Burn Baby Burn
This blazing inferno must be the summer home of Osama Bin Laden. At least according to CNN big mouth Glenn Beck.
Offering his grade-school bathroom level of wisdom to the outbreak of wildfires raging through California, Beck told his listeners:
“I think there is a handful of people who hate America. Unfortunately for them, a lot of them are losing their homes in a forest fire today.”
My instinct would ordinarily be to laugh off such a jackass remark. But it’s not so funny hereabouts where the sky is filled with smoke and the cars in my driveway are covered with a fine layer of ash. Not when as many as a half-million people in 265,000 households from Malibu to San Diego have been forced to evacuate, when hundreds of homes and businesses have been incinerated, when one victim has died and at least a dozen others injured, when firefighters say they are stretched beyond limits and are worried about losing further control of the more than 15 separate fires now raging, when a state of emergency has been declared and when the Governor has mobilized 1500 National Guard troops to help stem the disaster.
And yet, because some Hollywood glitterati are among the victims in Malibu this is all but one big joke.
Hardy-har-har.
What sort of half-assed mind believes that capitalist millionaires like Jeff Katzenberg and David Geffen hate America? And what sort of, um, cretin, would gloat over this sort of catastrophe?
It’s Glenn Beck himself who hates America. At a minimum he hates the sort of diversity of opinion and public dissent that American democracy permits.
But don’t get me wrong. I’ve got no real brief against Beck. Beck is only being Beck. To understand him you need go no further than the fable of The Scorpion and the Frog. The real culprits here are the executives of CNN who hired Beck precisely because he is the crumb-bum that he manifested himself to be as California burned.
I was thinking about this Monday afternoon while I was teaching my grad journalism class at USC. I was driving myself into hoarseness trying to stress the importance of solid, responsible reporting while keeping one eye on the Blackberry lest there be an emergency message to evacuate my hillside neighborhood. But a part of me had to wonder what might be the point of such a lesson if the major employers like CNN valued dirtballs like Beck over bona fide journalists? Please write your answer on an 85 lb manhole cover addressed to me and drop in any mailbox.
Back in the early 60′s, an urban DJ with the wonderful monicker of Magnificent Montague would punctuate his broadcast offerings by shouting out “Burn, Baby, Burn” between songs. When the 1965 Watts riots erupted and MM was then working for L.A. soul station KGFJ, he was shocked to hear that his slogan had been picked up by those in the streets.
After the station manager and then Mayor Sam Yorty asked MM to suspend use of the incendiary phrase, he complied by shouting out instead “Have Mercy, Los Angeles!”
Magnificent Montague was a mensch.
Glenn Beck is a shameful schmuck.
He’s much more likely to get a raise from CNN than he is any sort of reprimand.
In the end, the joke’s on us.
Back to watching the fires and hoping to watch Osama Bin Laden run down Will Rogers State Beach with his robes afire.
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:10 pm
WHAT????? You still have TV at your house???
In Topanga, we just have that ash you mentioned, the smoke, the “voluntary” evacuation orders, the photo albums and the hard drives stacked by the door….. but no way of watching the vile Mr. Beck.
Damn. Doesn’t seem right!
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
[...] POST SCRIPT: Be sure to read my pal Marc Cooper’s rundown on what the truly hideous CNN talking head, Glenn Beck, said about the [...]
October 22nd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
[...] POST SCRIPT: Be sure to read my pal Marc Cooper’s rundown on what the truly hideous CNN talking head, Glenn Beck, said about the [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:19 am
What an idiotic thing for Beck to say.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:15 am
Sadly, I’d guess Glenn Beck *is* playing to an approving crowd somewhere, and it’s not a small one. As I noted no so long ago in one of my posts about America’s Burning Issues (erm, as it were, sorry), “Hollywood Executives” (74%) are only two points behind “Big Business” (76%) in polls in which Americans were asked what groups of people get too much attention in Washington.
