Beck to Couric: Obama Better Than McCain, Hillary Better Than Both
Katie Couric is launching a new online interview series, called @katiecouric, this week, and her first subject is a pretty big get, at least if you believe what you read in TIME magazine: Glenn Beck. (Fun fact: Back and Couric have the same publicist. Because he just despises the MSM's bias, not their professional assistants.)
In an online excerpt, Couric throws some political names at Beck, and "Hillary Clinton" elicits an interesting response, above. Interesting, but maybe not surprising.
People tend to lump TV opinion hosts—and anybody else with an opinion about politics—under either "liberal" or "conservative." People thus call Beck a conservative talker, and he's even used the label for himself. It's true insofar as it goes, but it also goes to show how inadequate and limiting our language for describing politics is.
The fact is, there are numerous subgroups within "liberal" and "conservative," and some of the liberal subgroups have more in common with come conservative subgroups than with other liberals; the same is true in reverse. In a column I wrote earlier this year about Glenn Beck, I made a point—then, I think, deleted it for space—about how calling Fox News a "conservative" opinion haven is true but insufficient.
Fox News, I wrote, is like the bar in The Blues Brothers that has "both kinds of music: country and western." That is, it does so well in part because it brings under one umbrella several different kinds of conservative. There's Neil Cavuto's Wall Street, big-business conservatism, Mike Huckabee's religious conservatism, Sean Hannity's party-line Republicanism, Bill O'Reilly's grouchy reactionariness—and now, touching a hot-button in the year of budget stimuli, Glenn Beck's conservative (and paranoid) libertarianism.
You can argue whether all those labels are accurate or whether those hosts are consistent in their values, but the point is, these can be very different beliefs when it comes to issues like bank bailouts or foreign policy. "Liberal" and "conservative" imply that there is a single axis on which American politics is plotted, and all that needs to be done is to figure out where any given person lies on that line. But there are a lot of axes: authoritarian vs. libertarian, internationalist vs. nationalist, activist vs. laissez-faire, individualist vs. communitarian, moralist vs. nonjudgmental, social libertarian vs. economic libertarian, and so on.
To someone like Beck, with his get-government-out-of-the-way refrain, a President who believes in government doing a lot, vigorously, is bad, period. You can argue whether that's really an accurate description of McCain, but as Beck says, it is an accurate description of McCain's idol Teddy Roosevelt. The fact that anyone would reflexively assume that Glenn Beck and John McCain would be simpatico only shows how weak and inaccurate "liberal" and "conservative" are as labels and how much nuance we lose with them.
And yes, I did just use "Glenn Beck" and "nuance" in the same sentence. Have at me in the comments.
-
1
Interesting this article is under the "Entertainment" section of CNN online. Do people remember that Beck and Limbaugh make money on their shows? The more outrageous or dimwitted some of their statements, I seriously question their integrity when it comes to having "committed" views on anything. If Limbaugh is the leading edge in the Republican Party than I say the Republicans have many more problems than we previously thought, as demonstrated by the Bush Administration. If Beck is competing with him...then I guess that tells it's own story.
-
2
[...] leave a comment » Fox News, I wrote, is like the bar in The Blues Brothers that has “both kinds of music: country and western.” That is, it does so well in part because it brings under one umbrella several different kinds of conservative. There’s Neil Cavuto’s Wall Street, big-business conservatism, Mike Huckabee’s religious conservatism, Sean Hannity’s party-line Republicanism, Bill O’Reilly’s grouchy reactionariness—and now, touching a hot-button in the year of budget stimuli, Glenn Beck’s conservative (and paranoid) libertarianism. via tunedin.blogs.time.com [...]
-
3
McCain was not trusted by the self described conservatives in the republican party.
They were pretty loud about that. Beck saying he has a problem with McCain is hardly a wild republican position.
Particularly after McCain was trounced.
-
4
I find it a little tiring when news personalities interview each other. A Sunday morning talk show or round table discussion is one thing; then it is professionals presenting their opinions on events. But neither Glenn Beck nor Katie Couric are policymakers, economists, scientists, or politicians. They are reporters. Their job is to deliever the news to us, not to be the news themselves.
