Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America [Hardcover]

Dana Milbank (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 5, 2010

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank takes a fair and balanced look at the unsettling rise of the silly Fox News host Glenn Beck.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that “the tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” In America in 2010, Glenn Beck provides the very refreshment Jefferson had in mind: Whether he’s the patriot or the tyrant, he’s definitely full of manure.

The wildly popular Fox News host with three million daily viewers perfectly captures the vitriol of our time and the fact-free state of our political culture. The secret to his success is his willingness to traffic in the fringe conspiracies and Internet hearsay that others wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole: death panels, government health insurance for dogs, FEMA concen­tration camps, an Obama security force like Hitler’s SS.

But Beck, who is, according to a recent Gallup poll, admired by more Americans than the Pope, has nothing in his background that identifies him as an ideologue, giving rise to the speculation that his right-wing shtick is just that—the act of a brilliant showman, known for both his over-the-top daily out­rages and for weeping on the air.

Milbank describes, with lacerating wit, just how the former shock jock without a college degree has managed to become the most recognizable leader of antigovernment conservatives and exposes him as the guy who is single-handedly giving patri­otism a bad name.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] droll, take-no-prisoners account of the nation's most audacious conspiracy-spinner...Milbank is pitch-perfect in describing a typical Beck performance. He has watched and listened to more Beck programs than I believed possible for the human mind to absord...Milbank is also superb in describing how Beck manipulates his listeners..."
-- David Oshinsky for The Washington Post

"Train-wreck fascinating...Milbank's obsessions about Beck's obsessions can be contagious."
-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Milbank's fast-paced chronicle of Beck World ably details the meteoric rise of a low-rent radio shock jock to national phenomenon in less than a decade."
--The Christian Science Monitor

About the Author

DANA MILBANK is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post and a prize-winning White House reporter. He has written three books, including the national bestseller Homo Politicus. He lives in Washington with his wife and daughter.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition edition (October 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385533888
• ISBN-13: 978-0385533881
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 8.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #806,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 76 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview of Beck's hysterics December 5, 2010

By Spilkman

Format:Hardcover

I have never been a big fan of Glenn Beck's schtick, and I suspect it is likewise for most people who read this book. But after reading it I am not only in awe of Beck's great broadcasting talent, I am also saddened that such a manipulative and misinformed man can influence millions of people.

This book then is a good primer for those of us who only know Beck as some sort of heir to Rush Limbaugh and who don't consume his shows, books and "courses" with a religious fervor. What a wake up call this book is, then, as Milbank uses Beck's own works culled from Beck's prodigious output of broadcasts to paint a portrait of man who at best plays loose with the facts and manipulates the racial fears of his mostly white audience and at worst uses coded phrases and apocalyptic imagery to provoke others to violence.

Milbank is successful in showing how Beck is able to embrace any stale far-flung conspiracy theory, a one-world government for example, and weave it in to some present day impending catastrophe using props such as a chalkboard that Beck says only he has the courage to present to his fervent (and misguided) listeners.

Milbank is particularly effective at showing how Beck is different from all the other right wing ideologues like Hannity and Rush because Beck takes it all one step further by pushing the envelope of fear to the brink of what's allowable in a broadcast. Obama is a racist and his administration wants to run the country like Nazi Germany, according to Beck. Beck says he can't dispute an Internet rumor that FEMA runs concentration camps. American liberals "have been raised to hate the United States government in many ways" (p. 198); Union members want a "one-world government" (p. 199); "Like it or not, fascism is on the rise.... The government is a heroin pusher, using smiley-faced fascism to grow the nanny state." (p. 122);

There is even a broadcast, chronicled in Chapter 11 in the book, where Beck is so mad at Obama he pretends to light a hapless member of his staff on fire with a gas can (filled with water) with these words: "President Obama, why don't you just set us on fire? For the love of Pete, what are you doing ... We didn't vote to lose the republic."

Yes, sometimes the book does become a laundry list of outrageous things Beck has said and this can be a tiresome after a while, but Milbank does a good job showing us how inaccurate the things Beck says are (Chapter 13 The Facts are Stubborn Things). In the latter part of the book Milbank is more analytical and is successful in likening Beck to Father Coughlin, a priest who broadcast to millions on radio in the 1930s and 1940s, who, like Beck, had a large audience and who hated the president, used race to bait his listeners, called his enemies communists and saw conspiracies at all levels of government.

There is also a chapter that posits what happens when Beck's forceful language really does propel someone to take a violent action, and another chapter that shows how Beck's 9/12 Project could be considered the birth of the Tea Party movement and Beck its founding father.

