The 'right' fight: Right-wing media doesn't hold back
(Image: Flickr user ST33VO (cc: by-nc-sa))
Exploring whether America's right-wing media is creating a new kind of politics, and why the public is eating it up.
The following is a partial transcript; for full story, listen to audio.
Story by Lucy Williamson, BBC World Service "Analysis"
Glenn Beck has succeeded in making himself the most talked-about talk show host with comments like this: "This president, I think, has exposed himself as a guy -- over and over and over again -- who has a deep-seeded hatred for white people, or the white culture ... I'm not saying that he doesn't like white people, I'm saying he has a problem. This guy, I believe, is a racist."
Beck's style is loud, proud and often controversial.
Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute says the character and tone of Beck's form of political assault was prevalent in the Clinton administration; but with Barack Obama, it's "ramped up even more."
James Rucker, a liberal activist, was so incensed by Beck's assertions that President Obama was a racist, he started a campaign to pull advertisers away from Beck's show.
While Rucker concedes that George Bush received the same level of impassioned criticism from the Left, he believes that the kind of criticism leveled at President Obama is different: "I think the difference is this idea that the President is not 'one of us,' this idea that the President is representing a departure from the real America.
"Glenn Beck says 'what we're about to see is nothing like what our founding fathers envisioned.'
"So it's less about 'we don't trust this President to carry out the right policies'; it's really about 'here's a President who's gonna undo America as we know it.' There's a xenophobic ... a racist angle to it."
Beck, in an interview with CBS' Katie Couric, said he thought the issue of race was being used as a form of political censorship.
Norman Ornstein says it's less about race and than it is about ratings. He believes media is so much bigger today, and shows like Beck's are merely fighting for survival. "How do you break through that cacophony? A whisper won't do it. Sometimes a shout won't do it. A shout with a match to a burning building -- that gets people's attention."
Rucker disagrees and thinks the new tone on right-wing talk shows is being driven by a perfect storm: "I believe what you've got is really the confluence of politicians on the Right, who find themselves out of power; you have financial and business interests that actually benefit from the status quo and are not interested in change; and then you have folks like Glen Beck who are happy to essentially carry the water for both of those groups and stir people up and get them to resist any kind of political change."
But, says Ornstein, talk shows like Beck's is a double-edged sword for Republican politicians. "It's a little bit like having a yard full of Rottweilers, and they're important to you and you keep getting them excited; but there comes a certain point when you realize that maybe they're not just protecting you, they're a little bit of a threat to you."
He credits the public for the popularity of shows like Beck's. "People now cocoon into media that says what they want to hear; they love to have the messages over and over again, and they don't go to other places that might provide a counter to it."
Glenn Beck was on the front cover of "Time" magazine in September; another of his colleagues was profiled in the "New Yorker" -- proof that controversial political views will, these days, get you more mainstream coverage than you could ever dream of.
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