Glenn Beck was once a semi-obscure former disk jockey who landed a seat in the back row of CNN’s Headline News channel. He was allowed to babble as CNN’s token conservative or, quasi independent idiologue so long as he didn’t disrupt CNN’s patently obvious bias for left-leaning journalism. He was never a candidate to fill-in for Larry King or Wolfe Blitzer, that’s for sure.
Beck is not a journalist in the classical sense. He is not a lawyer as far as we know. Glenn is not a Harvard or Princeton educated guy. GB is not a person a network would or could or even should shove into a prime time news slot.
Enter Fox News. Enter Roger E. Ailes, President of Fox News Channel and Chairman of the Fox Television Stations Group. Enter Glenn Beck to a favored opportunity to join the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity as perhaps the most watched back-to-back duo in television news history.
Beck is not Your Run of the Mill Class Clown
Other bloggers and haters of Beck have labeled him as a kind of class clown and someone who lacks the credentials and sensibility to be taken serious.
iVoteAmerica differs with other opinion-makers who ridicule Mr. Beck for his style and choreographed presentations that decidedly paint him in conservative red, white and blue colors.
We don’t doubt for a minute that he is entertaining. Who can argue that his Fox News program and two books, both best sellers, have catapulted him into the star-studded line-up of right leaning commentators?
We want to ask and try to answer the question, why is Glenn Beck such a phenom? The short answer is simple and sublime…HE IS US. He is the average, mainstream, common sense American that tends to see more and understand more than the coastal liberals and left-leaning snobs would ever care to admit, much less believe.
Beck’s grasp of the issues and black board bullet-pointed presentations remind us all of our elementary school days; of our better times and of times of temperance and a life that we long to once again have, if only the government would stop robbing us of it.
It’s the Blackboard, Stupid
We trust Glenn with a trust we have not extended to a media news personality for a long, long time. His black board, chalk and eraser convey a pictorial image of basic, uncomplicated reason with respect to political matters.
Glenn Beck is my boy scout leader (Harvey Gardner) who taught me respect for people, belief in country and discipline and courage. Glenn is my Sunday School teacher, giving me lessons on values and letting me know that belief in God is not only okay, it makes complete sense.
Mr. Beck is my high school football coach (Gary Hall) who could yell at me, call me misguided and lazy and yet, in so doing, challenge me to think more and try harder.
Glenn Beck is a phenomenon because he is not only like us, he likes us! He is like those in whom we have been able to place our trust without disappointment. He is the visage of your and my youth and the times of rational, value-based culture where we were taught right from wrong and somehow we knew the lessons were true because the voice was true.
The black board, the humor, the red direct-line phone to the White House and all of the stage craft utilized by Beck, including his reasoned rhetoric is the missed voice of America, calling us back to the basic assumptions, principles and truths that made us a great nation.
Glenn Beck is a phenomenon not because he set out to be such but rather, because he is simply us and this forces the phenomenon upon him. Glenn Beck is America and American, rolled into one. He is you, he is me and he is us. Thus, he is a phenomenon.
Mark Levin and I are new pals. That is, I am a new listener to his compelling multi-hour program via my satellite radio connection. Last week I found myself driving aimlessly in order to capture all Mark could give me.