Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck (born February 10, 1964 in Mount Vernon , Washington ) is an American talk radio and television presenter. He is considered a prominent conservative who is particularly strict on socio-political issues. Economically, it can be assigned to the classically liberal to libertarian branch.
biography
Glenn Beck is a descendant of German immigrants who emigrated to the USA in the 19th century. He grew up in a Catholic family in Washington state . Between the ages of 16 and 31 he had severe alcohol and drug problems, which he said he successfully treated. In 1999 Beck converted to Mormonism . He is a second marriage in Connecticut and has four children.
Career in radio
After winning a competition at the age of 13, Beck first appeared as a disc jockey on a station in his hometown Everett. After graduating from high school , he turned straight to working on various radio stations.
Among other things , he moderates the Glenn Beck Program , a radio broadcast that includes a lengthy political monologue in the first half, followed by dialogues with callers in the second half, mostly on the subjects of politics and morals. The show is the third most listened to radio show in the United States, with 8.25 million listeners, after broadcasts by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity .
Glenn Beck television show
The television show Glenn Beck usually began with a monologue by Beck, who referred to a current topic and who also liked to work with a blackboard. This was followed by an interview with a political commentator that turned into a discussion.
The program has been broadcast since 2006 on the television station HLN , an offshoot of CNN . On January 19, 2009, one day before President Barack Obama took office , Beck switched his show to the Fox News Channel . Since switching to Fox News , the Glenn Beck show had up to 3.04 million viewers; it was on average the second most viewed program on Fox News after the program The O'Reilly Factor . Beck reported that Roger Ailes , head of the Fox News Channel , compared Glenn Beckx to the legendary " Alamo ". The country was going through a tough time under Barack Obama and Fox News was the only broadcaster planning to attack the government, Ailes said. Ailes was looking for someone who was willing to sit in front of the camera until the last shot, and found him in Beck.
The main themes of the show included:
- The global warming under the slogan "The Climate of Fear", where Al Gore scaremongering and twisting was accused of facts.
- In the last few months under President George W. Bush , Beck criticized the high national deficit and the bank bailout program on the September 15, 2008 broadcast entitled America's Broke . He then attacked the Democratic President Obama, elected in November 2008, much more sharply than the Republican Bush, whom he often referred to as the “enemy of America”, “communist”, “Nazi” or “antichrist”; because of the economic stimulus programs, the bank bailout programs and the introduction of statutory health insurance, he regularly accused Obama of irresponsible debt-making and “socialism”: Obama wanted to turn the USA into a communist dictatorship.
As later became known, Beck had received a total of over a million dollars from the libertarian interest group FreedomWorks in 2009 to weave texts written by FreedomWorks into his monologues. This made him a star of the tea party movement and contributed significantly to the spread of their radical positions.
In April 2011, Fox decided not to renew the show; the last show Glenn Beck ran on June 30th of that year. Observers made economic considerations rather than content-related considerations for the station's decision: the show had recently lost a lot of viewers; Likewise, several major companies had withdrawn their advertising contracts due to the show's aggressive content. Fox News boss Roger Ailes later cited Beck's entrepreneurship and political activism as reasons for the dismissal, stating, "His [Beck's] goals are different from our goals ... I need people who are focused on a daily television show."
After the end of his program, Beck founded his own channel, GBTV , which works by payment and is only broadcast over the Internet. This station is now called TheBlaze ("The Flame").
Political positions
General
Beck sees himself as a conservative and a libertarian . His guiding values are according to his own representation
- the personal responsibility of every citizen for his or her economic situation;
- this is followed by the rejection of the welfare state (from public health insurance to homeless assistance), because the state's concern for the weaker is socialism and opposes the individual's right to self-determination;
- the objectives of the " pro-life movement " ( "pro-life"), the abortions generally as "murder" rejects;
- a minimal state that levies hardly any taxes, does not intervene in the economy in a regulating manner, and does not issue labor and environmental protection regulations;
- conservative values regarding marriage and family as cornerstones of society, with Beck rejecting equality for homosexuals ;
- a low national debt through a radical reduction in state benefits for the socially disadvantaged with a simultaneous lowering of the top tax rate , since the economic success of the rich also benefits the rest of the population according to the trickle-down theory .
