cautioning that the right had to become more left to win. Last night on Fox, Bill O’Reilly was going nuts over Jamie Foxx and Hannity was hyperventilating about Obama shaking hands with the South Korean rapper and America hater (at least until we made him a millionaire), Psi.
Folks – it looks like some sort of macabre carnival sideshow.
The institutional right lost an election and now, like a school kid who got his ass whipped on the playground, they are over in the corner sulking and talking smack about the kid who laid the thrashing on them. Hannity’s rant was the equivalent of saying Obama has bad breath and his mother dresses him funny.
O’Reilly was up in arms over Foxx saying that he got to kill all the white people in his new movie. So what? Foxx is so stupid and clueless that he doesn’t realize how accurate he was when he said on SNL that “black is the new white”. Through his new movie, Django Unchained, he is being exploited by white liberal people like Quentin Tarantino – just like the old “blaxploitation” movies of the 70′s. These were movies made to make blacks feel powerful even as the liberal policies were keeping them in poverty – and taking their money. They promoted the feeling thay “man, we are poor as dirt but a black man beat the crap out of that white pimp! How great was that?!”
Blacks are the new old liberal toy that it has become acceptable to play with again. Liberals feel immune to criticism because they voted in a black president. They feel safe to take their Little Black Sambo doll out and reenact Brer Rabbit now.
Jamie Foxx is nothing but the contemporary Dolemite.
The clusterf*ck in the “right wing media” is unbecoming, painful to watch and in the end, nobody gives a shit because it is all meaningless fluff designed to make us feel better about getting curb-stomped and to help us rationalize why it happened.
But it won’t change a damned thing about what got us here. The fact is that at the national level, we don’t have the conservative brilliance of Reagan, a former actor turned politician, and we have a bunch of second rate political actors who are playing a role as Reagan but are pale imitations of him.
For years, people of the political right have moaned about the bias in academia, the major media and Hollywood – and while it reached a crescendo during the past election, our response to it is wholly inadequate. Our responses are to change the channel or refuse to buy movie tickets, tune in to FOX News and we send our children to great classic liberal institutions like Hillsdale College. While each of these are effective in a small way, these three institutions – academia, news gathering and reporting and entertainment – are pillars of our culture and have been shaping it in a particular way that is destroying America.
Academia has assured that we are churning out generations of kids who are ignorant of history. I really don’t care about the indoctrination piece because all teaching is some form of indoctrination – but what I do care about is the lack of historical context that allows students to rationally decide for themselves which path to take. Kids are naturally rebellious against authority – and if you don’t believe that, you have never had a teenager in the house. They challenge authority to find their boundaries, the message of classic liberalism is a perfect fit because freedom, self-determination and independence is what every child seeks (even if they aren’t ready for it), yet the current “scholarship” cuts against this urge to be free – it goes against their very nature.
The leftist dominated “news” media has abdicated the responsibility of reporting and investigating events to whatever endpoint the evidence takes them to and has started “making” news and “shaping” opinion. They don’t care about truth unless it reinforces their political opinions or disadvantages those who have a countering position. Most are no better than the old Soviet house organ, Pravda.
I’ve lost my patience with Fox News because they spend more time on sensationalism and feeding the right wing with tabloid journalism through hyperbolic hosts and cartoon guests. Megyn Kelly has two on during the day, the Democratic Party Chair from South Carolina, Dick Harpootlian and Republican Brad Blakeman. Blakeman is reflexively Republican and Harpootlian is a sideshow clown. There is never anything poignant or significant in these “debates”, they just yell at each other. It isn’t debate at all, it is just red meat for the right because Harpootlian is such a risible slimebag who can be counted on to defend any and all Democrat actions.
It is nothing but entertainment. It will lower your IQ if you watch it too long.
As far as the American entertainment industry, it has become the delivery vessel for all things left wing.
When radical Islamists in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia want to get their propaganda out to a mostly illiterate population, what do they do? They make cassette tapes, they post YouTube videos. Why? Because you don’t have to be able to read or write to see and hear – and if you can’t read, your world is dominated by things that you can see and hear. This is what makes the American media and the entertainment industry so powerful on a global basis.
