Civil rights' new 'owner': Glenn Beck

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/27/AR2010082702359.html

Civil rights' new 'owner': Glenn Beck
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, August 29, 2010

There is a telling anecdote in Glenn Beck's 2003 memoir about how the cable news host was influenced by the great fantasist Orson Welles. To travel between performances in Manhattan, Beck recounts, Welles hired an ambulance, sirens blaring, to ferry him around town -- not because Welles was ill but because he wanted to avoid traffic.

Most of us would regard this as dishonest, a ploy by the self-confessed charlatan that Welles was. Beck saw it as a model to be emulated. "Welles," he writes, "inspired me to believe that I can create anything that I can see or imagine."

snip//

This is not quite the ideal background for a man who would claim to be King's heir -- and that's where Orson Welles comes in.

First, Beck employed the hand of God in justifying his decision to co-opt King. He said he chose the date without knowing it was the anniversary of King's march, claiming it happened because of "divine providence."

Second, he invoked some selective history, using his Fox News show to deliver a three-part series updating the history of the civil rights movement. "How has the Democratic Party assumed the mantle of defender of minorities, if you know their early history?" he asked. "Dating to Andrew Jackson -- this is the 17th century . . . ."

Seventeenth century, 19th century, whatever. He informed viewers that "it was the GOP that took the lead on the civil rights" cause.

Finally, Beck updated the meaning of the civil rights movement so that it is no longer about black people; it is about protecting anti-tax conservatives from liberals. Civil rights leaders, he said, "purposely distorted Martin Luther King's ideas." Over the past century, Beck reasons, "no man has been free, because we've been progressive." To his followers, he says: "We are the people of the civil rights movement."

All that is left is for Beck to drive around town by ambulance.

[corpseratemedia]

1. I think he's just getting warmed up until he senses the time is right.

Then he can deliver clearly and outright without fear his true message of racism. He still has to shroud it and disguise it behind what he hates for now.

[ixion]

2. "no man has been free, because we've been progressive."

Obviously, Beck thinks we should be "regressive" instead. :rofl:

[66 dmhlt]

3. When you've lost arch-conservative Dana Milbank ...

You're basically only left with those who

1) Need psychotropic meds, but aren't on them
2) Are on psychotropic meds, but need to increase their dose
3) Are on psychotropic meds - but they're not working
4) Are Reich-wingnut, Faux Noose Kool-Aid drinkers

(I'd add Beck/Palin/Limbaugh/O'Reilly/Hannity/Coulter/Malkin/ETC goose-steppers ... but that would be redundant)

[Just an American]

4. Civil rights' new 'owner': Glenn Beck

I don't think Mr. Beck is trying to be the new 'owner' of civil rights'.

No more than Mr. King was trying to be the 'owner' of civil rights'.

The MSM has always been fascinated with labeling someone the owner or leader of some cause.

Perhaps what the MSM needs to do is get over the who is 'owner' of civil rights'

[ProfessorPlum]

6. The phrase comes from Beck's own rhetoric

He said he was going to "take back" the civil rights movement. Milbank is saying "Ok, Mr. Beck, let's assume you've taken it back. Now what?"

[ladywnch]

7. well, mr beck himself claimed he was "reclaiming' the civil rights movement

he has said so on more than one occasion so yeah, I think he is trying to 'own' the movement. He actually even claimed 'it was OURS to begin with'. That pretty much calls out ownership. Yes, because all those white, middle class kids of the 60s need the civil rights movement to help them get through their day to day lives. :eyes:

[LawnKorn]

5. K&R