The "name game" Mrs. Couric plays is little better than schoolyard gossip. Mr. Beck plays his part by trying to say something unexpected. Neither is reporting on the news. Both are hoping for a ratings boost.
It makes me mildly curious to watch the rest of the interview. That's about it.
-
4.1
I'm not one to defend MSM news, but even so calling Beck a newsman or a reporter is insulting. Beck is a pundit, and I doubt he'd claim to be anything more. He gives his opinions, and anyone who turns to him looking for either reporting or news will either be disappointed, deluded, or both.
-
-
5
[...] Beck to Couric: Obama Better Than McCain, Hillary Better Than Both 09/22/09 Time: In an online excerpt, Couric throws some political names at Beck, and “Hillary Clinton” elicits an interesting response, above. Interesting, but maybe not surprising. [...]
-
6
[...] Beck to Couric: Obama Better Than McCain, Hillary Better Than Both Katie Couric is launching a new online interview series, called @katiecouric, this week, and her first subject is a [...] [...]
-
7
[...] 8:37 at moments like this Republicans wish Hillery Clinton had won. Hey Mr. Beck how’s that Obama is better than McCain bit [...]
-
8
Or maybe he's just a corporate shill, part of a Murdoch throw everything at the wall and see what sticks strategy to protect profits and personal wealth from taxes and regulation.
-
9
From what I read here, people are trying to get their minds around a new concept. How do you qualify a person who calls for transparency, honesty, selflessness, service vs politics, statemanship vs the usual profiteering in Washington, responsibility of spending other people's money, on and on. Do you call him liberal, conservative, liberarian, independent? Is this idealogy what is expected from each man and woman whom we send to represent us? Do we want less? Why do we settle for less, should be the question. Are we looking at the messenger or the message?
-
10
[...] racist who is ushering in an age of socialism, if not the apocalypse; then, when he is in front of Katie Couric and CBS News, he says that John McCain would have been worse for the country than Obama (which begs the [...]
-
11
[...] racist who is ushering in an age of socialism, if not the apocalypse; then, when he is in front of Katie Couric and CBS News, he says that John McCain would have been worse for the country than Obama (which begs the [...]
-
12
[...] Beck: "At the end of the day, when a person says he represents conservatism and that the country's better off with Barack Obama than John McCain," Graham continued. "That sort of ends the debate for me as to how much more I'm [...]
- poniewozik Lisa De M: WH crashers on Today tomorrow. NBC: no $ for intvu. (of course, a show on NBCU's Bravo has no $ value!) http://bit.ly/7hustM - 9 hours ago
- poniewozik NBC's Trauma: highest good-soundtrack-to-bad-plot ratio on TV? Now playing: Dead Kennedys' Holiday in Cambodia. - 9 hours ago
- poniewozik Charlie Rose becomes BusWk columnist http://bit.ly/7kqxvM (via @jamesrgaines)--Rose's show has Bloomberg TV conection - 9 hours ago
Most Popular »
- Jay Leno a Failure; Also, Jay Leno a Success
- Piling On Desirée Rogers--Is The Social Secretary To Blame For Two Ticketless Boobs At The White House?
- Looking for Reasons to Care About Tiger Woods
- Health Bill: What Would It Cost Me?
- The League of Ambivalent Columnists
- Stephen King's Shining Sequel: Paging Dr. Danny
- State Dinner, Uh, Fashion
- Is Walking Away from Your Mortgage the Smartest Thing You Can Do?
- All Blogs Must Pass
- Netbooks Are Really Dumb, Or Maybe You Already Knew That
- Want to Boost Your Memory? Try Sleeping on It
- Dubai's Woes a Blow to Ambitious Ruler Sheik Mohammed
- The End of the 2000s: Goodbye to a Decade from Hell
- Helicopter Parents: The Backlash Against Overparenting
- Amanda Knox Murder Trial: Verdict by Friday?
- The Muppets Perform 'Bohemian Rhapsody'
- The Women of Islam
- Dubai Debt: Global Economic Recovery Still in Danger
- What's Wrong with Notre Dame Football?
- Colleges Battle Gossip Websites like ACB, JuicyCampus
Quotes of the Day »
RSS