“In theory, a charismatic paranoiac like Beck is the poster boy for this dystopian future. He’s got a very loud megaphone. His communication skills are world-class. He’s ideologically driven (even if no one can quite figure out what that ideology is). And he’s willing to entertain some pretty dubious notions. But look at his track record so far. He couldn’t sell FEMA death camps because the facts weren’t there to back the story up. His exposé of communist art at Rockefeller Plaza went nowhere because even Beck’s viewers realize an old relief of a naked farmer holding some wheat isn’t much of a threat. The Van Jones story had legs, by contrast, because most of its facts were solid. With a change in background music and a few minor edits, in fact, Beck’s first long piece on Jones could have served as an advertisement for the activist’s achievements—in part because its script closely followed a 2005 newspaper article that was written as a positive portrait of Jones.

“Context, meanwhile, is Beck’s forte. He is constantly urging his viewers to connect the dots and look at the big picture, even when the picture exists only in his head. He is forever advising them to consider stories not as transient, random, isolated phenomena, as most newscasts do, but as parts of a larger, ongoing narrative that grows more and more meaningful (and menacing) the longer you study it. In a fractured, distracting mediascape, where thousands of outlets vie for our attention, it’s a smart approach that others are sure to copy. Legally barred from re-enacting Orson Welles, Beck may have to settle for being the 21st century’s answer to Edward R. Murrow.”

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STU: They use the logo. They go through, you’ll hear kind of the music that sounds like the Glenn Beck TV open in which they show the same imagery, they have the same logo except it says EC instead of GB. You know, and these guys, again, these guys skewer everybody and they are always very good at it.

GLENN: You know what’s amazing to me is I’m a libertarian.

STU: And they are, too.

GLENN: And they are, too.

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: And when you’re a libertarian, there ain’t anybody coming to your defense…

GLENN: [Penn Jillette] has gotten so much flack from his friends because, you know, they buy into, “Oh, he’s a fascist.” I don’t care what you do with your life. Honor the Constitution. Limited government. Maximum amount of freedom. Throw them all out. Get people who understand the founding fathers. Libertarians are eating each other alive. And it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense. But see, there’s no, there’s no structure to it. And I’m fine with that. But that’s why libertarians lose is because there’s no, there’s no system. There’s no system. And so there’s no one to defend. And so the, both parties, when they start to grind down on you, you have the entire system against you, and it’s quite amazing. It’s quite amazing.

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