Arianna Huffington Continues To Be Incited By Glenn Beck

Is Arianna Huffington vs. Glenn Beck the new Keith Olbermann vs. Bill O’Reilly, or perhaps even the new Andrew Breitbart vs. Media Matters (and a whole bunch of other people depending on the day and the Twitter)? Huffington is certainly taking advantage of every available opportunity to direct attention to what she describes as Beck’s “dangerous” language. This Sunday on Reliable Sources Huffington described Beck to host Howie Kurtz and fellow panelist Hugh Hewitt thusly:

[W]hat’s happening with Glenn Beck is he takes these apocalyptic statements that basically fuel people’s fear and anxiety and has made them his stock and trade. Literally, practically no show is done without some kind of form of inciting fear in the American people. And I think that is dangerous, especially at a time like this….[LATER] And I think that there is a reason why there’s an exception in the First Amendment to yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. This is a crowded and anxious country, and he’s just going on repeating the same…

So, basically, nothing terribly new here on Arianna’s part. She has apparently cottoned on to the Beck phenomenon, along with everyone else, and does not like what she sees. Or else — at the risk of sounding cynical — she has cottoned on to the Beck phenomenon and decided it’s worth her while to hook her wagon to it (and really, who can blame her). Either way, I think there are a couple of problems with her line of argument.

Number one, Arianna has no sense of humor. One of the great secrets to Glenn Beck’s success is that on top of being thoroughly entertaining he is frequently hysterical (in no small part because he is willing to make fun of himself). So much so, I’m not entirely convinced even Jon Stewart can do him justice, or SNL for that matter (which is what initially inspired us to call for Beck to host it himself). Humorless lecturing about the dangers of what he does is not interesting to anyone. You need to fight chalkboard with chalkboard! (One need look no further than Tina Fey’s utterly devastating impression of Sarah Palin to see the best example of that line of attack.) If Arianna were really interested in doing some damage to Beck she would hire the folks at Funny or Die to do a daily chalkboard/fact-check/takedown of him. Lecturing folks on the Sunday shows about his apocalyptic fear factor misses the point entirely. Says Hugh Hewitt:

The idea that Glenn is inciting a dangerous element in the United States, I think that’s silly. I think that Arianna knows no one watches takes notes and acts on what Glenn Beck says…We ought to focus on Glenn Beck and why he is so popular.

That is the real question, because he is very popular. No one is holding a gun to the American public’s head and forcing them to watch Beck. Which is why this ‘Beck is inciting fear in the population’ line is, at it’s core, rather insulting to the many, many, many people who watch him. Not everyone who watches Glenn Beck is an idiot. And not everyone who watches Glenn Beck actually thinks everyone in the White House is a secret Maoist. I suspect a lot of people watch Glenn Beck because he is entertaining — he may be the most entertaining thing on TV, actually (Arianna concedes he’s a “great showman”). He is the blogosphere come to life. He is the right’s answer to Jon Stewart. That’s not to suggest what he is saying is not inflammatory or hyperbolic, he is! All the time. But when you miss the humor you also miss a large part of what makes him so attractive to so many people. Video of the entire exchange below.

Related:
Mediaite On Glenn Beck