I don’t really get what the appeal of this guy is, though, compared to people with actual talent. Maybe living in Japan has left me out of touch with American tastes. Is he really the third most popular radio personality now? And why is he on CNN of all networks? Wasn’t CNN supposed to be all about real news? Is this the kind of schtick CNN has to resort to, in the name of ratings?
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:52 am
OK, I think I have an answer: given a general decline in trust in the mass media, but few other choices except the even less trustworthy New Media (i.e., blogistan and its perpetual wars), more people are willing to simply make do with wild exaggerations, overheated rhetoric on shoutfest “debate” shows like Crossfire, and similar infotainment.
Note the Sep 2007 Gallup poll here:
http://www.pollingreport.com/media.htm
*Absolute* distrust in the mass media is at an all-time high: 17%. Those saying they have a “great deal” of trust and confidence in it is at 9%, a low reached only once before, according to this table. Now look back at the 1970s. This is a pretty big shift. Maybe the Glenn Becks of this world are simply pouring into the media credibility gap opened up over a generation or two.
The world is wired up and connected as never before. We have more facts at our fingertips than at any other time in history. Whence all the noise, then? Well, more information through more sources only means more complexity, and maybe only loud noise and vivid dramatization can penetrate that thicket and get attention. Truthiness trumps Truth.
Or maybe I should retire my theorizing for the night.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:45 am
They really hate Ameica at Pepperdine University, don’t they.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:58 am
From TalkingPointsMemo: http://tinyurl.com/ysfdh7
Yep. These folks sound like real America haters don’t they?[/snark]
The words I would use to describe Beck are surely in very bad taste.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:41 am
Randy, Pepperdine is a Christian university and so naturally it was spared.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:41 am
Something truly perverse has taken hold of the “conservative” end of the “mainstream” in their front-and-center public dialogue. It’s not like these are comments on a web thread over at Freep. I was also struck by the pathology of these comments in a post-GOPer debate focus group hosted on FOX by RNC fave pollster & spinner, Frank Luntz. The insanity directed toward Hillary Clinton (“communist”, “against America”, etc. ad nauseum) that was evinced from an allegedly “typical” focus group on a national news network – with Luntz not even blinking – was absolutely stunning. The wackos and haters have done their job well. Talk about a “Derangement Syndrome!”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/22/gop-debate-appealing-to-the-24ers/
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:15 am
Agree. Beck is often incredibly tacky and off the mark.
There will be a critique coming of Californians in general and some communities in particular regarding whether there is the foresight to properly tax ourselves and have appropriate fire fighting capacity. But this might be in conflict with the talking points memos talking heads like Beck probably got from Grover Norquist.
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:43 am
What Reg said, and alas, that it takes the house next door burning down to see it….
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:35 am
Rob Grocholski, I apologize if I’m speaking out of turn. But for clarity, TalkingPointsMemo shouldn’t be conflated with Republican talking points. Except, to the extent that the website Talking Points Memo does an outstanding job of deflating Republican talking points. I’m not sure how TPM selected it’s site name – but it does not align itself with the Right.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:00 am
For the name Talking Points Memo, I had always thought it had something to do with mocking Bill O’Reilly.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:43 am
[...] free, however, to think bad thoughts about this person Marc Cooper writes about. (Yes I know I linked to this in yesterday’s fire post, but it bears [...]
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
The press is partly at fault in the criticism that’s always leveled at hill residents whenever there’s a fire. Rather than report on the guy whose mobile home burned in Malibu, we hear repeatedly about Susanne Summers home that burned in the last fire, not even this one. They need to stop it already. It’s bad freaking reporting.
