Glenn Beck pins blame for 9/11 attacks on Saudi Prince, News Corp. stakeholder

Where Beck stands out is that he's not O'Reilly, Hannity, Olbermann, Maddow or the schmuck who hosts "The Ed Show," because those are straight political shows that tell you, for the most part, that the Other Side has political cooties.

Beck is different because, like all the great populists of their time, he's found a way to reflect and exploit the fears of struggling whites by telling them that in these awful, awful times, they need to hunker down with God and realize that It's Not Their Fault. Beck may as well draw a Cross of Gold on his chalkboard. (And given his Goldline sponsorship, he just might.)

He tells people that's what theirs is being taken, and they need to take it back. Yeah, a lot of politicians have said that, but Beck reaches to a deeper level, making it a practical equivalent of holy war (all that invoking of God) to Restore America back to the way it was in whatever mythical time he and his fans have in mind. Presumably, a time before black people, working women, Mexicans, Islam and Sunday liquor sales. It's much easier to do that in a time of economic uncertainty and change, especially when it seems like there are real, fundamental changes underfoot that mean life ain't gonna be like it was ever again.

Obama can't successfully communicate with the Beckians, because he represents everything they're against, and not just politically. He represents change in their country, and they don't want change, or at least not his kind. They want to change it back.

 

I get the distinct impression that Charles Pierce is not a Glenn Beck fan (or Tony LaRussa fan for that matter):

 

Depending on whose count you believe, he might not have drawn as many people as a mediocre Tennessee team will when Akron shows up in Neyland Stadium next Saturday.

But if you set the bar low enough, I guess Beck's farce was a success.

 

I think you're being unfair. You couldn't have paid me to attend, but there were a lot of people there.

A lot more that Neyland Stadium.

It's a silly comparison anyway. Tennessee has a built in audience of graduates & folks who grew up rooting for them who live within a few hours drive & who have a history of attending games there.

Beck's was a one time event. It drew people from far & wide who were willing to give up one of the last weekends of the summer and come to Washington D.C. at their own expense in a lousy economy.

I'm sorry, love him or hate him, he drew a large crowd.

 

Define "large." Was it 87,000? 250,000? 1 million?

 

One, I love supposed objective sports writers suddenly hating LaRussa and Pujols. Bissinger has done the industry a huge disservice today - every one of his Tweets is now fodder on ever conservative website and it plays into the same "liberal objective media" trope. Talk about re-enforcing a cliche. It's also hypocritical. And people wonder why Tiger and MJ stay away from politics.

Two, after Beck was finished bludgeoning the corpse of Godwin's law, Buzz Bissinger raped it.

Three, you pull any standard left-winger out of a crowd or right-winger, and asked them basic current event questions, you would probably think the two dominant political parties in the U.S. were the fascists and the communists.

Four, Beck is a walking disaster. He's the best thing that ever happened to critics of Fox News. My guess, he either has a complete meltdown, or plays his schtick to the point he has to flip sides and will be on after Olbermann after MSNBC in five, six years.

 

Not an expert, but I'm guessing between 200,000 & 300,000.

I heard that if you fill the reflecting pool area back to the Washington Monument that you're at 200,000. Beck filled that & more.

If the 200,000 number is true, then he's way over.

 

AirPhotosLive.com was contracted to provide a count. They came up with 87,000.

Of course, some people thought that was too low.

 

Yeah, I saw both of those numbers.

Obviously Bachmann is exaggerating. I don't know enough about AirPhotosLive.com or their methodology to be able to judge their estimate.

NBC said 300,000.

I did hear Beck on his radio show a few days before the March. He was talking about how the media would lowball the numbers (I know, I know) and said that they were prepared to provide an accurate count.

I'm not sure how -- or if -- he said he was going to do it, but he said he would "embarrass" anyone who tried to underestimate the crowd.

I'll be curious to hear how many people he says attended. (Not saying that he won't exaggerate it, just saying I'm curious to hear what his number is.)

 

I don't follow anybody on twitter, so I rarely ever look at it, but Bissinger comes across as unhinged in his posts.

Talk about Hitler Tourette's, Bissinger's case is worse than Beck's.

And I thought he was close to LaRussa. I guess not.

 

I believe NBC was using 300k because Beck claimed it was 300k.

The group that came up with 87k is the same group that conservatives praised when its count at the inauguration was one of the lower estimates.

And Buzz Bissinger vs Glenn Beck is like midget wrestling.

 

Still reading Bissinger's Twitter feed.

Wow. Says he and LaRussa won't be friends anymore.

Comes across as the kind of guy who couldn't be friends with someone he doesn't see eye-to-eye with politically. Pretty pathetic.