The New York Times has a piece on Glenn Beck today, called "Fox News's Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star." I'm not sure why I bothered reading any of it but I did, and present you with a few tasty morsels:
The conservative writer David Frum said Mr. Beck's success "is a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility."
"It's a show for people who feel they belong to an embattled minority that is disenfranchised and cut off," he said.
Joel Cheatwood, a senior vice president for development at Fox News, said he thought Mr. Beck's audience was a "somewhat disenfranchised" one. And, he added, "it's a huge audience."
How is that audience disenfranchised? Does that term now mean 'not getting one's way all the time'? Never mind.
Here's the second morsel:
Mr. Beck says he believes every word he says on his TV show, and the radio show that he still hosts from 9 a.m. to noon each weekday.
...
He added later: "I say on the air all time, 'if you take what I say as gospel, you're an idiot.' "
It makes your head swim, and not in a good way. The only logical conclusion I can draw from those two sentences is that Mr. Beck declares himself an idiot.