It May Take 27 Years To Undo The Damage Beck Caused In 27 Months

[babylonsister]

It May Take 27 Years To Undo The Damage Beck Caused In 27 Months

April 08, 2011 4:39 am ET by Will Bunch

snip//


The crazier that Beck got, the more viewers and advertisers he drove away, until eventually it was too much for his beleaguered bosses at FNC, who may have lost as much as $40 million on the whole fiasco. Liberals, especially those who organized a high successful advertiser boycott of Beck's program, celebrated the news as a victory against political hate speech.

But I think that progressives might want to hold off on that victory lap -- unless it's to get in better shape for the long battle ahead.

Because the truth is that Beck's ouster isn't really the end of the nightmare, but just the beginning of the end. Over the last 27 months, Beck -- and let's be clear that he had a lot of help from the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity and Rand Paul and all the folks in the Tea Party Movement -- managed to do incalculable harm to the American body politic, that Beck was exactly like Tom and Daisy Buchanan in "The Great Gatsby" who "smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.."

You'll probably hear a lot about how Beck coarsened the political debate and how his words may have incited violence, but I think the wreckage is a lot more substantive, to actual policies that affect Americans every day. You see, there was a reason that Beck was so fond of a political theory called the Overton Window-- so enamored, in fact, that he made it the title of his (officially) fictional "thriller" novel last summer. The Overton Window is a notion that you can radically move the parameters of political debate by pushing talk to the outer limits, so that ideas that were once deemed extreme suddenly appeared to be normal.

Ironically, no one mastered the use of the Overton Window better than Beck. With all the focus on the leading edge of Beck's craziness -- the "caliphate" stuff, the flirtation with "the FEMA camps," or President Obama's "deep-seated hatred" of white people -- it's easy to forget how he rationalized once out-there ideas to millions of American conservatives, and how those ideas became ingrained in the Republican agenda that has thwarted progressivism from virtually the day Obama took office.

more...

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201104080002

[onehandle]

1. He's not going away. The damage will continue. nt

[movonne]

2. If ever....

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

3. don't expect things to get better, worse in fact,

now that the crazy spewer spokesmodel is now Donald Trump, who is more mainstream than Beck ever was.

[stevedeshazer]

4. Doesn't he keep his radio show?

That's where the crazy lives.

[Initech]

5. Oh but they're just entertainers!!

No, they're not. They know damn well what they're doing, even if it does have dangerous implications.

[Davis_X_Machina]

6. Nonsense...

...we could have a full, flourishing American social democracy by Labor Day if Obama just wanted it bad enough.

[Ian David]

7. Some Beck fan will become enraged that Fox fired Beck, and kill someone at Fox News. n/t

[emilyg]

11. He's staying at Fox.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. Fux would never let him go. He's just going to do his work from behind the curtain

:(


Great article, sadly KnRing

[starroute]

9. Those ideas have to be made socially unacceptle again

Decades ago, I had a dream in which I was back in the 1930's, at a dinner party where some of the guests were expressing fascist or racist ideas and the others were discreetly not calling them on it. And I stood up and interrupted their polite conversation and launched into a tirade about how unacceptable this was.

I've remembered that dream ever since, both because of how good I felt about it as I woke up and because I've kept wondering ever since what ideas are routinely expressed these days that will be equally appalling a generation from now.

And it keeps seeming to me that what we really need is to be willing to interrupt the dinner party, even at the risk of violating the rules of polite society.

I get that feeling, for example, every time I read about Trump spouting his birther nonsense. I really wish somebody could say to his face, "Mr. Trump, are you really not aware of how much of an idiot you seem when you say those things? Or are you so lost in the pursuit of power that you just don't care?"

The TV talking heads won't do it, of course. But I think we ourselves need to use every opportunity we have to call these people out on grounds of moral outrage. That's the only way you push back against creeping Beck-ism.

[Anser]

10. Is Beck that impressive? Really?

I don't know, this kind of article reminds me of the old liberal cliche: Great at pointing bad stuff out, but not so good at actually doing anything.

27 years! Just ridiculous. Beck is a complete hack, and not a very smart one at that.

I'm sorry, it is just so sad how "our side" generally eats healthier, makes better choices, has a deeper comprehension and understanding of the workings of the world aroud us, and, lets not forget, has the advanatage of having the facts on our side the vast majority of the time; YET we raise an imbecile like Beck to such a lofty and powerful position with our words.

[quaker bill]

12. It is not "impressive" that matters

It is that he and others have mainstreamed some truly adverse ideas. It is nonsense of the first order, but you hear it and pale versions of it everywhere. We remain the richest country on the planet with the largest economy in the world, but "we can't afford it" is everywhere, even here. "Buy gold because the currency will collapse", seen the price of precious metals lately? This is the next bubble to burst. Fortunately alot of his "goldline" followers will take the hit. The currency is at no risk of collapse.

If there is anything that can be afforded anywhere, the same and more can be afforded here. One simply needs to collect the revenue from those who through 30 years of government largesse, have been given all the money. All doing this would do is take some of the air out of the fradulent asset bubbles.

[Bluenorthwest]

16. His audience was not large enough to sustain a cable show

he was outrated by cartoon reruns and old sitcoms. And hey, Thom Hartman, with more weekly listeners than Beck had viewers by far also says the currency is doomed and pushes his gold products on the radio. People will shill fear for high dollar, nothing new, nor original, nor even exclusive to the right wing.

[quaker bill]

18. he lost audience over time

It is a poor assumption to conclude that it was the same group of people each show. Secondly, his stuff was mainstreamed by the rest of the MSM paying attention to the more outlandish bits. Being made fun of on the comedy shows did not hurt either.

He has had plenty of help, but listen to any tea party rant, and his stamp is all over it.

Metals are overbought and the stuff these dealers push are set at prices that melt weight will not support. People are buying shiny yellow beanie babies. The first ones in will make money but only if they sell before the greater fool has spent his money. When interest rates go up, which they will before long, market support for comodity prices will plummet. There is a correction in the offing soon and a much bigger one not too far off.

Silver is hitting $42 and ounce, but there is no technical reason for it to be much higher than $16. The supply is plentiful and market demand for industrial uses has fallen with the advent of digital photography. Watch for it.

[formernaderite]

13. I really wonder sometimes

when I read this site.

Think about who watches Fox primarily...and you really think Beck wasn't playing to the choir?

Cablenews...reflects a tiny percentage of people who watch television. Look at cable news ratings? Just because Fox's are better...doesn't mean millions of people are watching. They're not.



We have important issues to deal with... and worrying about some mormon windbag is seriously not a priority.

Beck isn't spouting anything new? I've watched bits of him a few times...
none of what he's saying is new. repackaged maybe, but not new.

We've been fighting this same ideological battle for years.

[Bluenorthwest]

14. How amazing that anyone could fear such a hack on such a

failure of a show, with an audience that at its best was tiny by mass media standards. Also interesting that the same people pushing this 'oh, his language pushed it all so far' thing will stand and tell liberals that we have to 'moderate' our language, no criticism, all tip toes and sweetness. So sick of the all fear all the time crowd. Boo!

[xfundy]

15. Tsk. I wish he were staying on TV.

When he leaves, OReally will go back to being "most extreme" on Foks Noise. Better to keep him out in the open, visible to anyone as embodiment of the modern True Christian™ Greedy Old Pig gang.

on edit: changed "on air" to "tv" since this blowhard will still be available in audio format.

[Terra Alta]

17. Beck is now going behind the scenes at Faux

I don't know why, but that scares me even more. At least when he was on TV spewing his nonsense we could see and hear what he was saying.