Lately I have tried kicking some bad habits. I’ll still have a Diet Coke now and then, but not often. This week I did some backsliding on another addiction. I stayed up till midnight watching Glenn Beck.
Well before last fall’s presidential campaign, I got hooked on the whole bunch of them, all those cable TV talking heads who spout political views and crank up the heat with zany antics. I’d spend late nights channel surfing.
If it wasn’t “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC, it was Beck’s show, “The O’Reilly Factor” or something else on Fox News. I’d hear them all out, left or right, wacky or more reasoned. When I didn’t listen, I worried I was missing something — something like news.
Then, as nice summer weather coincided with changes in cable TV service, I gave them all up. It felt great. Life is better without the rabble. I read more. I sleep more. And I don’t go to bed angry at some politician or scared of a phantom future.
Wednesday, I fell off the wagon. I watched Beck’s show, during which it appeared the former Top 40 disc jockey threw a live frog — a metaphor for Republicans in Beck’s skit — into a pot of boiling water. (You had to be there).
I watched it because suddenly Beck is everywhere. And he’s heading our way. On the cover of last week’s Time magazine, he was pictured sticking his tongue out. Saturday, he’ll be north and south of us with scheduled appearances in his native Mount Vernon and Seattle.
The largest crowd will surely be at Safeco Field for Take the Field with Glenn Beck, a speech and book-signing event presented by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. As of Wednesday, the $500 and $250 tickets including a private reception with Beck were sold out, but you could still get the cheaper seats.
The big fuss is in Mount Vernon.
Weeks ago, the city’s mayor, Bud Norris, announced plans for Glenn Beck Day. Norris said he planned to award the key to the city to the brash TV commentator, who makes nightly sport of hammering President Barack Obama’s policies. Beck was born in Mount Vernon in 1964.
The Skagit Valley Herald newspaper reported Thursday that about 100 people — some wearing T-shirts saying “Hate is not a Mount Vernon value” — packed Wednesday’s meeting of the Mount Vernon City Council to weigh in on Beck’s visit. The council, according to the Mount Vernon paper, voted unanimously to disavow any connection to the mayor’s appearance with Beck.
Saturday’s sold-out event will be at McIntyre Hall at Skagit Valley College. Norris has said he plans to donate proceeds from the event to the nonprofit Lincoln Theatre.
Those who are better than I am at ignoring Beck may wonder what the excitement is about. These are polarized times. From the right and the left, there are lots of voices. Like Beck, there are many proponents of individual liberty and conservative beliefs. So what?
Beck is over the top, that’s what. On the “Fox &Friends” morning show in July, Beck said this about President Barack Obama: “I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people. He has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”
A key to Mount Vernon? Yeah.
On Sept. 9, the Snohomish County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent a letter to Mount Vernon’s mayor expressing opposition to the award for Beck.
“Beck has a history of making divisive, offensive statements,” said the letter written by Janice Greene, the local NAACP president. Beck’s ideology, Greene said, “is inflammatory and insulting to many of your own constituents.”
At risk of insulting Beck’s many fans, I must say I agree. Calling the president of the United States a racist is unquestionably inflammatory and insulting.
Beck’s adherents may not like this, either. More than anything — more than political thought or true belief — all this stuff being spouted by all these talking heads, from the left and the right, it’s all entertainment. It’s big-time money-making entertainment.
We hear some of them say they don’t trust mainstream media. In many ways, those shouting heads are mainstream media.
When I decided to shut it off, I didn’t miss a thing.
And I’m glad Beck wasn’t born in Everett. Even if he had been, I’m quite certain he wouldn’t be carrying around an official key to the city.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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