As Bill Scher points out, Beck’s rally was pathetic:
Glenn Beck: 87,000, Louis Farrakhan 837,000 ’03 anti-war protests 1,000,000
But the media chooses to massively highlight Beck’s pathetic numbers. Why is that?
The two answers I see are as follows. The media has a right wing bias and Beck’s followers include a number of crazies, his movement has the implicit cloud of violence hanging over it, and it’s smart to pay attention to idiot ideologues with guns.
Tom Hickey
The media is fascinated with street theater. It’s millions of dollars of free publicity for those that harness this fascination successfully. Who wouldn’t want that. Beck is already a multi-millionaire and is obviously taking on king of the mountain Rush by moving into the hundreds of millions category. And like Rush, he has a messiah/prophet complex that helps.
Pathetic.
gtash
Aerial of Beck’s rally:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11121542
gtash
Whatever people may think of Glenn Blecch, he does know how to draw a crowd. And whether it is 100,000 or 500,000, the point is he has managed to co-opt the symbols of Lincoln and of Martin Luther King in a patrio-religious nutshell which will appeal to greater numbers of people than the Dems are willing to admit. The only thing I see this doing for Obama is help consolidate his base among African-American voters by providing a wedge, a reminder. But I think it is clearly downhill on all other counts. I do not think rational selection of a party of policy in the midterms will matter anymore.
gtash
Sorry–meant “party OR policy…”
S Brennan
“Beck’s rally was pathetic”
Particularly given the height of his soapbox.
In this case I would have delayed the permit for that site on that day under fair use of public property requires parties with competing interests to be heard a priori to granting EXCLUSIVE USE of public Park Service property.
I would argue a date traditionally set aside in remembrance of an particular group or ideology should not be transferred for EXCLUSIVE USE to another group with a diametrically opposed viewpoint. Particularly since the sole purpose of this gathering is to denigrate another’s sacred day which not only does not serve the greatest good [per Park Service Policy], but rather is being used for commercial purposes contrary to Park Service Policy on allowing the type permit requested.
A Christmas parade should not denied access while a Devil worship group bent on destroying the joy of the parade, is given EXCLUSIVE USE of the street on the day usually reserved. The day before, fine, the day after, terrific. At worst, the competing groups should be both denied access if a compromise is not possible.
The R-fascists would cry freedom to xyz…Hey…Hey…you don’t even have the right to criticize us without demonstrating your fascist/racist intent.
The L-fascists would say sure we have the right to criticize you…oh wait…just last week we said free speech should be banned [or it’s practitioners] on most of our L-blogs…embarrassing, hypercritical…sure, but the what he hell, rules don’t apply to us.
Had anybody cared enough, the law allowed a challenge to this desecration, US Park Service Policy and common sense, Beck’s daylight Nuremberg rally could have been neutered legally, completely within the bounds of pre Bush’s/Obama’s constitutional defilements.
Thank God today’s “liberals” were not around in 1963, their limp wristed approach would have never lifted Jim Crow, ended the war, addressed womens rights…they would just engage in meaningless symbolism they would declare “historic”
* neither term is an accurate description, it’s just convention.
jawbone
Interestingly, NPR gave a 2-3 hundred thousand count; CBS said 87,000, but then said it was the largest crowd since some significant rally (which I can’t recall — anyone here catch it?).
NPR is almost out “right stepping” the MCMers!
Bernard
this is what the Media wants for Americans to see. and focus upon. as this matters “so much” to the Media’s agenda. to grasp at the lunacy of Palin and Beck doing their “Elmer Gantry” bit upon the various sheep who need to be told it’s okay to hate the “other.”that it is alright to hate the “other.” that “safe and comfortable” white idiots leaders are leading their sheep.
what wonderful PR this will make in the years to come. reading this history of America will be most “entertaining”, to be sure.
feeding the hate is a form of suicide.
alyosha
Almost as disturbing as the media’s attention to Beck, is the lack of an official crowd estimate. I think the National Park Service (or somebody) used to do this, until they were bullied by right wingers. Like everything else in this country, things like “the Truth” and “Science” and anything that doesn’t comport with the right wing viewpoint, gets shouted off the stage.
