Beck, ACORN, Health Care Protests

The past week or so has been very strange with media coverage. Glenn Beck is now the most vicious, ruthless puppet-master out there. Huh? Beck's been spending weeks investigating the people in Pres. Obama's White House, and his reporting has actually resulted in Van Jones resigning, another WH player getting demoted, and now citizen-journalists exposed ACORN. But most of the media is only reporting the parts they have to, and they're getting buried. It's been bizarre.

I first discovered Beck a few years ago. He had a talk-radio show, and he had a show on CNN Headline News. I watched parts of his show every once in a while. In non-election years I hardly ever watch more than a few minutes of any of the cable news show each week, but Beck had a fun sense about him.

Now in early 2008 he got a little more doomsday to him. He barked for months that the economy was going to collapse. And then it did. He railed against TARP until he decided to support it at the last minute because the financial people he talked to said the US economy would collapse without it.

Talk radio in general has taken on a paranoid turn since Obama won the election. Rush Limbaugh kept saying Obama's a cold, mean guy; Laura Ingraham's called him a prime candidate to replace Jimmy Carter as the worst president ever. Sean Hannity's been Hannity. He's usually in a good mood and will say with a smile he believes Obama's destroying America. he makes me wish I could get Colmes's show on the radio around here.

Beck is frightened by the people Obama surrounds himself with. I can't defend him saying he thinks Obama's a racist and has a "deep-seated hatred of white people." That was just a dumb thing to say. Beck threw meat to the critics and they chewed. About a month ago, Newsweek had two different columns lumping Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin together as examples of right-wing crazies.

So now Beck's had an increase in death threats and had to increase his security. There hasn't been much disputing of his reporting, because what he's reporting isn't getting played in most of the media. But after Van Jones, Beck had his first "scalp" said The Daily Beast. Keith Olbermann demanded dirt on Beck.

And when ACORN was exposed for trying to help a "pimp" and "prostitute" get housing, lie to the IRS, and even ship in underage El Salvadorean girls for prostitution, well that only got play on Fox News and the internet. It seems like kind of a big story.

Which is a long walk to the health care protests in D.C. over the weekend. Naturally when NBC mentioned it, they found a sign that said "Hitler Gave Good Speeches Too." Will those right-wingers never learn? But what got a lot more play was Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" outburst. Champagne corks must've popped at the DNC after they found themselves a new poster-boy villain.

How many were at the protests? "Tens of thousands" said NBC. The UK press said 2 million.

Look, I want Pres. Obama to succeed. He'll succeed if he gets a health-care bill that does more good than harm. He'll succeed if the unemployment rate back to the 5% range. And when Wilson shouted what he did, I though on one hand, that's stupid. On the other hand, I'd like to see the president and Congress engage in a British-style back and forth every few months where Congress asks the questions and the president has to answer. Woulda been good to have under Bush too.

I go to many sources to get my news. I think sane Americans should, to be informed. The ones who reject 100% of what Fox News says are blinding themselves. Fox is biased, absolutely, but there are facts in there. I'll watch MSNBC to see Joe Scarborough or Chris Matthews too. I'll watch CNN, I'll flip through Politico, RealClearPolitics, Daily Beast, Drudge, Googlenews, even HuffPo sometimes to see what the left-wing spin of the day is.

I also realized that I like watching the Sunday newsshow round tables, because it's one of the only times pundits who disagree will sit together and have a civil discussion.