In the ’93, Topanga/Malibu fire, as I sat in my little uninsured rental trying to decide whether or not to evacuate as the embers drifted over, and the 60-something 3rd-grade teacher at Topanga Elementary school, where my then 8-year-old attended, had her house burned to the ground, a lifetime’s worth of students’ mementos with it, all we heard about was the threat to the homes of Hollywood moguls.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:43 pm
It’s farily typical, rosedog. Closer to home for me, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, there was enormous focus on the Marina District in San Francisco, when some of the worst devastation was in Watsonville. Those people didn’t live in million dollar homes, though.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Listener, the ‘talking points memo’ my humble comments carried meant to mean just that, talking points…rhetorically aim at the “Government is bad, starve the beast (thus taxes are evil)” thinking.
I wasn’t referring to the site.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:03 pm
rd – c’mon! What news director worth his salt would skip a story about Suzanne Summers to report on the travails of a 3rd grade teacher ? It may well be “bad freaking reporting” by USC-Annenberg standards but it’s a great lead-in to the next commercial.
Journamalism !!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Glenn Beck Sees the Good Side of the Fires in Cali…
CNN’s Glenn Beck pointed out on his radio show, some of the victims of the fires in California actually got what was coming to them….
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Liberal or conservative, rich or poor, the Topanga canyon and Malibu area are extremely prone to fire hazards, mudslides, etc. Plus, with the high density of homes in this volatile area, normal fire prevention techniques in the wild (e.g., controlled burns) are not allowed to take place, which ends up creating greater havoc.
Not blaming the victim here (it’s not as simple as that, particularly given the rubber stamping from zoning authorities with their insatiable thirst for development and taxes), but these areas should not be developed to the extent they are, if at all. And you can expect the same thing to happen again, every couple of years. Nature kind of works that way.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I just heard a great interview on the CBC with the San Diego former fire chief who saw this coming, warned them, but they didn’t budget for it.
Samuel is very right about where homes are legally allowed to be built. It is not at all blaming victims to point out that the state should not zone this type of land as residential.
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Samuel,
There are so many areas just as hazardous as Malibu all over Southern California we have built into the Los Angeles National forest, San Gabriel Mountains, San Bernardino Mountains, and etc..etc. Just look at the areas and homes which are now in danger of burning. We all know if we have some heavy rains the mudslides will be the next disaster.
I have family living in Forest Falls, Ca. (San Bernardino Mountains) for over 30 years and have seen them go through many floods and fires but the people in Forest Falls are either stubborn, crazy or love the place so much they won’t move.
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Apparantly you’re not the only one upset. There’s a petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/fireglennbeck/
October 23rd, 2007 at 5:28 pm
Samuel, there is a columnist for the Denver Post, who, at least once a year it seems, writes a column about folks who build in stupid zones. Here’s a link to one of them. http://tinyurl.com/yvc5ez
In part, I agree with Ed Quillen and you. In one of my life’s incantations, I was a mortgage loan originator/processor/closer. I’ve even done a bit of underwriting. The thing I’ve learned is folks buying/building a home are not entirely rational. There’s a high degree of emotional involvement in staking out a “home.” It’s all understandable. I’m afraid whether an area is sufficiently secure to build there is a decision made principally by lenders and insurance companies. As long as the lender will carry a mortgage, and some insurer will insure it, it’ll probably get built.
There was a better column of Ed’s that I couldn’t find, even by searching the newspaper’s archive. I suspect their electronic archive doesn’t go back that far (~2002). I found a replica by searching the web. Not sure how “true” it is to the original, but I think it’s close and I blocked it out below. Needless to say, Ed’s taken a lot of heat for this notion.
I’m also not sure, given California’s topography/geology/etc, that Ed wouldn’t classify most of California a “stupid zone.” The *only* thing I’m sure of is, with the climate changes that are predicted, the area Ed might call “stupid zone” is bound to get larger.
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Glenn Beck is a no talent, irritating, Michael Savage Lite idiot. He will shortly be relegated back to his obscure radio spot and removed from the civilized watching the TV news, just like Savage was from MSNBC (I think it was) some time back.
Please don’t paint these right-wing nut jobs with the ‘conservative’ label. There is nothing conservative about making fun of someone else’s disaster.