Beck supports the right to private gun ownership and even advocates further liberalization of American gun law . He denies that there is human-made global warming and supported the Oregon petition against the Kyoto Protocol . Beck doubts Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. He has never seen a "half-ape-half-man".
In his television program, Barack Obama and his ministers repeatedly referred to Beck as communists in the White House who wanted to fundamentally change the country and alienate it from its ideals. At the same time, he compared Obama's appeals to the common good with the National Socialist ideology that led to the establishment of death camps in Germany. Beck sees all social laws that Congress has passed so far, including the law on health reform , as unjust "reparations payments" to minorities. The illegal immigration of Latinos and Africans to the US is a security risk for him.
In February 2010, Beck gave the keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference . In 2010, he said on the radio that he believed that 10% of Muslims around the world were terrorists - the equivalent of around 140 million terrorists. Also in 2010 Beck promoted a book by the anti-Semitic author Elizabeth Dilling from 1936.
The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 pointed Beck as a conspiracy "left forces" in the United States with Arab Islamists. The aim of the conspiracy is to establish a caliphate in the Near and Middle East. Babylon should therefore be made a "seat of evil" by socialists and Islamists.
In 2011, the Zionist Organization of America honored him as the first recipient of the Defender of Israel Award ( Defender of Israel Prize).
Beck has long been the face and voice of the tea party movement . However, the criticism of his person, also from the conservative camp, steadily increased due to increasingly shrill and bizarre statements; some observers have noticed a massive loss of his political influence, especially with regard to the 2012 elections.
The development since 2015 and the relationship with Donald J. Trump
Since 2015, the positions publicly represented by Beck began to change in noticeable ways. In September 2015, he founded an initiative, the Nazarene Fund , to collect 10 million dollars by Christmas of the year with which refugees from Syria were to be brought to the USA, illegally if necessary. After three weeks, $ 6.2 million was raised. Beck thus openly opposed large parts of the conservative camp, which fundamentally refused to accept Syrian refugees.
In January 2016 Beck then publicly supported the presidential candidacy of Ted Cruz , whom he referred to as the “ anointed ” chosen by God . After Cruz supported Donald Trump's candidacy , Beck turned away from him and publicly considered voting for Hillary Clinton . Since August 2015 he has repeatedly attacked Trump, whom he described as a “very dangerous man” and whom he accused of not actually representing conservative values, but merely striving for dictatorial power. In contrast to the vast majority of right-wing conservative media representatives, Beck stuck to this position even after Trump's election in November 2016, compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and publicly stated that he was very sorry for having contributed to the polarization of US society Trump's election in the first place. In August 2016, Trump's close advisor Steve Bannon called Beck “ possibly the most dangerous man in all of American politics ”.
He has been supporting Donald Trump since May 2018.
Criticism and controversy
The New York Times described Glenn Beck's show as "a mixture of moral lessons, outrage, and an apocalyptic view of the future" that Beck uses to "capture the feelings of an alienated layer of Americans."
In the Weekly Standard , Lee Harris describes Glenn Beck's polarized public perception: “To his admirers, Glenn Beck is a voice in the wilderness, a prophet who warns us that we have walked in the dark too long. For his critics he is at best a clown and a fool, and at worst a dangerous demagogue. ”According to Harris, this gap between critics and supporters of Beck represents a larger“ cultural division ”that encompasses the entire American population, between a“ traditionalist ”segment of the population , for whom “nothing could be more sacred than honor, patriotism and God” and a culturally left-wing section of the population who “gets goose bumps at the mere mention of these terms”. According to Harris' analysis, the characteristics that bring Beck to the dislike of his culturally left-wing critics are precisely the reasons for his popularity among traditionalist Americans:
“[J] enes who condemn Beck or Palin fail to see that their popularity stems from their unlimited willingness to invoke and defend the very values and issues that the overly sensitive and cultured consider primitive and greasy . Exactly when Beck and Palin are behaving in the most brutal manner in the eyes of their cultivated despisers, they are most likely to be in a position to earn the applause of their devoted admirers. "
The Tagesspiegel dubbed him “a fanatic gone mad” when he goes on the air.
The NZZ pointed out that Beck, like Sarah Palin and other protagonists of the Tea Party, has his own financial interests; Beck demanded entry fees of over $ 200 at his public events.
