For the past two days, we’ve been bombarded at the Tribune with an organized mass e-mailing effort from writers condemning Fox News and radio commentator Glenn Beck.
Such e-mail campaigns are quite common, and news outlets across the country usually can count on several every month.
Other recent blasts have been lined up against the president’s health care plan, in favor of the plan, against ACORN, in favor of ACORN. You get the picture. The left and right both play the game equally.
Beck, in case you don’t know, is the fastest-rising national star on the “fair and balanced’’ network, most often giving voice to the far-right. He got into hot water a few months back when he accused President Obama of being a racist. Many of the companies that advertise during his Fox show asked to be moved to another time slot. But his credentials among his mass followers were only cemented.
Beck is known for his theatrical approach to his show. He has been known to shed tears. His basic theme amounts to a call for Americans to take back their country. He was the major force behind the 9/12 march on Washington earlier this month. He made the cover of Time magazine. He coins phrases that enter the far-right lexicon seemingly overnight (for example, “mainstream media,’’ is so March ’09 in describing traditional newspapers and television networks. “Fringe media’’ is the new buzz term).
The Beck e-mails, all signed individually by people living in the Phoenix area, contend Beck distorts facts or outright lies in order to whip people into a frenzy. They say he must be stopped.
It wasn’t always this way for Beck, though.
The other day, I was reminded about Glenn Beck’s days years ago here in the Valley by someone who provided a link to a blurb about Beck on The Huffington Post and a lengthy profile about Beck on Salon.com.
The items talk about a period when Beck was a whacky radio personality in Phoenix back around 1986, at a station called Y95.
Beck then was partnered with Tim Hattrick, who still works in Valley radio, and they made a local television commercial that received considerable air time back then. The video is posted below, in case you’ve never seen it. (If you lived here at the time, as I did, it was hard to miss, as I recall).
Just as intriguing is the story about Beck’s time here in Phoenix in the Salon.com piece.
Hattrick clearly has some memories about his time as Beck’s partner. Here’s one tidbit from the Salon.com article:
“More relaxed by nature than Beck, Hattrick expected that the two would share duties on the show as partners. But Beck had other ideas. His first day in the studio, Beck called Hattrick into his office and laid down the law. “I remember Beck sat me down and pulled out a notepad on which he had drawn a planet being orbited by satellites,” says Hattrick. “On the big planet, Glenn wrote ‘Me.’ Then he pointed to the orbiting satellites and wrote names on them, such as ‘Tim,’ ‘News,’ and ‘Clydie Clyde.’ I’ll never forget Beck telling me I was a satellite. He was younger than me but carried himself like he was 35 or 40.”
There’s a lot more to the Glenn Beck story in Phoenix. It’s worth checking out here:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/09/22/glenn_beck_two/index.html
Chris Coppola is editor of the Tribune Newspapers and eastvalleytribune.com. He can be reached at ccoppola@evtrib.com. Follow his newsroom updates on Twitter: EVTribEditor.)
Was this back when Glenn Beck was an out of control alcoholic? (His own admission). Before he found Jesus? Before he — (insert whatever alibi you want ??)
The man was rude and crude then, he hasn’t changed much, just is an arrogant dry-drunk.
Amazing how the ultra rightwingers have such a checkered past -
I have lived in Phoenix for 23 years now. Whatever Beck did in his past he has sure redeemed himself the last few years as he is a voracious reader and he is obviously much more mature these days, but aren’t we all ? Those who would say he is ultra right-wing I am still trying to figure out what a person is who refuses blind allegiance to either establisment Party and claims to be more libertarian leaning is Ultra anything. Politically active for twenty years I am glad that Glenn is bringing himself up to the same positions I have held for years. The more someone studies the real issues without preconditioned results they eventually arrive where Mr. Beck is. The Wall Street ESTABLISHMENT bought up the major media and enough hollow politicians to be able to play the citizens for fools as they flood the country with 20-30 million left voting illegals, move our entire private sector economy to China, Spend obscene amounts of money that is borrowed in our names to give to unfriendly nations, fund corrpt ACORN tyoe organizations ( yes McCain takes their Soros money too ) Idealists who place their hope in a Godless One Size fits all society see Mr. Beck as a stumblilng block for the socialist Utopia they all dream of living in someday and despise his revealing the plans of the crooks who seek to rule us all in shared poverty. Time to stop flinging hate bombs and read up on world history and American History. Some seem unaware that It started long before Lincoln and it involved individual Freedom in a Representative Republic with God-given Rights honored and respected and that usually is the point where the God haters make their break with Indiviidual Freedom. Thank you Mr. Beck for your service to educate those who have a diluted view of our true history and culture. I know exactly why his nuumbers are soaring, truth has a built in advantage and in a world full of lies it stands out like neon.
T. Dodson is a hard act to follow.
But I was going to say that Beck should have stayed with the Morning Zoo. I might enjoy his cultivated idiocy in that context. Please, Glenn! Go back to your roots, son. We need you there.