Far from just a screed against Beck, the author seems to respect Beck's talent and his ability to use humor and to organize his message while at the same time laying out the unpleasant realities of what Beck has said and done. Milbank writes about how even Beck's Fox colleague and right wing blowhard Bill O'Reilly can't believe some of the stuff that Beck says. I couldn't either. But there are millions who believe every word Beck says and this book shows us how something like that could happen. Read more ›

16 of 23 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The Pied Piper of the Tea Party Gets Off Easy November 21, 2010

By Trevor Seigler

Format:Hardcover

Glenn Beck is the pied piper of the Tea Party movement, a deranged and disgraceful lunatic whose antics would be funny if he weren't taken so seriously by so many of the people who watch his show. Well, either that or he's a brilliant showman, selling the world on a persona with which he shares little besides the same name and physical appearance, a Stephen Colbert without the wink to the audience. Either way, he is a force to be reckoned with and, one would hope, taken down from his perch as a spokesman for what ails America by a document so damning that even his strongest supporters can't deny the truth.

This book is not that document.

Dana Milbank certainly has the credentials to pull it off, but the book feels like a rushed effort, with attention-deficit-disorder-style chapters which briefly (oh so briefly) highlight the many ways in which Beck is just plain wrong or just plain deranged, without really getting far beyond talking points or Milbank's own cutting remarks. Even those of us firmly in agreement with the stated premise (Beck is a crazy person or a cynical charlatan) can't help but feel that a better, more extensive book is needed, especially to combat Beck's own hyperbolic denunciations of anyone who catches his fancy (be it Van Jones or Woodrow Wilson). Beck's power base will bash the book unfairly as a smear attack, but if anything they'd be correct in questioning the timing of the book (right before the midterm elections, and apparently several weeks ahead of whenever it was supposed to come out judging by the rushed feel of the chapters).

The book is weakest when Milbank compares Beck to Father Charles Coughlin, an anti-Semite who preached intolerance to the Great Depression-era populace and became a national icon.... Coughlin, no less disgusting than Beck, comes off through his own words as vastly more intelligent than the self-professed "rodeo clown" could ever hope to (not a stretch necessarily, as my three-year-old cousin could also make a claim to sound more intelligent than Beck), and Milbank actually undercuts his argument by letting Coughlin's words drone on to be followed by Beck's delusional soundbites which lack even the remotest hint of having been thought out before spoken. Both men are hateful, but the back-and-forth bogs down the chapter, which strangely seems to last longer than any of the others. It's like going back and forth between Frank Burns (Beck) and Charles Winchester (Coughlin); both are disagreeable, but Beck is definitely a ferrat-face.

The germ of a great idea, to disect Beck and use his own words to discredit him, gets lost in Milbank's efforts to meet a deadline and include Beck's delusional "March to Restore Truth" or whatever the heck that was that happened in Washington on the anniversary of MLK's more inclusive march in 1963. There's a lot in here to like (the poking of holes in Beck's official hagiography, the discussion of a photo session in which the crying Beck is made to produce authentic-looking tears through trickery, etc.), but it goes by so quickly that you can't process it before moving on. In due time, Beck will fade into the dustbin of history like so many demagogues and delusional cretins who soiled our body politic, but a more illuminating book about his ravings and mistruths will have to wait.

"Tears of a Clown" is the sort of book I should love, and indeed I applaud the effort behind it, to expose a dangerous pox on America and our internal discourse. The effort is noble, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. Read more ›

62 of 93 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Half a book, really October 9, 2010

By Memmius

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this book for my Kindle after reading an article about Beck in the New York Times Magazine (the article mentioned the book). First, let me say that I am deeply sympathetic to Milbank and others writing critically about the Tea Party movement and figures like Beck, both because I'm fascinated by the whole thing and because I vehemently oppose almost all of their political positions.

That said, I was a bit disappointed by this book. It's mostly a review of what Beck's "stance" (if you can call it that) is on a variety of issues. As Milbank himself admits in the introduction, this is mostly accomplished by quoting Beck's own words. If you didn't already suspect he's deranged, you will certainly come away from this thinking so. Milbank skillfully arranges Beck quotes in a way that exposes his hypocrisy and political and/or commercial motivations.

The problem is, though it was a quick, entertaining, and somewhat unsettling read--I already knew this about Beck. Not only is little new information or analysis presented about Beck or the Tea Party, the book can be a bit repetitive. Some of the same points are made in different chapters, and you'll notice several Beck quotes are used more than once. Perhaps Milbank was attempting to hammer home certain points, but I came away feeling as though at least a third of this book could have been edited out.

What was most dissatisfying about this book, however, was what was *not* included. How Beck was transformed from an alcoholic shock jock to right-wing provocateur and political agitator is still mostly a mystery--perhaps we'll never know. Mostly, I just wanted to know how or why millions tune in every week.... Other than mentioning this "fringe," Milbank does not discuss Beck's audience in any greater detail than his mention of Richard Hofstadter's article "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." Milbank briefly mentions several interesting angles to the issue--Beck's Mormon connection, for example--but doesn't fully explore them, focusing instead on the "content" of Beck's claims.

In sum, this is an excellent primer on *what* Beck is saying, offers some theories about *why* he's saying it (money, politics), and leaves unanswered what is, in my opinion the most important question--why is Beck's "message" attracting so many viewers/followers? Read more ›