Thursday, December 18, 2008

BuzzFlash's Media Putz Of The Week

The folks at BuzzFlash check in today with their Media Putz of the week, "for reporting that is an embarrassment to the profession of journalism, and for being beholden to corporate paymasters rather than the citizens of America."

This week, the award goes to Glenn Beck for completing a classic right-wing, two-for-one deal: He invents a problem with a Democrat -- in this case, Hillary Clinton -- and then proceeds to analyze and find fault with a situation that nobody envisions and that will never happen.

Specifically, Beck was talking to that famed political genius, Joe the Plumber -- and here you thought his 15 minutes were over -- and they were both a bit aghast about the thought of Senator Clinton serving as a U.S. Senator and being Secretary of State at the same time. Of course, that scenario is not planned, nor would it ever happen -- but when you're a conservative radio host, you don’t need to worry about having listeners smart enough to call you on this.

BuzzFlash comes in right after the part where Beck says that "…one of my guys who's deep in the Constitution, he's saying that she can't have two offices. That's the problem."
Hey, Glenn: "one of my guys" doesn't know what he is talking about. And neither do you. Nobody, and we mean nobody, thinks Clinton, or anyone else would do both jobs at the same time. Being a U.S. Senator is a lot of work, and being Secretary of State is a huge amount of work.

And the whole idea that "it's kind of iffy on that." Are you now saying Clinton might legally occupy both posts as you are saying that she couldn't be both? And what does this have to do with the subject being talked about in the United States on the planet Earth?

As Keith Olbermann succinctly put it, "You are less well-informed than Joe the Plumber."

Usually, when the rabid right-winger rants, an argument is presented with lies and misleading statements. Here we have an argument that is a lie, a fiction no one ever thought to create. And Beck doesn't even have the guts to say this from his own heart: he hides behind referring to "one of my guys who's deep in the Constitution."

To be fair, this is probably why right-wing talk shows such as Beck do get the Republican talking points. Because when they come up with their own talking points, they screw them up. If someone else does not write down for Beck, there apparently is this chance Beck will go off and come up with tangents such as this.
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