This is the actual cover of Glenn Beck's magazine

On August 28, Glenn Beck held his “restoring honor” rally. But, in Glenn Beckistan restoring honor means telling a blatant lie to tens of thousands of people. On stage, Glenn Beck held his hands out and proclaimed:

“I went to the National Archives, and I held the first inaugural address written in his own hand by George Washington.”

Well, it turns out, this was a total lie. Mother Jones has the scoop (emphasis added):

Beck did receive a special VIP tour of the archives, arranged by an as-yet unidentified member of Congress. During that tour, he did get a peek inside the “legislative vault,” which isn’t open to ordinary visitors. But Archives spokeswoman Susan Cooper insists that Beck didn’t lay a finger on any precious documents, much less George Washington’s inaugural address. That would be a major violation of policy. “Those kinds of treasures are only handled by specially trained archival staff”

Glenn Beck’s no stranger to willfully lying, but making such a grand demonstrably false claim does reveal his overstuffed hubris filled ego. It also begs the question about other events he’s been lying about. His somewhat recent trip to the Vatican comes to mind.

Glenn Beck’s version of Vatican trip has a deceitful sound similar to his National Archives tale:

“We are entering a…we are entering a dark, dark period of man. Um, I was, um, I was in the Vatican, and I was surprised that the individual I was speaking to knew who I was. And they said: ‘Of course we know who you are. What you’re doing is wildly important. We’re entering a period of great darkness, and if good people don’t stand up, we could enter a period unlike we have seen in a very long time.’ It was odd to stand in the Vatican and hear those words. Of all places that would understand the Dark Ages.”

Speaking about his Vatican trip, Glenn also explained that he was given access to secret, well-guarded Vatican records. I didn’t buy the story when he first told it – his George Washington lie only fuels my healthy skepticism of Beck’s tales.

This restored honor smells an awful lot like BS.

Time For Glenn To Put On His Journalist Cap

Glenn Beck is now the keeper of a modern day Burning bush (at least that’s what he’d like people to believe)…

Glenn Beck is a willful deceiver, an intentional misinformer and a disseminator of reckless vitriol.  But, don’t even think about criticizing Glenn Beck for it.  Why? Well, for the past few years, Glenn Beck and his defenders have argued that Mr. Beck is not a hard newsperson, but instead an entertainer and a commentator.  Thus, they contend that Mr. Beck should not be held to the standards of a journalist.

In the abstract, there is some merit to this argument.

However, Mr. Beck often offers up a mix of purported fact and opinion. I don’t care how bold your opinion is or what you call yourself, if you’re propagating an intentional lie (i.e. the existence of FEMA camps) then there should be some accountability for it.  Especially when you have a platform as large as Mr. Beck’s as well as a TV show on a self-described news channel.

But, per Glenn Beck, this debate is now over.

On Monday, riding the wave of publicity from his 828 rally (or, his prelude to a book launch event while trashing purple recipients), Mr. Beck launched a new partly hard news website called The Blaze:

The Blaze is a news, information and opinion site brought to you by Glenn Beck and a dedicated team of writers, journalists & video producers.

So there you have it. Glenn Beck is now a hard news journalist in addition to a commentator.

For those wondering, The Blaze appears to be an hommage to the Burning bush from the Book of Exodus.  This contention is supported by my understanding of Glenn Beck’s branding/marketing schemes, Mr. Beck’s constant references the Burning bush lately as well as his stated belief that god is now directly communicating with him.

This foray into hard news is an odd maneuver.  Mr. Beck proudly proclaims that his company is nothing more than an entertainment company, which doesn’t exactly comport with hard news.  Also, Mr. Beck has previously described himself as “a rodeo clown” adding that “if you take what I say as gospel, you’re an idiot.” It’s not everyday that you hear a hard news person telling you to be wary of their own reports.

Just a few more nuggets about Glenn Beck’s news venture:

• At present, the sole sponsors of Beck’s Burning bush are: Goldline (shock!) and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks.
• The Associate Editor, Merideth Jessup, was the author of the July 2010 Townhall Magazine coverstory on Glenn Beck. The story was fiercely defensive of Glenn Beck in the face of his continuing advertiser losses.  We contacted Ms. Jessup regarding the timing of the article and her recent employment by Mr. Beck.  Via Twitter, Ms. Jessup assured us that she was not aware of her new position while publishing the friendly Beck piece nor was she hired as a reward for the piece. We take her at her word and offer our congratulions on this new position.

Glenn Beck: hard news journalist, keeper of modern day Burning bush.

Onward we go…

The discussion covers a wide range of topics related to right-wing misinformation, accountability and effective activism. I think the topics are interesting and there’s a lot of depth here. I strongly suggest giving it a listen, I’m confident you’ll think it’s worthwhile…

Thanks to Bob for all his work and for giving us the time.

Onward we go…

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Glenn Beck’s 828 event was unbearably unoriginal.  For the most part, he recycled material from his radio program (at times verbatim) – oh and when he wasn’t doing that he was ripping off lines from Obama’s stump speech or reading the Gettysburg Address.

In short, he tricked tens of thousands of people into traveling to D.C. in order to listen to him repeat material they’ve already heard or would absolutely be revolted by if the reader was say…the sitting President of the United States.  But, I’m sure they’re not the least bit disappointed.

