Anyone who has followed this blog for any amount of time knows that I am a loyal fan of Glenn Beck. I own four of his bestselling books and two of them I have had autographed in person. I have been to one of his shows and also attended his rally here at The Villages in Florida. But something has happened to Glenn Beck. Or rather, I should say that something has happened to me that has sparked my critical eye towards Glenn Beck.
It actually started at The Villages when Glenn announced his plans for 2010 to help take back this country. I was not the only disappointed person that day when I heard him announce that he was going to be focusing on education and a one hundred year plan. I understood the length of such a plan since we did not get to the state of affairs here in America overnight. But my understanding has been that Glenn was already educating us and had been doing so the previous year. A fellow attendee admitted that she had the same feeling of a let down. It made me wonder if this was not just another opportunity to write more books and host more pay to see shows. I love capitalism, do not get me wrong, but when it is cloaked in an effort to help take back the country I do wonder a bit.
Then Glenn started laying into the “Birthers” and declared them to be idiots. While I do not believe that the President was born in Kenya, I do have many questions that would probably leave me labeled a “Birther”. Where is the official birth certificate? Why has Obama spent millions to end these lawsuits that he could end in a minute with his birth certificate? Has he ever held a passport for another country? Was he considered a British citizen since his father was one and his mother was not 18 when he was born? These are legitimate questions and I do not appreciate being relegated to an idiot for asking them.
Then last Thursday, Debra Medina made her infamous appearance on the Glenn Beck Radio program. I could tell from the beginning of the interview that Glenn was not open to Debra. I was not sure why until he asked if she was a 9/11 Truther. A poor answer to an unexpected question lead some people to believe that Debra Medina thinks the government blew up the twin towers. To my knowledge, she has never made any such claim. She simply said what I believe most Americans, inlcuding myself, think about 9/11. We still have questions. What did the government know and when did they know it? Did our government shoot down Flight 93 to save thousands of lives? Why did Clinton let Bin Laden get away? Why did these terrorists have expired VISAs? And the list goes on. Does this make me a “Truther”? According to Glenn, I guess I am. I have covered this issue on several of my radio programs with soundbites from the Beck show and various other radio shows:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomswings/2010/02/11/freedoms-wings-thursday
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomswings/2010/02/18/cpac-2010-starts–freedoms-wings-thursday
Glenn has continued to battle back and twisted the interview he did with Debra Medina on his most recent shows, which really caused me to wonder what in the world was going on with him. He claimed that she basically lied on another show when she claimed that she laughed off the question about being a 9/11 Truther. Pat Gray, one of Glenn’s sidekicks, claimed that she didn’t laugh off the question and they played a chopped soundbite that edited out the parts where she laughed (she laughed twice). I knew this to be a lie since I had listened to the original interview and then recorded and played the soundbites on my radio show. A radio show host in Texas noticed this same slanted defense from Glenn and I played bits from that show as well:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/freedomswings/2010/02/20/freedom-swings-saturday
And now there are revelations about the CEO from Clear Channel, Lowry Mays, and the large amounts of money he has donated to Rick Perry. The amounts over the years equate to $300,000.
| Clear Channel CEO Donations to Perry | |
| Year | Donation |
| 2001-2002 | $51,400 |
| 2003-2004 | $55,000 |
| 2005-2006 | $80,000 |
| 2007-2008 | $50,000 |
| 2009 | $50,000 |
| Total | $286,400 |
| Source: Texas Ethics Commission | |
h/t to Burnt Orange Report for the above chart and the following comment, “Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and countless other right-wing radio station personalities are owned by Clear Channel. Beck is paid $10 million by a Clear Channel subsidiary for his radio show (Source: Forbes). Is it any surprise, then, that he ambushed Medina the way he did — and subsequently told all of his radio listeners to support Perry? After he finished his interview with Medina, Beck went on to pronounce his love for Rick Perry.”
I do not know if this is the reason why Glenn has treated Debra Medina this way, but I certainly have had my eyes opened. I appreciate the education he has given me and the thirst to seek out more information, but my trust has eroded a bit and I have realized, yet again, not to put anyone on a pedestal because they will disappoint you every time.
Freedom's Wings 