Notorious Right-Wing fanatic Glenn Beck has gone so far off the edge recently in his criticisms of Obama that he very well may be fired from the Radical Right Fox News. Could we be witnessing a backlash to the Conservative’s attempts to derail health-care?
You may have heard Beck’s name a lot in the news lately. He has been the loudest, most obnoxious cheerleader against Obama’s health care attempts. His unabashed criticism of those who wish to change what he calls, “the best health care system in the world” has garnered him footnotes in major media news stories while his support for the disruption of town-hall meetings has earned him open criticism from all across the gambit even in the town-hall meetings themselves. Congressman Rick Larson (D-WA), responded to criticism of health care at his town-hall meeting by saying “I’ve got the facts on my side, you’ve [criticisers] got Glen Beck on your side!”
Where Beck stepped over the line however, was when he went so far as to call Obama a racist who doesn’t like White people, among many other disturbing criticisms, on an episode of Fox and Friends. Co-host Brian Kilmeade actually tried to get Glenn Beck to back off his statements, they were so radical and yet that is nothing next to his comparing of Obama’s health-care plan to Hitler’s Eugenics program. Can you believe that someone could say something that is such a lie, such a gross manipulation of the truth can exist?
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Beck thought he could say whatever he wanted. I mean, why not? He has said some of the most arguably insane rhetoric already and even broke down and cried a few times. With Hannity and O’Reily and Fox and Friends making statements that border on racism themselves, why would anyone stop Beck from going just a little further?
Well the hammer isn’t coming from Fox News head hauncho Roger Aisles, it’s coming from the network sponsors, who, under pressure from a grassroots campaign led by organization ColorofChange.org have successfully convinced over a dozen sponsors to defect. The list is pretty thick with large names too including Radio Shack, Proctor & Gamble, State-Farm, Sargento, Progressive Insurance and, just today, GMAC. It would appear that the pressure is continuing to grow and a sinking ship is never a place an advertiser wants to be.
What’s even worse for Beck is recently surfaced footage from his own TV show (when it was on Headline News) that showed Beck complaining about how awful our health-care system is, or was, when he received an “operation that went ary”, in his own words, less than a year and a half ago. As John Stewart said, “If only the ailing Glenn Beck, 16 months ago, had received the health care he’s raving about today.”
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Beck is fast becoming the biggest joke since Joe the Plumber.
Fox may fear looking like they cave to sponsors and decide to keep Beck on the air, however there really is only one rule in television: keep the ad revenue flowing. If Fox can’t fill these vacancies with sponsors who aren’t afraid to be affiliated with someone as extreme as Glenn Beck, he will be replaced or, at the very least, be moved to weaker time slot. Either way, the wind is being taken out of Beck’s sales (both literally and figuratively) and along with him, is going the criticism of health care.
Another criticizer of health care, Lou Dobbs, has watched his ratings plummet since he began openly criticizing Obama and talk of him leaving is growing, staunch conservative Political organizer and former senator Dick Armey has left political legal team DLA Piper for being affiliated with the town-hall criticism. Other news of Big PhARMA supporting health-care reform with over $150 million in ad dollars have breathed much needed hope into the health care reforms. I know the last one is a mixed blessing but we can use all the help we can get right now.
While the Conservative’s attempts to derail health care reform are dangerously close to killing the effort, it can also be said that health care reform has survived the greatest political onslaught in recent history. The momentum appears to be shifting and the Conservatives appear to have over-reached. In fact, if health care passes at all, their political fortunes will be greatly diminished, even if the bill produces little noticeable change simply because the death panels and horror the Right is claiming will happened, will of course never materialize.
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Things don’t look great for health care, however the Conservatives have failed to blot out the sun. The storms appear to be passing and health-care reform may very well have a chance to grow after-all.