I was reading a comment thread on Yahoo about Beck’s rally, and came across a commenter who claimed to know German. He/She said that the “Restoring Our Honor” slogan for Beck’s rally is very similar to the slogan used by the Nazis during theirs.
S Brennan
alyosha,
CBS commissioned a firm that specializes in crowd analysis, the number is considered the most accurate.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20014993-503544.html
jcapan
“Why is that?”
Not sure I’d agree that it’s a rightist bias, well, other than the sheer entertainment value of the spectacle. Watching intelligent liberals string together eloquent, impassioned speeches against war–clearly a plurality of Americans aren’t having any of that. Demagogy, charlatans, now that’s another matter.
It’s a pressure release vehicle for the proles, plain and simple. The estab. doesn’t mind paying attn. to this version of populism b/c it’s not a threat to their interests. Meanwhile, leftist activism, when it’s not penned off in adulation of false prophets, is a threat and thus must be marginalized, ridiculed, or most damning of all, ignored. As Huxley wrote in the FWD to a later edition of Brave New World:
“The greatest triumphs of propaganda have been accomplished, not by doing something, but by refraining from doing. Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects, by lowering what Mr. Churchill calls an ‘iron curtain’ between the masses and such facts or arguments as the local political bosses regard as undesirable, totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have done by the most eloquent denunciations, the most compelling of logical rebuttals.”
This is true of China and Google, it’s true of N. Korea and it’s true of American’s woeful media. Merely a question of scale. Anyway, before there was Jay Rosen, before even Noam Chomsky, Huxley had it wired.
You can’t engage actual liberalism b/c it’s just that powerful. Faux liberalism as practiced by the democrats, well, shit, Glenn Beck can poke holes in such tripe. But progressive, populist liberalism cannot be defeated. The problem is there aren’t any politicians carrying its message into the arena. As long as liberals defend our own charlatans, we’re doomed to see the GOP keep turning up like a bad penny, one worse incarnation after another, dreams deferred for generations.
anon2525
But the media chooses to massively highlight Beck’s pathetic numbers. Why is that?
Once again, the question arises: Are They Evil or Stupid?
They are stupid. The people in the corporate media, like all human beings, have an interest in there being a viable biosphere. They should be pointing out the threats to it and educating people on what actions could be taken to prevent its destruction by interviewing experts and presenting the explanations and possible solutions from multiple viewpoints to illustrate them. Likewise, possible responses to the depletion of natural resources could be explained and illustrated. Not doing this is going to hurt them along with everyone else. And this is happening all of the time — daily — so it is not “Not News.” And because it is large and complex, a lot of explanatory resources need to be expended on it and because it takes a long time for enough of the public to grasp it.
The corporate media are not doing this, and people can present many economic and political reasons for why they are not, but Nature doesn’t care (see Greek Mythology) about those reasons. They have been informed and warned by the most credible people about the problems, but they have chosen to ignore it. That choice is not evil. It is stupid.
And so they go on discussing Beck and other matters, ignoring the real problems. Are we as stupid as they are?
Mouse_Wheel
I recall reading a comment section discussing print coverage of the John Freshwater case, and the print media’s curious habit of omitting any mention of his repeated use of an electrode to brand a crucifix onto his student’s arms, preferring to focus entirely on the question of whether he should have been permitted to keep a Bible on his desk.
One commenter opined that this was not evidence of bias, but simply showed that a normal desire to play to reader interest, for after all, the Bible on the desk was far more sensational an issue than the aforementioned branding.
So…
No “spectacle” involved with any of the anti-war rallies?
Really, now?
I don’t think you truly believe that yourself.
Sometimes the media are biased.
Sorry.