The writer Stephen King called Beck "Satan's mentally retarded young brother".
In response to President Obama's statements about the Cambridge Police Incident - the arrest of Harvard black professor Henry Louis Gates for public harassment by the Cambridge community police - Beck accused Obama of anti-white racism. Obama had directly criticized the behavior of the police (for which he later apologized). Citing Obama's immediate allegations from the local police force as well as his time with preacher Jeremiah Wright , Beck accused Obama of anti-white racism on a Fox talk show. Obama has repeatedly shown "a deep-seated hatred of white people or white culture" . Beck later publicly apologized for his allegations on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace .
After the attack on a youth camp of the Norwegian Workers' Party in 2011 with over 60 dead, Beck received criticism with the following comment on his radio show: “There was a shooting in a political tent camp, which sounds a bit like the Hitler Youth or something. I mean: who does a youth camp that's all about politics? Disturbing. ”Critics noted, among other things, that the organization“ 9-12 Project ”founded by Beck organized political youth camps. In the same article, Beck brought the terrorist shooter into connection with his central topic “big government” (roughly equivalent to: large state apparatus or strong state): The Norwegian assassin was a supporter of “big government” and therefore did what everyone did wanted a strong state: wield terror. The comparison between the youth camp in Norway and the Hitler Youth was sharply criticized in Norway. The respected Norwegian political commentator Frank Aarebrot called Beck a "vulgar propagandist" and a "fascist". Torbjørn Eriksen, former government spokesman for Jens Stoltenberg , said Beck had hit a new low. Beck's comments are "ignorant, incorrect and extremely hurtful".
In January 2011, 400 rabbis signed an open letter published in the Washington Post protesting what they believed to be inappropriate references to the Holocaust and the Nazis by Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes. The letter explains: “[M] an diminishes the memory and relevance of the Holocaust when used to discredit any person or organization whose views are not shared. And that's exactly what Fox News has been doing in the past few weeks. ”The publication of the letter was funded by the Jewish Funds for Justice , a political organization affiliated with Reform Judaism. In response, on February 22, 2012, Glenn Beck compared rabbis of Reform Judaism with radical Islam. They are less about religion than politics. The Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized him for this. Two days later, on February 24, 2011, Beck publicly apologized for his statements.
In 2009, the British ArtReview ranked Beck among the 100 most influential people in the art world.
Satire and parodies
On March 13, 2009, Glenn Beck gave a speech on his show that culminated in a declaration that he loves America and fears for the country, with the host beginning to sob and wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. The performance sparked controversy in the US as to whether the tear was real. The satirist Stephen Colbert caricatured this appearance on his show as “I love the sanity of Glenn Beck, and I fear for it.” This incident also became part of an extensive parody in which Jon Stewart described Glenn Beck's associative presentation as “manipulative “Criticized and placed them close to conspiracy theories . The incident as well as the entire person of Glenn Beck was parodied in an episode of the animated series The Simpsons . In the episode "Politically Inept" Homer Simpson is allowed to host his own political program on Fox News and behaves like a caricatured version of Glenn Beck.
In the cartoon series South Park , his work as a commentator on Fox News was satirized. In the episode Who Dances with the Smurfs , the summary was:
"Just because someone is in front of the camera and has published a book doesn't mean they know what they are talking about."
supporting documents
- ^ Salon.com: The making of Glenn Beck
- ↑ Talkers, The Top Talk Radio Audiences (Updated 3/09) ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Robert Seidman: " Big Beck: Goes over 3 million viewers, beats O'Reilly in demo: Cable News Ratings for Wednesday, August 26, 2009 "
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, Fox News' Glenn Beck strikes ratings gold by challenging Barack Obama
- ^ CNN, Transcripts, Exposed: The Climate of Fear
- ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016, ISBN 978-0-3855-3559-5 . P. 182f.
- ↑ Fox Fires End-Time Preachers , Spiegel-Online, April 8, 2011
- ^ Howard Kurtz : Roger Ailes Plays Nice . In: Newsweek , June 5, 2011.
