Yes, Beck was in fine form today. In his epic monologue, he ran down a hilarious list of symbols that the Dems should look out for. Cupid’s arrow? Banned. Cupcake War’s cupcake tank? Banned. Target’s, uh, target? Banned.

And he used every trick as his disposal too. He didn’t just show clips from Minority Report. Oh, no, he had someone on his staff build a contraption to mimic to weird ball tubes from the movie. He didn’t just do a jokey rant about the “cult” Christianity and their bloody altar. Nope, he walked up to the camera and pulled the studio lights into his face so as to appear as “conspiratorial” as possible. This was clearly Beck at his best.

After he was done with all the symbol talk, he moved to take on hypocrisy because, as we all know, hypocrisy is bad. He took shots at President Obama and The New York Times for not urging prudence and caution when the shooting on Saturday was blamed on the Tea Party even though they had when it turned out that the Fort Hood killer may be Muslim. Beck made some good points.

In fact, this was such a good monologue that, to paraphrase Beck’s frequent request, I’d suggest people DVR it and show it to their friends. And then, next time a Congressman wants to ban a violent video game or Bill O’Reilly’s Culture Warriors think a music video is just too darn sexy, people can show them this clip and be reminded, via Beck, that banning images is bad. And it is. And so is hypocrisy.

But it was later in the show, when he got into why we need to “win hearts and minds,” that he waded into some murky territory.

With New York Post columnist and frequent Obama critic Lt. Col. Ralph Peters as his guest, the pair continued their disappointment with the rise in PC since Nidal Malik Hasan‘s Fort Hood shooting. O’Reilly decided to play devil’s advocate:

It was an act of terror, but let me play devil’s advocate here. Barack Obama wants to win hearts and minds in the Middle East, in the Muslim world, which is a good thing, you know that, as a soldier, we can’t kill all the Muslims. So we want to win as many hearts and minds of good moderate Muslims as we can. So he goes out of his way, you’re absolutely right, to avoid the Muslim terrorist label which clearly applies for Hasan. But he doesn’t do it, because he wants to tamp down the anger in the Muslim world rather than ratchet it up, so is that not a worthy strategy?

Peters is immediately dismissive. “No it’s not because it doesn’t work,” he said. But what exactly did O’Reilly say? Yes, he’s playing devil’s advocate here, but the implication is that because we can’t kill all the Muslims, we have to try to win their hearts and minds. One possibility is that O’Reilly simply misspoke – maybe he meant “terrorists” instead of “Muslims.” But when you hear it in context, it just doesn’t sound like it’s a mistake.

Later, O’Reilly turned his attention to the Army, which he feels is partially responsible as well. Peters turned it back to political correctness. “Because he was a minority of a minority, a Muslim doctor in the Army, a psychiatrist, Hasan kept slipping through because nobody wanted to take him on,” he said.

Here’s the full interview:

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All broadcast networks took in live, as did the cable news channels. The video is below, as is some reaction from Twitter.

The View From Twitter

Mark Knoller: It’s a very moving moment. The silence of the dead is deafening.

Brian Stelter: RT @ChuckTodd: That’s going to be a speech that’s remembered and quoted from for quite some time.

Mark Knoller: Command Sergeant Major Donald Felt now sounding the Final Roll Call – including the silence when the name of a fallen soldier is called.

Chuck Todd: That’s going to be a speech that’s remembered and quoted from for quite some time; struck a balance of commander and consoler; not easy.

Marc Ambinder: RT @TheRickWilson: The signifiers in this speech (“no faith” “same extremists” “same war”) all telling, proper and better than expected.

Marc Ambinder: I realize I just had my Chris Matthews chill up the leg moment, but hey — the speech was just damn good.

Mark Knoller: Obama followed by Master Sergeant Natasha D. Harley, 1st Cavalry Division – singing “Amazing Grace.”

Marc Ambinder: #Ft. Hood — Obama’s speech — full text. http://tinyurl.com/yjkrdqa

Mark Knoller: Obama closes speech: “we say goodbye to those who now belong to eternity. We press ahead in pursuit of the peace that guided their svc.”

Mark Knoller: Obama says of today’s mililtary: “We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes.”

Chuck Todd: From the beginning, the Obama admin has linked Pakistan and Afghanistan together, hammering home point countries are connected.

Marc Ambinder: I agree. RT @chrisgolden: This is the best speech Pres. Obama has given, domestically, since his Inauguration

Rachel Sklar: Oh gosh this Fort Hood memorial is so sad. Obama’s rundown of the victim is heartbreaking. Huge huge waste, tragedy.

Chuck Todd: Telling line from POTUS: “In Afghanistan and Pakistan, the same extremists who killed nearly 3,000 Americans continue to endanger America”

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Here are five things we learned last night from cable news coverage of the shooting.

• Fox News’ “news” does news: Two of the newsiest early interviews took place on Fox News, during Shepard Smith‘s 7pmET hour. They included one with a former colleague of Nidal Malik Hasan and one with his cousin. In the cousin’s interview, the big news was that Hasan was fearful of being deployed overseas. It got big pick-up across the web and through other media – and interestingly, by CNN.

During Campbell Brown‘s 8pmET hour, she mistakenly introduced a clip as CNN original video, then played part of Shep’s interview. Immediately after, she identified it as a Fox News interview. But the point is – during a traditional news hour, Fox News was doing traditional news. This contradicts what CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein said recently to the Los Angeles Times, “They are in a completely different business than we are…We are not putting out the same product as they are. And we shouldn’t be compared to them on that account.” (FNC’s response: “Jon’s correct: It’s unfair to compare CNN to Fox News…Based on his network’s dismal ratings, it’s more accurate to compare CNN to the G4 channel.”)

• CNN will do it live: Once again, CNN took it upon themselves as the newsiest news network, and covered the Fort Hood story significantly more than their competitors. On one level, it was simply a decision to go live for more time than MSNBC or Fox News. After Anderson Cooper did two live hours as opposed to one, Wolf Blitzer anchored another hour at MidnightET. On Fox News, Greta Van Susteren also did two live hours instead of one, before FNC went back to tape. MSNBC stuck to its usual schedule, which meant going to repeats at 10pmET – and meant at 10:18pmET, the 8:18pmET Keith Olbermann told viewers Hasan was dead.

But it was more than just staying live. The majority of all of their programs, including Lou Dobbs‘ at 7pmET, covered the Fort Hood story as the major breaking news story it was. Will it translates to ratings? Probably not, but who cares. This is the storyline CNN wants to portray, and even more importantly, this is the directive – focus on journalistic quality. It happened last night.

• Rachel Maddow can handle breaking news: As we made our way through the prime time line-ups at Fox News and MSNBC, it was interesting to see how each network handled the Fort Hood news. Both Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly did not spend significant time covering the story, while their 9pmET counterparts, Rachel Maddow and Sean Hannity were almost forced to because the lengthy press conference took place during their hour. But as Hannity jumped in and out of Fort Hood coverage, Maddow made it a focus of her show (until the very end).

And the coverage was unique and interesting. One of the key guests was Lee Christopher Smith, who recently wrote a lengthy piece for Rolling Stone (amazingly, RS still doesn’t put most of its stories online) about the Fort Carson slayings. His expertise on that situation lent a perspective that wasn’t found on other networks. The apolitical anchoring showed Maddow has the ability to move beyond an opinion-based show, and into a hard news role if the circumstances dictate.

>>>NEXT PAGE: Bachmann, speculation and videos.