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Is Glenn Beck a dishonest and hypocritical charlatan?
Watch this clip and decide for yourself.*
Glenn Beck makes himself out to be truthful, and he claims that people only get the truth from him or other programming on Fox News. The Review signed up for Beck’s daily newsletter and found a link back to his website that demonstrates his “brutal honesty” and so much more.
Click on his picture below, and when you’ve listened carefully to the whole thing, close the window and come back for The Review‘s analysis:
* This link does not connect to the subject matter below any more without a paid subscription to Beck's Insider Extreme. Too bad; this is what Beck claimed on the webcast.
One:
Got that? Beck’s recent, 30% decline in ratings is like Lebron James dropping from 40 points a game to 39 points a game. Beck claimed in that brutally honest rant that 30% equals 2.5% . Perhaps he made an honest math mistake. More on that below.
Two:
Far more interesting is his claim of having 3.2 million viewers for the week of 4/25, remember? He said it; he put up a graphic. 3.2 million viewers for the week of 4/25. Got it? Now click on the ratings below for the week of 4/25. When you get there, scroll down about 1/4 way and examine the 5:00 p.m. slot for cable news.
Click on ===> TV By the Numbers
This is what is shows:
5PM – P2+ (25-54) (35-64) Glenn Beck – 2,145,000 viewers (578,000) (953,000)
Situation Room—609,000 viewers (198,000) (261,000)
Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 490,000 viewers (133,000) (215,000)
Fast Money – 183,000 viewers (a scratch w/36,000) (89,000)
Showbiz Tonight —221,000 viewers (87,000) (97,000)
Situation Room—609,000 viewers (198,000) (261,000)
Hardball w/ C. Matthews – 490,000 viewers (133,000) (215,000)
Fast Money – 183,000 viewers (a scratch w/36,000) (89,000)
Showbiz Tonight —221,000 viewers (87,000) (97,000)
3.2 million viewers were roughly the ratings he recently fell from. Clearly, the figure of 3.2 million for that week is not accurate. This would not be a big deal normally. Beck is human; people make mistakes. However, his rant is about honesty and the “ugly” truth.
If the Lebron scoring analogy could be seen as a white lie or a math error, then could this “mistake” be a whopper or someone being sloppy about what he’s saying?
Liar or nitwit?
Since the numbers don’t lie, and the video is right from Beck’s web site, it is difficult to see how he’s being honest. Maybe it was an “honest mistake.” To give Mr. Beck the benefit of the doubt, that means he made two mistakes in that rant: the actual ratings numbers and a math mistake, the likes of which could keep a 9th grader back or at least to fail a test.
To not give Mr. Beck the benefit of the doubt would mean that the rant displays deceit and hypocrisy. Was this really necessary?
Three:
Beck could have made his point persuasively by being accurate in that rant. He could have compared his drop in ratings to Lebron dropping from 40 points a game to 27 points a game; Lebron would still be the best player on the floor and arguably the entire league.
If Beck had not lied or erred about his numbers and graphically displayed the actual 2.2 million viewers instead of the inaccurate 3.2 million that he claimed, Beck still beat all the other cable news programs combined!
We all normally want to tell the truth, but when someone is ranting about the ugly truth, that is not the time you want to mis-state the facts…for any reason! Beck claims that he has 10 researchers working for him. Does not one of them fact-check Glenn Beck? Apparently not.
But wait, there’s more:
Last weekend Beck spoke to both the NRA convention in Charlotte, NC and at the Commencement at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. During the former, Beck went on his well-practiced rant against children’s self-esteem:
Beck: “…when you go to your children’s softball games, and your children win a trophy for just showing up, you take that trophy and you say, ‘Our family doesn’t accept stuff we didn’t earn. This is a loser trophy’.“
Got that as well? Don’t accept things you don’t earn. That’s a stand Glenn Beck often repeats. That’s a principled stand, right?
Hours earlier, Beck accepted a Doctorate of Humanities from Liberty University. Did he attend classes at the University? No. Write scholarly, academic papers? No. Graduate from any college? No. Even write a book without assistance of other writers? No.
Again, this begs the question: is Beck demonstrating crass hypocrisy here, or is he just too clever by half?
Beck recently accused bloggers of not addressing his claims, that all bloggers offer is name calling. (This from a man who calls the President and his men “weasels.” Note, this is yet another example of hypocrisy on Beck’s part.) The Review has called Glenn Beck three names to date: liar, hypocrite and charlatan. These are accurate descriptions discovered by the efforts of close scrutiny, analysis and fact checking.
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There are comments on blogs and story boards insisting that Beck does not lie. There are people reading Beck’s books because their parents are strongly recommending them. The Glenn Beck march backward is taken lightly by conservatives, liberals and progressives at the peril of America. Unless the readers – YOU – believe that the power or influence of the vested interests and the ultra-wealthy should rule, that we should have a plutocracy that would result from Beck’s preference of minimalist government protections, then please, pass this URL along in e-mails with a note to pass this along to others.
Update, 2/12/11: The link requires a subscription to Beck's Insider Extreme now. Apparently someone noticed what was being conveyed here.
Update, 2/12/11: The link requires a subscription to Beck's Insider Extreme now. Apparently someone noticed what was being conveyed here.
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4 comments:
anyone with an I.Q.bigger then their shoe size, would see that Beck is nothing but a hate mongering,bible thumping,sudo facist,with delusions of Godhood,racist rightwing nut case!!!
One should ask him where he hides his KKK apperal while he's on the air,or T.V.?
Beck without a doubt is a race-baiter, but there is no indications that he is a racist. It is one thing to deplore his race baiting, lies, hypocrisy and his utter lack of qualification as a commentator, but to make baseless criticisms of Beck only makes that critic as guilty of truthiness and Beck himself is.
Beck is not a hate monger per se. He is a fear monger and the misinformer of the year last year, and he promotes divisiveness, but hate monger...it's actually worth considering. If you read the comments on Beck's website from his fans, it's clear that many hate the President.
Beck re-enforces that hate and gives the Beckerheads a platform to express their rage.
Yeah, only problem with the ratings thing is Beck is refering to the week of 4/25 as you indicated, but your link is just for a single day, 4/29.
At over 2 million viewers per day that comes out to around 10 million for the week. so I'm really wondering about tvbythenumbers.com data.
Let us know when you find the right link.
Jack, Beck isn't talking about his weekly average, or he would have used MUCH bigger numbers as you indicated. Beck is using the viewer ratings from BEFORE the decline in his viewer rating. He's talking about a daily average. On Monday it was 2.4 million, still not the 3.2 million that he claims. Beck lied here and given what he said about the ugly truth, he was being a hypocrite. He was also not real smart to compare his drop in ratings to LeBron's hypothetical 2.5% drop in ratings. Liar, hypocrite and not real smart (a fake): that's three of his main failings in one rant.
The "right link" is available by doing a search using the search feature in the upper, right hand corner. You can find the ratings for any day that week or this year using that search.
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