Where in hell did CNN find this freak anyway. Jesus, talk about going overboard trying to respond to a ‘too liberal’ label. On second thought, maybe we have more than one idiot on CNN’s payroll, in which case Beck may stay longer than I thought.
I hope your home is OK Marc.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:08 pm
How Low Can They Go?…
I.m still on the mend from this, but I did want to point you to Marc Cooper’s evisceration of that waste of 23 pairs of chromosomes, Glenn Beck. I’ve been known to make people laugh, but the sharpest wit in…
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I don’t really know who Glenn Beck is. As cable news gets less newsy, I get a lot less interested.
US cable news, that is.
International channels are much more interesting.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:18 pm
“Stupid Zones”?! I live in Tokyo, home to about 20% of Japan’s population, also the seat of its government, media complex, many corporate headquarters. It’s Japan’s LA, NYC and DC all rolled into one — and right smack in a very quake-prone region.
It takes a high degree of fatalism to have a Stupid Zone on a national scale, you must admit. And I’ve been infected by that fatalism, I suppose. In my second year here, we were having a quake a week for several months. One morning, I was tying my shoes while getting ready to go to work, and felt a temblor start. I figured “Either the four stories of concrete above me will crush me like a bug, or … nothing serious will happen. Why take a chance on being late for work?” I just continued tying my shoes. Sure, I could have rushed for the door, but any quake that would have taken down my building would probably have just toppled another one across the street right on top of me. (The street being about, oh, ten feet wide outside my door.) Or, say I survived the quake. For how long would I live, if trapped with 20 million other people in a huge urban area with no functioning infrastructure? Better to be crushed like a bug, right? It’s instantaneous.
["Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so ...."]
October 24th, 2007 at 12:45 am
So, I hope that everyone who builds on the Hurricane-prone gulf coast qualifies as Stupid Zone squatters.
And Idaho? What about Idaho? A lot of those people build among TREES!
Okay, Oklahoma residents, definite Stupid Zoners. They don’t just have tornadoes, they have tornado “outbreaks,” sort of like hives.
(sigh.)
October 24th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Sorry Jim R, we can tastefully ignore and or choose to pretend this critical componant in the Republican Party has no importance; that doesn’t make it so. Some conservatives will tell you Limbaugh has nothing to do with the Republicans too; as I was often told during the “both candidates are the same” craze of 2000. Beck has been on quite awhile now; when he tanks, another freak will be given a booth on the midway.
Sadly, as the war drags hopelessly on, it’s finally begining to draw frustrated blood from the Democrates, who are starting to dip into the ticky tacky well themselves.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:00 am
Speaking of Stupid Zones, it occurs to me that I don’t just live in the world’s largest, I was also born in one: the eucalyptus-laden San Francisco Bay Area (not to mention that it is also prone to earthquakes.)
Eucalyptus trees are much loved by the new arrivals taking the pricier homes in the hills ringing the bay — that refreshing, minty aroma! But really they are just overgrown, invasive-species weeds, no good for lumber, not much good as firewood either, and with a truly pathetic survival strategy: poisoning the ground below them so that nothing else — especially not native species — can grow. Worse, burning up all at once every 20 years is part of their reproductive life cycle. And they don’t just burn when they burn — they can sort of explode, which I suppose could be an expression of what passes for sexual excitement among trees.
I think the region has got another firestorm phase coming in about 5-6 years. I hope people have learned. Maybe not. Angel Island was cleared, with relatively little opposition, mostly from People Unclear on The Concept,
http://tinyurl.com/2gcujq
but that was public park land, and not much else has been done, to my knowledge. Hardly anybody lives on Angel Island anyway.
In the last one, we had a GOP governor flying over the devastation in a helicopter, and later commenting a bit aloofly that, unlike in *his* home town, San Diego, which had lots of clay tile roofs, he saw a lot of shake-shingled roofs, tindery stuff. Thanks guy. Not quite a Glenn Beck Who-Hates-America Moment, but close. (Roofs like that being more likely to shelter the heads of well-to-do liberals who didn’t vote for Pete, of course. We all knew what he meant.)
