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

Amazon.com Review

Product Description
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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Author Dana Milbank on Beck University

As part of his $32-million-a-year business empire, Fox News host/radio show host/March on Washington demagogue Glenn Beck has begun offering on-line classes through “Beck University.” For an annual tuition of $74.95, and hundreds of perfectly good hours wasted, you will learn why everything they teach you at other universities is, as Beck puts it, “unbelievably incomplete” – because those schools, unlike Beck University, are constrained by annoyances such as facts.

Alternatively, for much less money and pain, you can decline Beck University’s admission offer and buy this book. Consider it the Cliff’s Notes to Glenn Beck University: Everything you need to know about the most successful, and dangerous, media personality in America. I’d call it “Glenn Beck for Dummies,” but people might confuse it with Beck’s broadcasts.

The Class Offerings:

Chemistry 101: How Beck uses menthol paste to produce the famous tears that flow from his eyes.

Economics 110: Beck describes himself as a “regular schmoe” who lives in a “subdivision,” then takes a chauffer-driven sedan to his 16-room mansion on three acres in the wealthiest hamlet in America: New Canaan, Connecticut.

Economics 330: Beck’s apocalyptic pronouncements on air have made him a favorite of advertisers selling gold coins and “Survival Seed Banks” that can be used in the End Times.

Religion 220: Beck’s advancement of the White Horse Prophecy, an obscure Mormon philosophy dating to the Prophet Joseph Smith, who said elders of the Mormon Church will save the Constitution.

Biology 111: The saga of how Glenn Beck was almost killed by his hemorrhoids.

Biology 330: The science behind Beck’s killing of a frog and restoring life to a dead fish on his Fox News set.

Psychology 125: How to convince millions of people that the U.S. government is operating concentration camps in Wyoming.

History 114: Beck’s discovery that progressives in America are using “the same tactic” Hitler did in “rounding up Jews and exterminating them.”

History 220: Advanced Revisionism. Beck, fierce foe of government spending, once said of the Wall Street bailout: “the real story is the $700 billion that you’re hearing about now is not only, I believe, necessary, it is also not nearly enough, and all of the weasels in Washington know it.”

Genealogy 401: Beck’s research determines that Woodrow Wilson is Obama’s grandfather.

Enroll today. Because the End is Near.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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

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: #722,539 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 75 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.

15 of 22 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.

99 of 148 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Background - October 7, 2010

By Loyd E. Eskildson HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

Forbes" magazine estimates Beck's overall annual revenues at about $32 million, only $2 million of which comes from his Fox TV show (4/8/2010). "Tears of a Clown" opens by informing readers that Glenn Beck hosts nearly 3 million daily viewers with fact-free vitriol that emphasizes fringe conspiracies and Internet hearsay. Comparisons with Marxists, Nazis, Socialists, and Hitler (mentioned 115 times in Beck's first 14 months on Fox) spice up his rhetoric, along with occasional uncontrollable weeping on the air, the latter possibly menthol assisted. The result, per Milbank, is that Beck is giving patriotism a bad name.

I've tried watching Blenn Beck several times - however, I have neither the conspiracy-theory background to understand what he's saying, nor the interest and patience to learn, and have always turned it off after a few minutes. While I doubt that Milbank gave Beck totally "fair and balanced" treatment, his "Tears of a Clown" did seem credible, and after reading Milbank's book I finally have a sense of what Beck's all about.

Milbank, of course, provides the expected litany of Beck egregiousness, including his making fun of Malia Obama's interest in the Gulf Oil spill, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi and shooting Michael Moore, naming Obama as the 'anti-Christ' and revealing his having a "deep-seated hatred for white people," as well as Beck himself going from hating American health care after problems with his hemorrhoid surgery to opposing Obama-care on the grounds we "already have the best health care in the world."

Beck's material, per Milbank, often comes from following the paths previously blazed by Father Coughlin (up to 40 million listeners to his 1930s broadcasts), Joe McCarthy (demagogic and unsubstantiated accusations fueling fear of widespread Communist subversion in the 1950s), and the late Cleon Skouson (conservative faith-based political, conspiracy, and End Times theorist). Beck's followers ('watch-dogs') provide additional material - scouring the Internet and wherever else evil can supposedly be found. Beck frequently ends his fear-mongering concerns with "I'm not saying it will happen, but . . ."

Milbank also delights in telling us that health-care reform has passed, and neither death panels, nor federally-prescribed menus have arrived. Unfortunately, we haven't heard the last of these concerns - Business Week (10/11/10) reports an incredible $20 billion will be needed to create all the required regulations. Stay tuned -

The big question, however, is "What's behind Glenn Beck's popularity?" One word - Fear. Beck has his audience worrying about "the Constitution hanging by a thread," free-speech, the right to bear arms, the future of talk radio, Fox, and the ability to conduct discussions about God, End Times, U.S. bankruptcy, government-forced charity, etc. Apparently it's Beck's focus on fear that provides the underlying rationale for satirist Stephen Colbert's "March to Keep Fear Alive" at the end of this month, countering Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity." From Beck's perspective, the focus on fear naturally leads to paid endorsements for gold as an investment, or high-commission ripoffs as Rep. Weiner calls it. Adding frequent references to Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust probably also adds credibility to what much of Beck says for those in his audience.

More importantly, by linking religion ("I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life"), patriotism ("America is good"), and secularism ("I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable {includes Socialist 'share the wealth' schemes}"), with End Times issues (common to Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Mormonism), and through supporting a few acolytes such as Sharron Angle, Michelle Bachmann, Christine O'Donnell, and Sarah Palin, Milbank believes Beck has corralled the interest of a large segment of the population and given birth to the Tea Party. (Others might give the latter honor to CNBC's Rick Santelli after his 2/2009 outburst calling for a "Tea Party" reaction to the administration's mortgage bailout plan.)

Finally, Milbank worries that Beck's rhetoric unwittingly provides the 'push' that some unbalanced individuals need to take action, and cites several instances were people were killed after the perpetrators watched Glenn Beck. (To be fair, Milbank also points out that Beck is anti-violence, even in support of his issues.)

Bottom-Line: The 'good news' is that "Tears of a Clown" is highly readable and credible, and provides a good understanding of the Glenn Beck phenomena. The 'bad news' is that reading "Tears of a Clown" also provides some understanding of how individuals like Hitler have come to power. I'm not saying it will happen, but . . .