Glenn Beck’s a greedy fraud
That’s the picture that Alexander Zaitchik paints in his profile of Beck on Alternet. Beck encourages and feeds into right-wing conspiracy theories in order to keep the masses scared so they will consume more of his stuff. He’s not only a TV/radio host, he also writes books and publishes Fusion Magazine.
Beck draws inspiration from Orson Welles, who sent the nation into a panic with his famous War of the Worlds broadcast. He also draws inspiration from Howard Beale, whom he’s compared himself to. He probably draws inspiration from Beale’s line “[Television] is the most awesome goddamn force in the whole godless world,” which is a line taken from a speech, ironically, imploring the masses to turn off their TV’s and not listen to people like Howard Beale or Glenn Beck.
Zaitchik’s article describes Beck as having the ultimate goal of making as much money as possible. As much as he likes to pretend to be a regular guy (especially a persecuted ordinary man) on TV, his contract with Fox was worth $50 million. He believes that making money is the ultimate goal in life, and the ultimate goal of every Christian. Beck apparently took a semester of religion at Yale in the early 90s and when describing it in his memoir:
It’s interesting to me that Jesus said, ‘Inside my Father’s house there are many mansions…’ That means that wealth and riches are not bad things… God believes you deserve a mansion. Do You? … There is a universe full of money. There are riches beyond your wildest dreams. God doesn’t give you a taste of ice cream unless he’s willing for you to have the entire cone.
The passage he’s referring to is John 14:2 in the King James translation. More recent translations use the word “houses” or “rooms” instead of “mansions.” Also, read in context, the passage is talking about Jesus giving someone a place in heaven, not about money (Glenn, remember the part about the moneychangers in the temple?)
As much as he likes to say he’s a Bible-believing Christian (a Mormon, more specifically), Beck believes that the poor are not to be treated with dignity, but rather we should view them as a pest that needs to be exterminated. I wish I had the clip, but he recently said on his show that Jesus said “The poor shall always be with you,” (which is true, he did say that) and then said “I’m not so sure they have to be with us.”
Beck is out to get as much money as possible, and he’s found a nice niche market that will buy into all the crap he shovels at them. I’m not sure who’s more pathetic in that scenario.
