Glenn Beck will probably never be the next Jon Stewart. Shouldn’t that be obvious?
Discussing his plans for life after Fox, Glenn Beck says in a new video, “I don’t have any intention of competing with Fox, because it doesn’t need the competition.” By this, he means that Fox has the “old person” demographic. Where Beck wants to compete, he insists, is for young viewers.
“I am going to make sure that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart do not occupy the space of comedy alone,” he vowed. The sentiment will probably surprise some on the left who likely thought that Beck has always been unintentionally funny. Nonetheless, he continues: “How do we connect with 20-somethings? If we lose them, we lose.”
Beck, like Sarah Palin, is probably betting that the conservative backlash against Obama that he helped usher in and which spawned the Tea Party will gain enough critical mass to attract the youth to its ranks. The last election provides a pretty powerful example of what can happen when you’ve got the youth vote on your side.
But like Palin, Beck will probably lose this bet. Youth tends to lean left. Every youth revolution in this country, from the one that elected Kennedy, to the one that erupted to force Nixon out, to Obama’s election in ’08 has been a fight for progressive values. Meanwhile conservatives tend to be older people upset with whatever change is at hand, who fight to see things go back to the way they were. It’s a hard sell for youth full of piss and vinegar.
And, like Palin, Beck turns utterly non-sensical when waxing poetic about his nascent, youth-targeted media enterprise: “I’m getting out of New York because… I’m tired of saying to you, ‘You just gotta keep standing, you just gotta keep going,’ and hearing for you, ‘What?! What!’ It’s time for me to stop being the guy who tells you what time it is, and go out with you and pick up a hammer and start building what needs to be built for global victory of man’s freedom—hear me.”
Take that, Jon Stewart. Watch the video, with non-sequiturs intact, below.
April 19, 2011 at 9:42 pm, Anonymous said:
No, youth does not of necessity lean left. It can as easily lean right, or toward anarchy. The Islamist movement attracts youth. Youth wants unambiguous direction. It wants to be able to resort to authority, cant and doctrine to solve problems, not having had the experience of life to guide its expectations. The Left, in America and western Europe, provides simplistic analysis, slogans, etc., so youth tends toward the Left. But Glenn Beck may be able to provide his own bright path of simplistic analysis. Colbert and Stewart are unabashed partisans for a particular political party, particular political figures. Perhaps youth will rebel against their establishment bias. Stranger things have happened.
April 19, 2011 at 10:50 pm, Brian said:
ObamaCare, Death Panels, Birthers, Socialist, Communist, Marxist, etc…, oh, I don’t know, those are pretty simplistic analysis used by the right. There are unabashed partisans for both parites and any of a variety of stations. Biases are not the exclusive right of either party.
April 19, 2011 at 11:50 pm, Paige said:
As a 20-something, I am more disgusted by the division of the parties. It seems as if they are college sports rivals and you hate the other just because that’s how it is done. “Bipartisan,” “independent,” “an open forum to discuss ideas about the country’s future,” that’s what speaks to me. I don’t want to be talked to in circles. So what if a politician changed his/her mind once new facts were brought into light? Sure! Please! Adjust your viewpoint so we can be productive! I don’t want someone to lead me through my decisions and determine what I want. I want someone to speak honestly about what is going on in a language that I can understand without having to map out what was said. I will determine whether I feel the decision is right or wrong from there. Youth don’t need to be led by the hand or incited to rebel, they need to be treated as equal adults.
Stewart and Colbert do a fantastic job when it comes to pointing out the idiocies on both sides. That’s what they do, they poke fun at what the politicians say, how they said it, and spell out in layman’s terms what on earth the politicians (and news sources) are saying. I appreciate that, it saves time in wading through the differing opinions of news sources. They call out both Fox News AND CNN–one very-conservative and one very-liberal news source frequently. If you recall the Crossfire episode Stewart was on, he wasn’t just saying to the conservative side “Please stop,” he was asking them both sides to stop. To assess what they were doing and to start trying to be constructive rather than tearing each other down and becoming so defensive that no agreement could be reached. That’s what this division has brought, a destructive process that causes harm and stands in the way of constructive progress.
The Rally should have been an indicator to all about where Stewart/Colbert stand when it comes to politics. They brought together the people who don’t care who’s conservative or liberal, they just want what’s good for their families and country and crave real, civil discourse. They might not have agreed with policies, but they weren’t going to shred each other to pieces because they felt differently. As for the Rally, “Its stated purpose was to provide a venue for attendees to be heard above what Stewart describes as the more vocal and extreme 15–20% of Americans who “control the conversation” of United States politics,[4] the argument being that these extremes demonize each other and engage in counterproductive actions, with a return to sanity intended to promote reasoned discussion” –> (pulled from Wikipedia article on the “Rally to Restore Sanity.”)
*Steps down from Soap Box*
April 19, 2011 at 9:49 pm, Jane said:
God help us if the 20 somethings in this world listen to Glenn Beck’s advice. I’d like to give them more credit than that.
April 20, 2011 at 3:01 pm, john charles webb jr said:
Glenn Beck ….
is destined to become “The Conscience of America” .
Unbridled from the ‘harness’ of Faux . . . . . .
Glenn Beck will be a powerful force ‘competing against’ the forces (media, etc) that have corrupted The American Consciousness :
Glenn is ‘awake’ . . . . and now he is ‘fully trained’ ….. and a W.M.D. against ‘the paradigm of stoopid’.
May 06, 2011 at 3:41 am, Grant A. Ervin said:
i hate this man, i hate him so fucking much -___________________-
May 09, 2012 at 11:09 am, Is Glenn Beck looking to host his own version of ‘The Daily Show’? – Los Angeles Times | NPS Image said:
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May 09, 2012 at 11:10 am, Is Glenn Beck looking to host his own version of ‘The Daily Show’? – Los Angeles Times | NPS Image said:
[...] From New York AreaHollywood ReporterGlenn Beck Is Leaving the Greater New York AreaNew York MagazineDeath and Taxes -ColorLines magazine -Contactmusic.comall 36 news [...]