In this case, it’s not really a Stupid Zone per se, just a stupid ecosystem management zone. Eucalyptus — invasive species, cause of multiple fire disasters, end of story. Or so you’d think, if you thought for a moment. You like how they smell? Then buy the cough drops, or visit a carefully confined grove. The hills would be much prettier without them anyway. I know — I’ve seen it twice, the year after each firestorm. Like, actually *green*, in spring? Rather than the color of your cubicle partitions at work?
October 24th, 2007 at 6:49 am
Good work, Marc. From ThinkProgress: http://tinyurl.com/ywygmy
October 24th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
The Glenn Becks who are focused on Malibu and who is losing homes there are missing the point that a large share of the lost and damaged houses are in the suburban LA and SD neighborhoods that provide the backbone of the CA Republican Party, and a huge pool of money for Republican candidates nationwide.
I haven’t seen the right wing sources this week, but I would predict that the next fire-related issue they raise will be the contrast between the orderly and effective evacuation of San Diego and the chaos two years ago in New Orleans. There is good reason to note what So Cal learned both from Katrina and past fires, particularly the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego county. But there are vast contrasts between the two events as well, making comparisons as dangerous as they are inevitable.
Btw, Gov. Arnold has been ubiquitous. A lot of it is just photo ops, but he has also shown a lot of common sense and it appears that his staff has been effective as a hub of the communication network. From what he has said as well as how the White House has behaved, it is apparent that Gov. argued Bush into coming to visit tomorrow–Thursday–late as usual. And though people aren’t saying it, you know virtually no one really wants him bringing his Joe Btfsplk dark cloud here to poison the everyone’s-in-thiis-together feeling [much like the immediate wake of 9/11 attacks] that is necessary to heal the damage to this community. And his statement before some right-wing defense institute demonstrated that he was not anxious to do so. I’m guessing he does not want to occasion any inquiry as to why only a few hundred National Guardsmen are available to provide support in this most horrible natural disaster [and those are only available because they have been engaged in our War Against Mexican Invaders at the border].
October 24th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
People like Brett provide “ideotainment,” or ideologized news as sensationalized, cartoonish edification/entertainment that is salve for the tender, perpetually aggreived egos of rightwing Americans.
The daily news flow of simple facts ravages their views on Iraq, evolution, manmade climate change, homosexuality and so on. So they can’t stand reading the newspaper, because straight reporting makes them feel undereducated, unfashionable and flat out wrong. Thus their vehement insistent the corporate, rightwing-owned press is somehow liberal.
Rush Limbaugh is a multimillionaire because he has a talent for turning those feelings of intellectual, cultural and political inadequacy into seething, insatiable resentment that can only be soothed by a constant flow of inflamed rightwing commentary.
Limbaugh’s inane boasting about everything from how much money he makes to how smart he is to who he golfs with isn’t simply an unfortunate personality tic, it’s a key part of the inferiority complex formula. This is why he and people like Beck and Bill O’Reilly need to constantly assert that “elite” liberals look
down on conservatives.
How many rightwing diatribes begin with: “you won’t see this in the media, but…(the earth is really flat). “Or, it’s politically incorrect to say it, but …”
This paranoia is deeper than ever in rightwing America and Rush, Fox and now, CNN are mining it for the loyal segment of viewers it provides.
Their commentary is best understood a mass counseling/therapy rather than as a part of the news media.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:28 pm
Inferiority complex?
Ted Rall rocks, as does Mike Judge>
http://www.rall.com/uploaded_images/10-22-07-703888.jpg
October 25th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Partisan Politics never gets a vacation, does it? Even as we watch CA burn, we fiddle…..foolishly with our own pet pastime.
October 25th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Ah Jim, it’s wonderful how you and the right can put politics aside…. just as you did with 9-11. I mean, no Republican would ever try to cash in on something like THAT for personal or political gain. The question is, will the moderate left ever stop falling for THAT sucker punch?
