Glenn Beck

[buffcoat]

Nuge! This is the real "official musician" of Fox News. I was disappointed that he didn't play Wango Tango, though.

Maserati, Maserati, Maserati, Maserati...

[nec13]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FEVz5BGyO4[/youtube]

Quality video.

[buffcoat]

I saw that video in the early days of MTV.  It has haunted me ever since.

[Pidgeon]

Speaking of Ted Nugent...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewY3hlRV2Ew[/youtube]

[cutout]

"Get off my phone!" (3:17)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGeZQrpZbjI

[Steve of Bloomington]

"Get off my phone!" (3:17)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGeZQrpZbjI

If he says 'heave ho', we need to have somebody have a talk with him.

[Reeleyes]

The thing that is frightening about pundits like Beck and his ilk is that there are people that take him seriously. It is possible to disagree with someone politically without resorting to histrionics and fear mongering. Apparently this is what people want though. His ratings are huge.

If you can tolerate Gideon Yago for any amount of time he hosts a show on IFC called The IFC Media Project that deals with these issues very specifically. They do test groups and compair people watching regular news vs pundit news (I think it was O'Reilly in the one on this subject) and how whether they agree or not people prefer it because it invokes emotion rather than logic. There was also a peice about how unimportant news gets brought to the forefront due to the 24 hour news cycle and how once CNN started to compete for ratings all other news followed suit and therefore became entertainment rather than a public service. I also recently saw an interview with Keith Oberman where he said that Sean Hannity came up to him at an event said something to the effect of 'I can't beleive that people actual think we believe everything we say.' Oberman then of course stated that he did but the whole pundit thing is shady and purely based on opinion. I kind of feel like Glenn Beck may have actually convinced himself that what he says is true whereas I feel like most of them know that they are entertainers. It's like he's telling a joke but he doesn't know it's a joke he just knows that people are listening to him.

[daveB from Oakland]

http://www.friendsoftom.com/forum/index.php/topic,5658.msg122686.html#msg122686