Saturday, January 23, 2010

We Can Do This!!

I'll be honest: I generally don't post comedic rants against conservatives because they're generally not balanced with attacks on leftists. True, I have posted Janeane Garofalo's disturbed ravings for the sheer spectacle of the events. But I've never posted Jon Stewart videos. For one thing, I simply don't watch him. Secondly, though, when students come to class and ask if I'd seen Jon Stewart's show last night, I get the weird feeling that not only is the youth generation getting their information in wholly different ways than I am (and thus I'm on a different planet), but that the game's rigged: Virtually nothing that I have to say, little of the deeper contextual and historical knowledge that I have to impart, is likely to sink into my students' minds, so hiply influenced by the popular culture. But Stewart's good, so I should at least be open-minded. And I'll certainly be more open to such openness if Stewart continues to take down the likes of Keith Olbermann with such cutting comedic aplomb. You gotta love this:


Dan Riehl uses the Stewart clip to get a jab in at Glenn Beck, who also stepped way over the line in his showcase acts featuring Scott Brown. I'm not quite there yet (I'm still trying to cling to the idea that somehow Beck really is on our side). But I have to admit Beck really bungled things. As Richard at Three Beers Later argues:

Glenn, you don't tell obscene jokes about a bride at her own wedding unless you're drunk. You don't compare Scott Brown, a true candidate of the people, who knocked off a Senate seat owned by a genuine woman killing misogynist, to philanderer who impeded the murder investigation of his mistress, on Brown's election day, unless your judgment is similarly impaired.

Ya fucked up. Learn it, love it, own it, because the left is going to be throwing it back in all our faces for years... as in "Well, Glenn Beck said... "
And that's an outstanding prediction, by the way (one that Dan Riehl also made). It turns out that Gail Collins spoke to Keith Olbermann, who in a quasi-apology, justified his anti-Scott Brown screeds with reference right wing pundits who are allegedly way worse, and surprise!, especially Glenn Beck:
On MSNBC, Keith Olbermann called Scott Brown, the senator-elect from Massachusetts, “an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”

Yipes. It was a Senate race, not the Battle of Hastings.

“In the personal scheme of things, I went too far. In the broad scheme of things, this was a blip on the radar,” said Olbermann, in a telephone interview, citing the multitudinous cases when right-wing talk-show hosts have said much worse. Given the fact that Glenn Beck has already claimed that Brown could wind up “with a dead intern,” I believe he may have a point.
Yeah, Glenn, you f***ed up. Never. Ever. Give. Radical. Leftists. An. Easy. Way. Out. ... NEVER.

Dan Riehl has more, "
Glenn Beck Makes the NY Times."

5 comments:

  1. I don't agree with Glenn Beck about 20% of the time but when was the last time a "conservative", other than myself, have ever mentioned the List of 45?

    http://bit.ly/8sLaP5

    Glenn Beck did a very good job the other night and seeing the videos will open your mind...not in liking Glenn Beck but acknowledging the waste of the basic libtard, the marxist-sociopathic mutants running the Nation.

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  2. "...I should at least be open-minded."


    Interesting definition of "open-minded", Professor: I'll criticize conservatives who say things I disagree with and temporarily stop vilifying liberals who say things I do agree with.

    Granted it's not completely nakedly partisan but I'd say that qualifying this as "open-minded" is a bit of a stretch. Have a good one.

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  3. I watched the Stewart slamdown of Olbermann because my young'uns like Stewart and he actually has a lot of good conservative authors on his program, which leans left of center, but is always somewhat balanced.

    But Olbermann is a complete mess. Glenn Beck is beginning to make a huge *ss out of himself, simply to get attention, sometimes it seems.

    I prefer Mark Levin, whose radio show is almost as good as Rush's. Beck's radio show is mediocre and he still seems to be in search for his inner self. The Scott Brown 'dead intern' remark was more than inexcusable, it was revealing of Beck's real [lack of] character.

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  4. Beck always finds a way to get in his own way, to undercut whatever value he may actually have as a commentator. His "dead intern" remark about Brown was strange, ugly and stupid, and not funny in the least, no matter what his intent, and it only turns off those he wants to reach. I haven't been able to sit through his shows for awhile, and he just gave me another reason not to.

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  5. Glenn really stepped in it with his comments about Brown's relationship with his daughters and the dead intern remark. He really has given the left legitimate ammunition that will be used again and again against him. Mr. Beck's comments were genuinely ugly, if not disturbed.

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