In America, combine this with the fact that kids never hear about a large segment of our history and you have a bunch of ready receptors for propaganda.
The most consistent voice on these aspects has been someone with whom I have been at variance with on several issues but when he is right, he is right.
That man is Glenn Beck.
Beck has people on his network that talk about Jefferson, Locke, Adams, Washington, Hobbes, Bastiat, Aquinas, Rousseau, More and Montesquieu – and do so in depth – not in some 45 second vignette about where they bought their trendy powdered wigs – before they hit the hard break. These are the kinds of discussions that we must have in order to wake up from this Stalinist wet dream of the Age of Obama.
Beck calls himself a “rodeo clown” but the level of discourse on his network makes people like Hannity look like the real rodeo clowns.
It’s almost impossible to have intelligent discourse in 3-minute segments, anyhow. Anyone who watches a “news” show expecting to be enlightened will be sorely disappointed. On the other hand, the yelling fests work great at raising your blood pressure.
Good point about blaxploitation.
I’ve been listening to quite a bit of Beck, and lately it’s been a lot of fluff, but, I hear ya. I likes me some Mark Levin.
Ameritopia was one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I also recommend The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes and Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism by Ron Pestritto…
Utah,
Had it NOT been for Beck, America STILL would not know about or understand the threat of the American Progressive movement. This does NOT mean that people such as Limbaugh and the FOX News organization did not know about them before Beck because they did. They just didn’t talk about it.
I have friends inside radio — people who know Hannity, Limbaugh and Levin. They tell me that they all idolize the “formula” Limbaugh developed, and they market specifically to the narrow set of advertisers who will support conservative talk radio. This means there are quite a few “taboos” that people on the radio are not allowed to talk about — at least, not until AFTER someone like Beck makes it acceptable. My friends did not like it when I pointed this out, but this practice means ALL these conservative pundits are COWARDS! Which, in turn, means they do not truly believe what they preach — period.
Beck, on the other hand, DID what these so-called “experts” have said people shouldn’t do: he spoke the truth about difficult subjects. And, when the people he worked with tried to silence him, he actually DID what Limbaugh just gives lip service to: Beck went his own way and made it work. Now, even the New York Times has lamented that Beck is blazing the trail to the future of media. IN just 5 years, he has built a radio network, an on-line News Network, a publishing company, a clothing company, a charity, a TEA Party group, an internet network and — now — he has a satellite TV channel. In the near future, he will even be accredited to become part of the White House press corps. And he did ALL of this based on the platform of EDUCATING HIS LISTENERS!
Imagine, he DOES what Limbaugh only mouths and he succeeds. There is a reason you have not heard Limbaugh brag about being “the most influential man in media” for some time now — because he no longer is. Beck reaches over 33 MILLION people/week, Limbaugh is still at 24. Were conservatives smart, they would support what Beck is trying to do rather than attack/ignore him. But they won’t do that because he threatens their Party power (and those other talking heads’ positions).
I never said that was the part I was at variance with. Beck has settled into a sweet spot now, like he was when I first started listening to his radio show some 10 years ago. He got a little case o megalomania when he was with FOX, I think. Success went to his head.
I could agree with that. But then, ALL of us would be susceptible to that were we to find our self in the same place he did…wouldn’t we? I think the impressive part is that he came back from that edge (most likely because he was smart enough to put good people around him and THEY drug him back — but who knows for sure?)
‘sall good, Boss.
Justin,
I like Levin, but he is an acquired taste with an audience of about 4 million — and it took him some time to build that. However, as much as I like him (I think he is the single greatest intellect in talk radio), I do not listen to him often because he works against the cause. To be honest, he lost me when he was on a “poor me” kick because Beck was kicking his ass in book sales. He called Beck a blubbering clown who connects pictures with red strands of thread and begs people to understand by saying see? see? Frankly, ad hominem is WAY beneath Levin. If he REALLY had a case against Beck, he should have made it. Instead, he revealed that he is just like the rest of the world: jealous — plain and simple.
