Wow. This is an extremely impressive remix by Jonathan McIntosh, as "Donald Duck Meets Glenn Beck in "Right Wing Radio Duck"":
Very well done. My only criticism is that it could use a slight filter on the Beck audio to make it sound like it was coming from the radio, especially to better match cartoons of that era. Just a touch would do, because Beck needs to be recognizable as Beck. Still, tremendous and creative work went into this. Bravo!
On the YouTube page, McIntosh is claiming fair use of the Disney material and gives more detail for that. I hope that holds up, because Disney is notoriously litigious about such things. If nothing else, enjoy this while you can. (Hat tip to Rick Perlstein.)
Showing posts with label Glenn Beck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Glenn Beck. Show all posts
Sunday, October 03, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Don't Know Much About History
Well, at least something good came out of Glenn Beck's rally in DC. An old pal who also grew up in the DC area recently wrote:
Great time at the Natural History Museum! The tea party folk kept everyone away from downtown and the tea party doesn't seem to believe in natural history, so the place was empty.
In addition to the above links, if you missed it, here's The Daily Show's Beckapalooza preview:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| I Have a Scheme | ||||
| ||||
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Glenn Beck, Stewart Style
This has been all over the blogosphere, but I'm still not tired of it, and it's an instant classic. Stewart plunges into the demagogic truthiness of Glenn Beck:
If you're not familiar with Glenn Beck's shtick, Crooks and Liars has a good collection. The Daily Show has mocked him many times before, as has Colbert. I haven't written much on the guy, but this October post on Beck's McCarthyist style links several good pieces on him.
A few observations. Many Americans are feeling uneasy, with good reason. There are individual exceptions within them, but overall neither major political party is taking on the power players on Wall Street who nearly destroyed the world economy and are reckless about doing it again. Beck plays off of that real unease, although his main target is the teabagger crowd watching his show on Fox News, and their discomforts are more numerous, reactionary and alarming. Beck's a bit crazy, and he says grossly false, idiotic and illogical things all the time. But he's proven to be pretty successful as a demagogue because he knows his audience. Beck fans hear him speaking an emotional truth to them. He expresses their anxieties and he gives them scapegoats. I tried to cover some of the dangerous demagoguery on death panels and Nazis in an August post (" Obama can't be trusted because he doesn't hate the right people. And surely Obama must hate us as much as we hate him."). But as several others including Digby have noted, for Beck's audience, what he says doesn't need to make sense.
I've said it before, but The Daily Show and The Colber Report are truly brilliant with ridiculous frequency. That's very, very hard, and it's easy to take for granted because they make it look so effortless. This particular bit is also one of Stewart's best individual performances. Mocking the scoundrels and fools in power is extremely important, and sometimes all we have, so thank goodness for artists and comedians.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
| ||||
If you're not familiar with Glenn Beck's shtick, Crooks and Liars has a good collection. The Daily Show has mocked him many times before, as has Colbert. I haven't written much on the guy, but this October post on Beck's McCarthyist style links several good pieces on him.
A few observations. Many Americans are feeling uneasy, with good reason. There are individual exceptions within them, but overall neither major political party is taking on the power players on Wall Street who nearly destroyed the world economy and are reckless about doing it again. Beck plays off of that real unease, although his main target is the teabagger crowd watching his show on Fox News, and their discomforts are more numerous, reactionary and alarming. Beck's a bit crazy, and he says grossly false, idiotic and illogical things all the time. But he's proven to be pretty successful as a demagogue because he knows his audience. Beck fans hear him speaking an emotional truth to them. He expresses their anxieties and he gives them scapegoats. I tried to cover some of the dangerous demagoguery on death panels and Nazis in an August post (" Obama can't be trusted because he doesn't hate the right people. And surely Obama must hate us as much as we hate him."). But as several others including Digby have noted, for Beck's audience, what he says doesn't need to make sense.
I've said it before, but The Daily Show and The Colber Report are truly brilliant with ridiculous frequency. That's very, very hard, and it's easy to take for granted because they make it look so effortless. This particular bit is also one of Stewart's best individual performances. Mocking the scoundrels and fools in power is extremely important, and sometimes all we have, so thank goodness for artists and comedians.
Monday, October 05, 2009
The McCarthyist Style in Glenn Beck's "White Culture"
Imagine if Glenn Beck were forced to defend some of his most irresponsible statements. Katie Couric gives it a go:
She could have pushed him harder, but still, it's good that she raised the question – what did you mean by "white culture"? ThinkProgress has a partial transcript. Crooks and Liars links some of the good recent articles on Beck (and their Beck category is pretty extensive).
I'd particularly recommend the Media Matters and Sidney Hillman Foundation pieces on the Time fluff piece on Beck (also this Balloon Juice commentary). Salon's series on The Making of Glenn Beck is good as well. Meanwhile, Evil Slutopia has a great roundup (from April) of Beck's most loathsome statements.
Beck's gutless dodging reminded me of that queen of political grifters, Ann Coulter. As I wrote in a long post on her, she simultaneously wants credit for being "outrageous" yet want to take no responsibility for her statements. It's a cowardly, dishonest display. Beck's doing the same thing here, and all of the new McCarthy gang have this tendency. Without irony, both Beck and Coulter have invoked McCarthy in a positive way. But their resistance to saying outright what they want to gives away the game. Beck's happy to call Obama a racist and inflame racial tensions – it's good for business – but acknowledging that what he's saying is racist is not good for business. The boycott against him might win him further fans from the lunatic fringe, but it puts off the mainstream. Some Republicans are trying to distance themselves from Beck as a result (see the C&L links above). But this is a further scam, because Beck works for conservative propaganda outlet Fox News, and he's spouting mostly standard issue, far right bullshit – even if it comes with his unique brand of crazy performance art on top.
