Glenn Beck and the Alleged Rape that Went Viral

The parody on everyone's keyboard today is, did Glenn Beck rape and murder a girl in 1990?

Relax, Glenn Beck's hypnotized army: I'm not here to accuse your messiah, but the fact that there are so many blogs out there running this parody is, in itself a freaking huge story. So far, none of the sites that I have read have actually claimed that the Fox News talking head was guilty of rape or even murder. The general wording seemed to be along the lines of, "This site exists to investigate rumors," etc.

The story has been widely published on Internet Weblogs, with one site acting as a central linking station to all of the others. The site's host, nom de plume Name Withheld, points to the origin of this story: a question on FARK that apparently sent bloggers sniffing for evidence. A scanned image of a document purported to be a Tampa, FL police report has emerged, with Glenn Beck listed as the suspect. The alleged report, however, lists two offenses: rape (listed as both rape and forcible rape) and larceny. I can find no entry on the alleged report for murder, nor any indication that the victim was killed during commission of the alleged crime. The alleged report would appear to be counterfeit, merely an extension of the satire being run at Beck's expense

In general, respondents as well as hosts on the sites have (sarcastically) called for Beck and Fox News to respond the the charges:

Why haven’t we had an official response to the rumor that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990? (According to Hoss)

I just want Glenn Beck to come clean about what he was up to in 1990? Why has he remained silent in the face of these serious accusations. (How Good is That: Free Thinking--Secular Humanism).

In short, they're giving Beck a taste of his own medicine, and all that I have read so far, have stated clearly that this was a satire or a parody. Beck, who's kept the birther controversy alive (even when provided with Barack Obama's Hawaiian birth certificate) by saying much the same thing, has done so hiding behind the first Amendment. Armed with attorneys, Beck and Fox are threatening suit to force the shutdown of the official website of the controversy. We should be surprised? This is the same guy who has said that anyone who says there was a 9-11 conspiracy belongs in jail.

While I think that anyone who believes in a 9-11 conspiracy is stupid, I support their right to ask questions about it. Some people will never be satisfied, of course (e.g., the birthers), but once reasonable evidence is put forth, the media, as a responsible body, should let it drop.

I will be surprised if anyone--even Keith Olbermann--risks their credibility by running with this story, which is frankly a shame. Glenn Beck deserves this. Not because I hate him (full disclosure: I hate Glenn Beck), but because I can't stand anyone who dishes it out with impunity and then whines when it's time for a dose of their own medicine.

Glenn Beck probably isn't a rapist and even the alleged--likely fake--police report doesn't say he's a murderer. He probably didn't have gay sex on a boat--though this is purported to give him an alibi at the time of the alleged rape. But I am concerned that Glenn Beck might be a pussy, first because he hid behind the first amendment to spread lies he knew weren't true, and now, hiding behind Fox News and their lawyers because he's afraid to speak for himself.

I think Mr. Beck should prove that he's not a pussy and agree to address this on his show.

Nazis, Socialists and other Propaganda

After all these long months of never having a single follower to my blog, I finally have one. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm a muckraker, not a brand name.

I'm not in favor of the current health care bill because I have doubts that forcing everyone with children to buy insurance amounts to anything that could even remotely be called a solution. I'm what you'd call a skeptic. Having been a poor schmoe most of my natural life, I've seen a side of US medicine that more fortunate people might have missed: Doctors, hospitals and nurses screw up. A lot. I wouldn't say they're any worse than Canada or Britain, but having never been treated in either place, I couldn't say they're better, either.

I have a co-worker named Edgar, who has been listening to Rush Limbaugh a lot lately. I would find this less disturbing if Edgar were some bible-thumping white guy, but he's Hispanic. The news was a little disorienting--like the Pope declaring he's pro-choice. He says to me, "Hey Jack, you know, Rush is making a lot of sense about this health care thing." My response? Even Rush Limbaugh can't be wrong about everything. What's funny is if the fat ass Limbaugh weren't so freaking rich just for being a windbag, he'd be on welfare, having been fired for sexual harassment from every job the sorry bastard ever got. And his health would suck from all of the drugs and overeating and, well, he wouldn't think US medicine was all that hot, either.

No, I like my insurance just fine, thank you, but don't confuse me with Limbaugh and Beck. Standing back and watching what's been going on at these town-hall-meetings-cum-shoutfests, I've noticed that most of the people who I agree with are acting like children. Really children. The kind that scream that ungodly shriek that gives you a migraine when all you want to do is enjoy your dinner, but you can't because someone brought their spoiled brat with them. Beat him you attempt to communicate telepathically to his parents. Just take that little brat to the crapper and give him something to cry for. And finally when the kid is dragged from the table kicking and screaming, you have to suppress the urge to follow them in the hope you can watch this kid who ruined your dinner get what's coming to him.

That's how I feel about the town hallers (birthers, deathers, etc.). I thought the whole point of this country we live in was that, at the end of the day, we could still talk to each other. I swear, if I hear the word "Nazi" used in an historically incorrect way one more time, I'm going to beat whoever it is over the head with William L. Shirer's book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, until they know just what a Nazi really is.

Which brings me to my final point. Where is the media? Not the pundits; this situation SCREAMS (like a bratty kid) for some clarity, for some actual facts: the kind of thing that real journalists are supposed to provide us with, but don't. Here's how this might work (with a little less irony):

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Glenn Beck's Operation
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Spinal Tap Performance

Sadly, this isn't anywhere in the mainstream media. Obviously, it 's not on Fox. CNN? Maybe they didn't want to throw a former colleague under the bus. MSNBC? SERIOUSLY? Not even "liberally biased" MSNBC?