The sad part of it is, if they would just listen, Limbaugh and Levin and others would hear Beck praise each of them for their contributions and areas of expertise in the greater cause of liberty. I find it ironic that the one who is succeeding wildly (Beck) is doing so while praising his competition, yet his competition is fighting to hold what they have and attacking Beck the entire way. If you look at it, that is a microcosm of the Republican Party v the TEA Party. If the conservative talk radio mafia actually believed what they were preaching, they might see there is a lesson to be learned in that
Well, I don’t think these radio types would be human if they did not rip on each other now and then. Case in point, the Beck show’s (pathetic and demeaning) impersonation of Levin:
Let’s face it, Beck acts like a clown sometimes. I think he does it to attract attention, and that’s fine, that’s what works for him. That said, I’ve been digging around, and found some constructive criticism from Levin to Beck, and I’ve even heard Levin defend Beck, but I can’t find anything close to what you’re talking about. Jealousy? Fighting Beck the entire way? I don’t see that. Conservative talk mafia? Really? To call the likes of Limbaugh a coward because he didn’t expose what Beck exposed? I wonder if Beck would even have a platform without Limbaugh having paved the way. I like Beck; he does a great job. I wish his show had a little more substance these days. But, he is just one man. Levin, Limbaugh, to name a few, still doing great things as well, maybe not quite as ideologically pure as Beck, but still fighting on the right side, and not doing a whole lot of dividing from what I’ve been hearing. Cut ‘em some slack, man!
Justin,
I have been listening to Limbaugh since 1992, and Beck since 2003ish and Levin since 2005ish. So understand, I have a long history listening to these men.
Levin DID ridicule Beck, BADLY! It was back when Beck was on FOX, and Levin was telling his audience that most of what Beck was predicting would never happen. Uh-huh, right. Reality has not been kind to Levin on this front. Levin was also quite upset about the fact that Beck’s books were outselling his. So, while Levin may have changed recently, I would suggest that change is the result of Levin not wanting to continue to look bad in light of Beck’s accuracy and success.
As for Limbaugh: he has known about the Progressives and threat of Islam for years. If you have history with him, you will know that Rush uses the term “country blue-bloods” in place of Progressives. yet, Limbaugh NEVER touched either issue until AFTER someone came along and took the arrows for doing so. That someone was Beck. Now that Beck paid the price to mainstream these issues, Limbaugh is all over them. Remember back and you might recall Rush did this same thing with the TEA Party: he opposed them initially, but now he claims to be a founder of the movement.
Now, to be sure, Limbaugh paved the way for national talk radio, but, if I am correct, had it not been Rush, someone else would have done it. The goal was not to start a radio empire as much as it was to divert/redirect the conservative backlash that had started building in the late 1980′s. That said, Limbaugh has been invaluable in educating America about how our system really works and about inside politics. And Levin — AS I SAID — is the most intelligent on radio — PERIOD! When he applies his intellect, he is simply brilliant. But they STILL work against people like Beck and Ron Paul and anyone else who might threaten the Republican Party structure.
Also, keep in mind that I have access to “insider” knowledge when it comes to these men and talk radio. I will NOT give you names because I hope to work for/with these people some day, but I know that they are already telling me I will have to be more like Rush and Levin and nothing like Beck if I want to succeed. I laugh at this because — if anyone cares to look — Beck has succeeded wildly beyond what ANYONE had predicted just a few years ago.
Hmmmm, the night of the election was the last time we watched Fox News or any news for that matter. The week after the election we signed up for Beck’s show although we are still not watching daily. We have friends who are having problems watching Fox too. Hmmmmmm….
Agreed, Fox News is a cash machine only for RM. Red meat served to the masses for add $’s. Have not watched for months now. Have not watched GB since he went on his own but may sign up to see where he is headed. I just figured the country was now an alcoholic and until we hit rock bottom there is little to do Other than prepare to fight when the time is right. There is not one statesman out there fighting for the conservative cause with enough political clout to rise out of the ashes yet.
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