But, this whole stunt (which is really intended as the opening salvo of his next book launch) reminded me of Glenn Beck’s magicland ruse.  Alexander Zaitchik, author of Common Nonsense, describes the serpentine trick:

The undisputed high point of Beck’s tenure in Baltimore was an elaborate prank built around a nonexistent theme park. The idea was to run a promotional campaign for the fictional grand opening of the world’s first air-conditioned underground amusement park, called Magicland. According to Beck and Gray, it was being completed just outside Baltimore. During the build-up, the two created an intricate and convincing radio world of theme-park jingles and promotions, which were rolled out in a slow buildup to the nonexistent park’s grand opening. They then went to Kings Island in Cincinnati to record their voices over the sounds of a real theme park. On the day Magicland was supposed to throw open its air-conditioned doors, Beck and Gray took calls from enraged listeners who tried to find the park and failed. Among the disappointed and enraged was a woman who had canceled a no-refund cruise to attend the event.

“They never told a soul what they were doing,” says Sean Hall, the B104 newsreader. “I didn’t know until the morning it aired. People just drove around in circles on the beltway for hours trying to find the place. And that was exactly what it was supposed to elicit.”

So, there you have it. 828 is just a little bit of history repeating itself.

Here is the StopBeck effort’s statement on the issue:

The StopBeck effort is not organizing or endorsing any counter protests. Glenn Beck’s 828 event is a contemptible stunt to initiate the launch of his new book. On August 28, instead of thinking about Glenn Beck, we’ll be honoring the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. by celebrating his dream and reflecting on the work ahead.

This statement isn’t intended to be a slight against those that are curious about the event and want to go to report on it. It just represents our official position on counter protests.

And, here’s some other relevant insight from Mr. Beck:

It kind of reminds of the time Glenn Beck asked John Hagee if Barack Obama was the anti-christ. Oh Glenny.

Onward we go…

——–

Media Matters has a great post up today about Ted Nugent, who will be speaking at Glenn Beck’s upcoming 828 rally (emphasis added):

One of the scheduled speakers at Glenn Beck’s 8-28 “reclaim the civil rights movement” rally recently reportedly told an audience that he “like[d]” them because there were “a lot of white people.”

The post is definitely worth a read as it also goes on to discuss some of Nugent’s additional deplorable conduct and flirtation with white supremacy (which as you know Glenn Beck is all too eager to embrace).

Media Matters does a pretty good job covering everything, but I just want to add one additional point.

Neil Cavuto recently interviewed Nugent. Nugent’s rant is filled with contrived ambiguity, but Nugent said that we must “kill the pig.” And, two groups he clearly defined as pigs were supporters of health care reform and undefined White House employees.

From the interview:

Nugent: But, I am Ted Nugent, governor of pigland. so I am the expert on the healthcare bill because I kill pigs. And, I just shot a monster big here in Texas.

And, seeing as how this is a pig bill created by pig bureaucrats to help out American pigs, as I approach this huge pig that looked like a beached sperm whale I was expecting George Costanza to come out of the bushes and extract a Titlelist number 3 ball from his blowhole.

But, as I was about to put a 10mm slug in this pig’s head, the last thing he said was [mimics squealing pig], which is pig for “where is my healthcare?” They’re pigs Neal. We gotta kill the pig. And, in November we gotta vote the pigs out of office, because this is a redistribution of wealth. This is the Communist-Mao-Che agenda of the Communist-Mao-Che fans in the White House. They’re pigs Neal!

Cavuto: Alright, So I’ll put you down as a no on healthcare.

Nugent’s excessive use of the word pig is subterfuge for the purpose of limiting or avoiding legal liability. The goal is to create ambiguity. Ambiguity which in turn is supposed to shroud, for legal purposes, Nugent’s call for violence. And, Cavuto was kind enough to let him rant for over a minute, completely uninterupted, so that Nugent wouldn’t have any obstacles for his legal tap dance.

Fox News’ handling of this matter is irresponsible and dangerous. Cavuto failed to repudiate or condemn Nugent’s call for violence. Moreover, Fox News afforded Ted Nugent more uninterrupted time to make his sociopathic point than they offer the President during his interviews. Further, Fox News cuts off people’s mics all the time. Fox News hosts are constantly taking hard lines against the ‘dangerous’ claims of liberals by cutting their mics.

So, why didn’t Fox News do that here? I don’t know, perhaps for the same reason they’re now promoting this video on their website?

Because, Fox News has decided that being seditious is more profitable and consistent with their political goals than being Fair and Balanced.

And, Glenn Beck is all too happy to bring this guy on stage at his “restoring honor” event. Glenn Beck sure has a funny idea of honor.

Onward we go…

Utter nonsense aside, this is ironic coming from Glenn Beck who favorited a white power tweet from a white nationalist organization, tells Cory Booker “You got it going on. Word to your mommy,” seems to not understand the concept of slavery, and the list goes on and on….

Onward we go…

Today, Greta Van Susteren publicly expressed her opposition to Glenn Beck’s rally and called on him to move the event.  On her blog, Greta explained (emphasis added):

On August 28th my colleague Glenn Beck is going to lead an event on the mall in Washington, DC. It is the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. The event is causing much controversy …some support and some don’t support and some are even furious and upset. Yes he has a First Amendment right to do it…but what about the wisdom of it? Remember…the Muslims in NYC have a First Amendment right to build a mosque but most Americans don’t want it…and you have to ask the wisdom of the Muslims to push the issue. Just because you have the right to do something does not mean you should. My view? No mosque at ground zero and Glenn should move his event.

It does not help heal the country on so many fronts if we poke a stick in eyes.

As expected, Greta was viciously attacked by Glenn Beck’s fans, cult members and watchdogs.

I can almost feel the chill coming from the already dank hallways of Fox News. Brrrr