Google it, folks. You won't find it anywhere but Comedy Central and the Guardian.UK blog.

Gee. If only the free market could do for medicine what it's done for journalism.

The Wasteland

T.S. Eliot, a mild-mannered bank employee and American expatriate in England, wrote some of the 20th century's greatest epic poetry. He was a conservative, a royalist, and had a better public school accent than Winston Churchill. He was also a pessimist. Anyone who's taken an English lit class or two has probably read Eliot's magnum opus, The Wasteland. In navigating the flourishes in German, Latin, French and even Cockney, one quickly gains the sense that Eliot is talking down to us.

That's because he is.

Scholars have argued that the point being made in The Wasteland was that so many people are talking, but no one understands language anymore. Whether this is what Eliot intended or not, the premise is a correct one. Even as English has come to be the dominant language spoken throughout the world, our ability to understand one another has diminished. Educated people once were fluent in multiple languages and almost always were fluent in Greek and Latin. This was because understanding doesn't come from reading a translation. To explain this another way, if you want to understand trigonometry, you'll first have to have a firm grasp of the concepts, methods and mechanisms of algebra. Likewise, if you want to understand class nuances in Lyermontov's Caucasus stories, the English translations will miss the point entirely; you simply can't capture the deference and condescension inherent in the Cossack/Russian dialectic in the same way that ты and вы express so elegantly.

I've thought a lot about The Wasteland of late. It seemed that after the election we were no longer working toward a dialogue. But it's more than that. We no longer understand each other and no longer care to. And it's not just everyone's favorite dichotomy--Democrats and Republicans--the "right" and "left" if you will. The Republican party is besieged from within as the radio entertainers, the religious right, business conservatives and civil libertarians battle among each other and the moderate forces of the party--including those in the press--for the soul of the GOP. The Republican party going the way of the Whigs, perhaps?

Not likely.

Talk on the left is equally tone deaf. Democrats no longer speak to labor or progressives--if they ever did; they certainly don't speak for them. The "liberal" media" (i.e. MSNBC) has a script they're following, not unlike the one followed by the rightist media (i.e. Fox News). Both are looking for knee-jerk reactionists. Both follow the talking points remarkably well.

Will Obama's health care plan make us healthier? Will Republican promises to cut government spending make us more prosperous? In other words, what's the observable difference from up here in the cheap seats?

Abortion? Republican majorities in both houses never tried to pass legislation outlawing it during the 12 years they were in power. Assessment: no one in the GOP cares about abortion. It's simply a wedge issue to help them get elected by people with a genuine ambivalence to the practice. It's worked brilliantly ever since Reagan. Why would they kill their golden goose?

Health care? It's become to liberal rhetoric what 9-11 was for Guiliani's: a verb, a noun and National Health Care. Like most social programs, it has one of two means to be accomplished: levy higher taxes on the middle class or place criminal consequences upon those who can't afford it. Again, it's a Holy Graille; deliberately vague and unachievable, countervailing the Republican promise (with crossed fingers) to outlaw abortion.

The assassination of Dr. Tiller in a Wichita church has been a watershed moment in American politics. Roe v. Wade, though it remains firmly the law of the land, has been virtually nullified through a violent war of attrition that has included the assassination of abortion providers, the bombing of clinics, and any number of other acts that should at once draw howls of laughter at the mere mention of the euphemistically named "pro-life" movement. Those who quickly spoke out to justify his murder as, the victim simply "reap[ing] what he sowed," can no more be labeled as supporting the human right to life than an Antebellum planter could have called himself "anti-slavery."

At the same time, the need for some on the left to have this murder defined as an act of terrorism is disturbing. While it can be argued that demagogues have shown a depraved indifference to human life by lighting the fuses of people that they know to be emotionally unbalanced, this is not the same thing as shouting "fire" in a crowded theater. For my part, O'Reilly's constant repetition of "Tiller the baby killer," in concert with his characterization of him as an unprincipled capitalist (see video below; click the link if you're reading this on facebook) elicited eye rolls the few times I happened to catch it out of the corner of my eye at the gym. There can be no question that O'Reilly and others, who played on the visceral reaction that people naturally have when someone tells them that some maniac is out there slaughtering infants, are responsible for Tiller's murder. Whether or not these reckless demagogues will be held financially responsible is for the civil courts to decide. But as much as I loathe them, I find the idea that they could be legally defined as terrorists horrifying.



At issue isn't what's being said in the media, but why. Why does Bill O'Reilly repeat over and over "Tiller the Baby Killer" like a broken record? Why does Rachel Maddow want the leftist pundits on her show to back up her assertion that the assassination of Dr. Tiller amounts to terrorism (which none of them would)?

Allow me to return to our original discussion about T.S. Eliot's Wasteland. We've lost the ability to communicate. Not just in the languages of the educated; we've lost the ability to accept dissenting opinion from our own. Television and internet has built up an industry that talks at us. And we talk back, even if we know no one is listening. Who reads the comments at the bottom of op-ed pieces on the web, besides the armies of the duopoly, fresh from their latest pep talk by Keith Olbermann or Bill O'Reilly or Rachel Maddow or Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh?

I am convinced that the blogosphere is that Wasteland where there are too many voices and no one can understand one another. Don't like the liberal bent someone is taking? Call him a socialist baby killer. Is she criticizing Obama? The racist bitch!

Our fifteen minutes of fame is coming to an end. The current economy doesn't give a rat's ass which side you're on or what you have to say about it. It might care who's listening.

That is, if everyone else weren't so busy trying to get you to listen to them.