Yesterday's FYI section of The Kansas City Star makes a compounding error by reprinting a god-awful Philadelphia Inquirer profile of radio and television host Glenn Beck.
John Timpane's piece opens with a cringe-inducing first sentence: "Glenn Beck is dressed to kill." Timpane went with the sartorial gambit on account of Beck's penchant for mixing anchorwear with Chuck Taylors. (What a kook!)
Timpane goes on to depict Beck as the host likes to depict himself: a self-effacing guy who, by fluke, rose above hardship (mother's suicide, substance abuse) to become a successful broadcaster. Without a doubt, Beck has a good backstory. But Timpane writes the piece as if it's 2002 and the most interesting things about Beck are his embrace of Mormonism and his ratings superiority over Dr. Laura. In Timpane's world, Fox News' claim of fairness and balance hasn't been torn apart on 1,000 episodes of The Daily Show. "Some call Fox News 'conservative'...." Timpane writes, as if anyone still believes the network doesn't play to a right-of-center crowd.
Showing a dismaying disregard of current events, Timpane dwells on Beck's Jonathan Winters-type qualities (he makes faces -- "priceless faces") and neglects to mention the time Beck asked a Muslim congressman to prove that he wasn't a terrorist. (Beck later faulted the way he conducted the interview.)
Beck likes to give the impression that he's an outsider, the kid in the back of the schoolroom lobbing spitballs. But in 2003, as a syndicated radio host, he instigated rallies in cities across the U.S. that reinforced the Bush administration's case for invading Iraq. With the election of Barack Obama, he's staked out the position of a paranoid populist, looking for meaning in the symbols on U.S. currency and invoking Nazi Germany.
Beck's an interesting guy. He's influential and good at his craft. But c'mon, FYI editors, was Timpane's piece the best you can do?
For more thoughtful assessments of Beck's work and that of other conservative hosts, check out this and this and this. A straight profile of Beck that doesn't commit Timpane's crimes against language ("Inescapable is how loud he talks on camera") is available here.
Beck performs at the Midland theater on Thursday.
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Sally K demonstrates beautifully the thoughtful and articulate argument one can always expect from the left. Beck nails the stepped up march towards statism so it's really no wonder the left is a bit touchy.
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