I remember some discussion a few weeks back about this guy and his 9-12 project. Many people seemed to show respect for him and his principles did seem for the most part sound and logical judging by his website. It also seemed that he appealed to a wide variety of people on the political spectrum from what I could understand.

But the other day I watched this weeks episode of Charlie Brookers Newswipe. One of the subjects he was talking about was the political fanatics on FOX news in the USA. He covered Bill O'Rielly, who I think most people will agree is a nutcase lol and then he got onto Glenn Beck. I watched it and the guy seems like a complete fruitcake, he is over the top and extremely controversial with most of his thoughts. I decided to judge it else where, so I looked at youtube and googled him and yes, it seems as though he is this extreme all the time.

What I thought was how did people ever take a guy like this seriously? How did he even get on TV for that matter? I don't get it.

Here is the video of what I watched, please watch it. (it's only the first three minutes or so)

Can't watch the video cause I'm on a Wii. Glenn Beck is like Nancy Grace or Joan Mitchell. They're fun to watch, but don't EVER take them seriously.

urgh, how could anyone think anything that twat says is worth listening to

Like most political commentators Glen Beck is a mixed bag ...

His biggest strength and his biggest weakness is that he doesn't "Go with the flow" and he often has guests on who talk about very unpopular things. While this may mean that you often (strongly) disagree with some of his guests, it also means that you're exposed to information that you wouldn't normally be exposed to (which gives you the opportunity to do research and inform yourself).

Personally, I don't watch Glen Beck anymore (Fox news isn't available in Canada) but I used to watch him occassionally when he was on CNN. I give him a lot of credit though because he was talking about the economic crisis before anyone was willing to admit there was a problem; which allowed me to investigate, realize there was a problem, and move my savings to safer investments.

Wow, what a fake. I can't believe somebody can use 9/11 in that way. He makes me sick.

@ Happy squirrel - earlier in the episode Charlie Brooker implied that the only reason he is there is because the Democrats are in power. Because FOX is very pro-republican they needed someone to act as the under-dog and make out that the government was mistreating the public. some-one who wanted to question the government from the off, that guy was Glenn Beck.

FOX news just have such a bad reputation for this crap in Britain.

Most people think Bill O'Reilly's a nutcase?

Yea I'd say Bill O'Reilly is one of the most house-broken out of all of them haha... but I guess that doesn't say too much.

But Glenn Beck is just like any other political pundit. They spin the media around to their own liking such to manipulate and indoctrinate their viewers. Now they are going to have some good things to say every now and then, but for the most part they are there to follow an agenda. Even if that agenda involves logical contradictions like it did with the recent reactions to the tea parties.

Why does Fox news keep them? Well hell people who make outrageous and silly claims make quite good TV... just the viewers don't seem to get that now do they.

Yea I don't have a very high opinion of the mainstream media. But I have an even lesser of an opinion for those who seriously think they can gain knowledge and an opinion through them... which is apparently too many of us.

I mean, I understand he can be kinda crazy, but I wouldn't call him a nutcase.

I guess it is just perception.  Although i consider anyone that goes up there on a daily basis with the only intention of manipulating a general populous with spun stories, half truths, and whole lies as quite disturbing.  Of course I consider those that take it seriously and as a logical opinion as something far worse.

But old Bill does have a lot of good points every now and then that I can respect... you know when he doesn't have is own agenda up his ass haha.  He is definitely quite a moderate when compared to those of Hannity, Coulter, and Glenn Beck who I would say infringe upon fascism at times haha.