October 25th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Speaking of stupid zones, have you noticed how the comment section is now a civil and educational gathering place? If you were wondering who was the cause of trouble in this blog I will give you a hint, his first and last initials are W………………oody. See who is now trying to start trouble in Celeste Fremon’s blog.
http://witnessla.com/environment/2007/admin/fire-weather-vi-air-support/#comment-5009
October 25th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Speaking of the Governor of California, who would have guessed a former bodybuilder and bad actor, would be a pretty good politician spokesman, and manager of a large disaster such as the fires in California. If I remember correctly most people of Minnesota were happy with former wrestler Jesse “the Body†Ventura as governor.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
I think Marc and the first 40 or so comments pretty much nailed Glen Beck…
Wonder, if we might flip over Mr Beck’s pejorative view that the ‘America hating/bin Laden lovin’ Californians are instead, a very resilient, very optimistic, don’t freak out in crisis, lot. Sure, we’ve got plenty to criticize, even lampoon here in the Golden State. Maybe California has too much ‘experience’ with mayhem…Wonder how the folks in _______ would have handled all these fires.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
The truly amazing thing about Beck is not his inanity or viciciousness but his utter lack of ratings. Go to TV NEWSER (or ATRIOS who reprints them) and you’ll see that Glenn baby is last and by a considerable margin – getting less than 100K in the prime demo that advertisers use to buy spots. (BTW Tucker Carlson is next to9 the bottom)
Yet despite these numbers, and they’ve been dismal from the beginning a few years ago, he is still on and there seems no plan to replace him. So tell me again about how programming is market driven. The big boys at Time-Warner must have another agenda because it sure isn’t making money.
And that is why we should be talking about something much more important and that is a decision coming down the pike from the FCC that would allow monopolies in any market of any size. Yes, one person (Rupert? Ted?) could own all the TV and radio stations in LA plus the newspaersd and the cable systems and , well you get the idea.
And what news would we get? Hey forget Beck. The “News” people at FOX spent all morning yesterday blathering that the fires which had suspicious origins in San Diego were terrorist acts by AL Queda! Their proof? A four year old field memo from the FBI in phoenix saying that an “AQ Operative” said that was the plan. The FBI said it had no evidence but FOX led with it.
Forget all you read here. This is the coming status of the news!
October 25th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Sorry for the delay in comments but I had another hospital stay. I think they keep a bed with my name on it! But on the bright side I can now open my own pharmacy!
October 25th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Yeah, I thought there was some missing sagacity to this thread. Best of health to you, Richard.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Get well soon, Richard.
October 25th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
Hey, Richard! Would get healthy already. You’re absences are beginning to scare me in the same way Marc’s did. Glad you’re back upright. Please stay that way?
October 25th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
“Ah Jim, it’s wonderful how you and the right can put politics aside…. just as you did with 9-11.”
Why, thank you K. And you can do it too. Just keep reminding yourself every American disaster is not a good time to separate us.
Remember the little engine that could.
October 26th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Oh, yes, I’m sending my contribution in to Rudy right now, do you think I would let petty politics get in the way of the man who looked up and saw the tower falling, and thought “Thank God George Bush is President?” What a pure, apolitical insight!
And how right he was! No troubling questions about safety workers or crappy radios, just a few years of modivational gigs with “America’s Mayor!” I’m sure you’ll agree, Rudy still “owns 9-11!”
I think you know where to put your engine.
October 27th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Re Beck’s comment, what else would you expect from this know-nothing of a crypto-nazi? CNN should be ashamed to have Beck’s brand of hateful ignorance polluting their air.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:10 am
mortgage lenders in colorado…
…
November 29th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
My father would disagree with you and your opinion.
Why do you not read his book??
http://www.magnificentmontague.com
You can see the book there.
February 14th, 2010 at 4:28 pm
Happy Valentine’s Day!