- ↑ Jack Hunter: Things Sean Hannity Would Never Say . In: The American Conservative , September 22, 2009. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
- ↑ Glenn Beck: Commentary: Obama no, McCain maybe , CNN. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
- ↑ Glenn Beck: Gun Week! . May 12, 2008. Retrieved November 15, 2008.
- ^ Glenn Beck: Global Warming Petition Project , GlennBeck.com. Retrieved September 3, 2009 (Beck incorrectly refers to the petition as "Oregon treaty").
- ↑ Article in the Huffingtonpost
- ^ The New York Times : Mark Leibovich, Being Glenn Beck
- ↑ Original recording on Youtube
- ↑ Quote in the Huffington Post
- ↑ Menachem Rosensaft: Glenn Beck Promotes Vicious Anti-Semite on Radio Show - Huffington Post ( English )
- ↑ Article In: The Huffington Post , February 4, 2011.
- ^ Note on Defender of Israel Award to Beck
- ↑ Die Zeit: Sebastian Moll: A propaganda transmitter against Obama
- ↑ Fox fires end-time ministers. In: Spiegel-Online from April 8, 2011.
- ↑ http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/12/glenn-beck-its-over-for-boehner-and-mcconnell/
- ↑ http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/09/14/glenn_beck_promises_to_smuggle_syrian_christians_into_america.html
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/GlennBeck/posts/10153639490198188
- ^ CNN, Glenn Beck: God took Scalia to give America Ted Cruz as president , February 18, 2016
- ↑ Breitbart.com, Glenn Beck: Ted Cruz 'Anointed for this Time,' Walks Back Blast of Christians Supporting Trump , March 26, 2016
- ↑ Brian Stelter, Bill Carter: Fox News's Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star . In: The New York Times . March 30, 2009, ISSN 0362-4331 ( nytimes.com ).
- ^ A b Lee Harris: Beyond the Tea Party: The Broadening of a Movementr . In: The Weekly Standard , September 13, 2010. Retrieved September 12, 204.
- ↑ Sebastian Moll: The Destroyers - A polarized media environment makes Barack Obama more and more troublesome. In: Tagesspiegel from February 20, 2010.
- ^ Andreas Mink: Attack of the billionaires - NZZ, September 12, 2010
- ↑ FAZ Sunday newspaper. February 7, 2010, No. 5, Medien, p. 31.
- ↑ Glenn Beck: King slams troops. ( Memento of the original from May 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on glennbeck.com
- ↑ Original recording on Youtube
- ↑ Original recording on Youtube
- ↑ Keach Hagey: Beck: "I have a big fat mouth" . Politico.com. August 29, 2010. Retrieved November 1, 2012.
- ↑ English: “There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler Youth, or whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? Disturbing. "
- ↑ CBS: Glenn Beck criticized for comparing Norway victims to "Hitler Youth"
- ↑ English: “He is coming out and he is doing the work of a madman, he's doing work of what all people that want big government always do. And that is: commit terrorist acts. " - see previous source (CBS), audio "Glenn Beck Program", minute 6:19 - 6:31.
- ↑ Upset by Hitler comparison | . Retrieved May 18, 2012.
- ↑ Jon Swaine: Glenn Beck Compares Dead Teenagers to Hitler Youth . In: The Daily Telegraph , July 25, 2011.
- ↑ Ed Pilkington: Rabbis warn Rupert Murdoch: Fox News and Glenn Beck 'using' Holocaust . In: The Guardian , January 27, 2011.
- ↑ NY Daily News (Eng.)
- ^ Nina Mandell: Glenn Beck apologizes for comparing Reform Judaism to radical Islam; says it was a bad analogy . In: Daily News , February 24, 2011.
- ^ ArtReview ranks Eli Broad, Michael Govan, Glenn Beck among 'Power 100' "- Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2009.
- ↑ Colbert Nation, video for the March 31, 2009 show
- ^ " The 11/3 Project " - Daily Show on November 5, 2009. Another parody followed on the March 18, 2010 broadcast
- ↑ James Crugnale. The Simpsons Take On Fox News And Glenn Beck . In: Mediaite , January 9, 2012.
Web links
- Glenn Beck in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Literature by and about Glenn Beck in the catalog of the German National Library
- Official website: Glennbeck.com
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Beck, Glenn |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American talk radio and television presenter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 10, 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mount Vernon , Washington |