Let's recall, we saw much of the same game from the McCain-Palin campaign, with their camp stoking bigotry, denying it only when forced to, and often blaming their own crap on the Obama camp. It was utterly despicable and shameless. Yet most media outlets hesitated to call it out, and even worse, some made excuses for it.
TBogg catches a right-wing furor over Janeane Garofalo making a similar point about the teabag crowd:
She's pretty accurate here.
These dynamics are central to coverage of Beck, from the whitewashing of his bigotry to the game of false equivalencies. From that Jamison Foser Media Matters piece (emphasis his):
Sadly, this is typical from the media. It's especially irresponsible because Beck is the "It" Boy of Paranoid Hatred for the moment, and it's dangerous to help sell "The Return of McCarthyism":
We know the damage these scoundrels do if they're not confronted.
Edited for typos and clarity. The final video doesn't seem to load in some browsers. If you find that's the case, you can view it here or here.
She could have pushed him harder, but still, it's good that she raised the question – what did you mean by "white culture"? ThinkProgress has a partial transcript. Crooks and Liars links some of the good recent articles on Beck (and their Beck category is pretty extensive).
I'd particularly recommend the Media Matters and Sidney Hillman Foundation pieces on the Time fluff piece on Beck (also this Balloon Juice commentary). Salon's series on The Making of Glenn Beck is good as well. Meanwhile, Evil Slutopia has a great roundup (from April) of Beck's most loathsome statements.
Beck's gutless dodging reminded me of that queen of political grifters, Ann Coulter. As I wrote in a long post on her, she simultaneously wants credit for being "outrageous" yet want to take no responsibility for her statements. It's a cowardly, dishonest display. Beck's doing the same thing here, and all of the new McCarthy gang have this tendency. Without irony, both Beck and Coulter have invoked McCarthy in a positive way. But their resistance to saying outright what they want to gives away the game. Beck's happy to call Obama a racist and inflame racial tensions – it's good for business – but acknowledging that what he's saying is racist is not good for business. The boycott against him might win him further fans from the lunatic fringe, but it puts off the mainstream. Some Republicans are trying to distance themselves from Beck as a result (see the C&L links above). But this is a further scam, because Beck works for conservative propaganda outlet Fox News, and he's spouting mostly standard issue, far right bullshit – even if it comes with his unique brand of crazy performance art on top.
Let's recall, we saw much of the same game from the McCain-Palin campaign, with their camp stoking bigotry, denying it only when forced to, and often blaming their own crap on the Obama camp. It was utterly despicable and shameless. Yet most media outlets hesitated to call it out, and even worse, some made excuses for it.
TBogg catches a right-wing furor over Janeane Garofalo making a similar point about the teabag crowd:
She's pretty accurate here.
These dynamics are central to coverage of Beck, from the whitewashing of his bigotry to the game of false equivalencies. From that Jamison Foser Media Matters piece (emphasis his):
Time continued:The old American mind-set that Richard Hofstadter famously called "the paranoid style" - the sense that Masons or the railroads or the Pope or the guys in black helicopters are in league to destroy the country - is aflame again, fanned from both right and left. Between the liberal fantasies about Brownshirts at town halls and the conservative concoctions of brainwashed children goose-stepping to school, you'd think the Palm in Washington had been replaced with a Munich beer hall.
What in the world is Time talking about? This is a grotesque false equivalence. Conservatives have been yelling about President Obama being a secret Kenyan bent on sending granny to the Death Panel, comparing him to Hitler and Mao and Stalin and who-knows-who-else -- and that, apparently, is matched in intensity and paranoia by liberals pointing out this unhinged behavior? Insane.
Sadly, this is typical from the media. It's especially irresponsible because Beck is the "It" Boy of Paranoid Hatred for the moment, and it's dangerous to help sell "The Return of McCarthyism":
We know the damage these scoundrels do if they're not confronted.
Edited for typos and clarity. The final video doesn't seem to load in some browsers. If you find that's the case, you can view it here or here.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Talk Like a Pirate Day 2009
September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day! You can read more here.
As in a past year, I'm going to take a scurvy dog with delusions of grandeur:
And translate him:
Does sacred honor e'en exist in Washington anymore? On accoun' o' I ratted ou' a self-avowed Communist in th' administration in Van Jones, th' same organizations, th' same politicians, th' same progressive media that be ignorin' or standin' fer ACORN now, be havin' called me Joseph McCarthy. They be havin' such wee regard fer yer intelligence that they dasn't think ye`re goin' t' figure ou' that Joseph McCarthy be a powerful senator! Surrounded by th' trappings o' power o' th' United States government. Wi' th' power o' subpoena an' th' power o' Congress! Th' guy who stood against that be alone. While sea dogs an' land lubbers else wet the'r britches an' cowered in fear!
Ye`d think th' members o' th' media might reckon his name. 't be Edward R. Murrow. An' while I be nowhere near an Edward R. Murrow, nereclaimed t' be, let me use th' words o', finally, somebody that stood up t' th' power, an' these senators, an' spake, Senator, be havin' ye nay shame? Be havin' ye nay shame?
An we retort, i' th' style of the Dread Pirate Roberts' salty first mate:
We knew Edward R. Murrow. Edward R. Murrow be a matey o' ours. Ye, horkwad, be nay Edward R. Murrow. Be havin' ye nay decency, or shame, ye scalliwag, scurvy dog, peg boy an' bilge rat?
Arr, this scalliwag spoutin' his lyin' mouth and sportin' his yellow pants should be forced ta walk the plank.
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