Counterpoint: Glenn Beck Doesn't Matter

With all respect to my friend and fellow dagblogger Genghis, I must respectfully disagree.  I'd leave a comment in his thread, but my comment is too long and we've had issues recently where Genghis is intemperately editing comments in "his" threads, so to avoid any disagreements of those sorts, I will make this as clear as I can in a separate blog entry:  Glenn Beck doesn't matter, and the progressive community's unhealthy obsession with him is a destructive distraction from Things That Do Matter. Here's why:

First, there is always going to be a political opposition.  FOX News is a major cluster of the opposition to the President.  Now, I like and admire the President.  But the natural course of things is that there will be media outlets opposed to the party and President in power.  Through his increasing unpopularity, George W. Bush promoted MSNBC more than MSNBC could have promoted itself otherwise.  And with Democrats in control of both the Presidency and Congress, it is the natural order of things that there will be an uptick in attention to political media that focus upon criticizing the party in power.  People who suggest that Beck and those who espouse his consistently antiprogressive views must be stamped out or silenced remind me of defense lawyers who wish the plaintiff's bar did not exist.  Without plaintiffs, what cases would there be to defend?  There will always be two sides in our great arguments.  And also, some people who bring discredit upon each side in all of our great arguments...

Second, Glenn Beck does not bring credit upon the conservative cause he purports to promote.  He says a lot of stupid things that are a discredit to him and make reasonable people ignore him.  He's deservedly infamous for saying that President Obama is a racist with "deep seated hatred for white people or the white culture."  (Actually, Glenn, he's half white! And was closer in his premarital life to his white mom than anyone.)  Earth to jerk:  President Obama is not a racist, and is staunchly antiracist.  Most Americans get this.  Many of his former sponsors get this:  Beck's been dropped by GEICO, lawyers.com, Progressive, ConAgra, and Procter and Gamble, who weren't ok with the way Beck chose to slur the President.  The people who show up to listen to the ranting of a man who says things like that about the President are going to show up.  There is no point making a daily event out of the fact of their showing up.  And don't get me started on how Beck can't even spell oligarch, and doesn't know what it means.

Third, it takes two to make the current echo chamber in our fractionated media.  We have Olbermann, who each night explains that O'Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, and [rotating fourth person among Michelle Bachmann, Michael Steele, or actually someone not ordinarily mentioned] are the Worst Persons in the World.  Beck and Limbaugh in particular do the same thing back, jeering the President and his supporters in the same hateful, antidialogic way Olbermann does.  I say they are all debasing our political culture.  As the aphorism goes, and as one sees in legal practice with lawyers who live to attack meanly, you shouldn't wrestle with a pig.  It just gets you muddy, and the pig likes it.  So let's not wrestle pigs.  Or be them.  Ok?

Fourth, rolling these points together:  generalized advocacy and opposition that devolves to cheerleading for the left or right is not valuable discussion.  MSNBC's Keith and Ed, and FOX's evening lineup, exist to affirm belief systems in those who don't really need affirmation, and seldom do anything truly interesting with issues of the day.  These commentators and their core audiences know what they think and how they'll vote.  So why waste one's daily or weekly political thinking, viewing, or listening time on such repetition?

Here's my problem:  I hear so much more about Beck than immigration, EFCA, the judiciary, Waxman-Markey, really, name your bill or issue.  There's a limited amount of time to think about our politics, and the left is spending it shocked and aghast that the right has often-abrasive, thoughtless cheerleaders (surprise, just as the left does).  I am sick of the focus on these cheerleader people, and sick of their focus on each other.  Immigration is interesting.  EFCA is interesting.  Tort reform is interesting.  The judiciary is interesting.  Climate change is interesting.  Fuel standards for cars and energy independence are interesting.

Glenn Beck is not interesting.  And other than health care, all our political media can talk about right now is Glenn Beck.  As his namesake pop singer, Beck, sang of himself, he's a loser, baby.  Let's talk about something more serious, something that matters more, and that can change minds or lives.  Now that would be interesting.  That would matter.