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Group wages battle against Glenn Beck

February 9, 2011

By LISA RIZZO

A group of San Luis Obispo County residents, prompted by last month’s shootings in Tucson, Ariz. that left six dead, has mounted a campaign to pressure local radio stations to limit what they call “hate talk.”

Since January, outspoken critics of the Glenn Beck Show began campaigning to local radio station KVEC 920 AM to change its programming. They initially contacted KVEC management and have progressed to asking KVEC’s sponsors to halt advertising until the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck program has been dropped from the station, which airs weekdays at 12 noon.

“We believe the violence is connected to the nasty rhetoric that they are supporting. They have nine hours a day of fanatics which is way too much,” said Pete Evans, founder of Alliance for Positive Programming (APP).

Another critic contends Beck’s incendiary political rhetoric is dangerous.

“The history of Glenn Beck’s incitement to politically-motivated murder of Michael Moore, Nancy Pelosi, Charles Rangel and others he wants to ‘beat to death with a shovel’ or ‘line up and shoot in the head’ is well-documented,” said David Broadwater in an electronic letter that is circulating to numerous local advocates, KVEC management and advertisers.

The Jan. 8 Tucson shooting spree that killed six people and wounded another 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), has prompted criticism of inflammatory language by some conservative talk-show hosts like Beck.

News media, blogs, and twitter have been rampant with accusations that conservative talk radio, particularly “right-wing rhetoric,” may have influenced the mentally unsound Tucson shooting suspect and have created a climate of hate in America. While investigators have yet to prove this theory, the shooting has prompted a new wave of backlash against extremism in conservative radio.

Evans said he would like the station to offer counter programming, such as the Clark Howard Show, a syndicated show about saving money and finance that the station aired for about a year and a half before it was canceled last July because of falling ratings.

Last summer, the station swapped Howard for Beck and within six months and the station’s ratings were back to pre-Howard numbers.

When asked for a comment by CalCoastNews, KVEC’s management did not respond.

However, KVEC talk show host Dave Congalton, who is also a contributing editor at CoastCoastNews, said that while he cannot speak for the station’s management, it is apparent that the Glenn Beck Program is widely supported on the Central Coast.

“It is not my job to defend KVEC programming,” said Congalton, who is in his 20th season on the air at KVEC. “We offer programming choices and the listeners decide.

“San Luis Obispo County overall is very conservative and conservative talk radio does very well on the Central Coast,” Congalton continued.

“In contrast, the liberal-oriented Air America station in San Luis Obispo limps along from year to year, barely registering in the ratings. What does that tell you?”

The alliance and its supporters plan to continue its campaign to persuade KVEC to remove Beck from its airwaves “due (to) his most explicitly documented record of advocating politically-motivated assassination.”

“This station runs nine hours of nationally syndicated loud and angry right-wing rhetoric every day, yet touts itself as ‘hometown radio.’” Evans said. “These talk shows often promote violence and would tend to convince the already unbalanced to take up arms against innocent people. We have seen this over and over during the past decade.”

Congalton argued the group is made up of “far left-leaning liberals” and has yet to make an impact. “I know they’ve contacted some of our advertisers, but we haven’t lost any clients due to this so-called campaign,” he said.

In a January letter, Beck defended himself against the backlash. “While Americans are grappling to understand the Arizona tragedy, the absolute vacuum of leadership on both sides is staggering,” he said.

“Far too often, we have seen in our schools and in our post offices, acts of violence from misfits of society. Turning these horrific events into an opportunity for a political attack is a very childish response to a very grown-up problem,” Beck said. “This is not about winning a political blame game.”

Beck continued by saying he denounces violence regardless of political motivation

Within the last few months the conservative commentator’s program has been dropped by several radio stations including one in Philadelphia where he got his start.


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Radio Advertising Sales 101:


Every good ad rep knows there are two kinds of business owners who advertise on the Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh Shows:


1. Those who do it for ideological reasons and feel compelled to financially subsidize the political propaganda and hate that those shows offer.


2. Those who do it for the profit motive, appreciating that fans of those shows are among the most gullible of Americans and are prime candidates for falling for certain kinds of business offers and services.


Don’t believe me? Check out the businesses that sponsor those shows.


A good radio ad sales rep who needs to sell slots for Beck or Limbaugh profits by quickly figuring out which of the two above categories his prospect fits into.


These shows feel good to sales people because they can sell to businesses that don’t even know or care whether it helps the business. Extremist right wingers like to think they are rubbing shoulders with Limbaugh by simply buying an ad during his show. It’s a political statement, never mind if it actually is profitable, because it usually is not.


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I love BeckPalinFoxTeaparty because it keeps all of them in one spot where we can keep an eye (and usually two) on em.


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Texas Tea Party Obama may be Muslim


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The reason I don’t listen to Glenn Beck is that he is constantly thumping the Bible. I believe that a person’s religion, as well as their sexual preferences, should be kept in the closet.


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My hat is off to Pete Evans, this might make one think,


“In a January letter, Beck defended himself against the backlash. “While Americans are grappling to understand the Arizona tragedy, the absolute vacuum of leadership on both sides is staggering,” he said.


“Far too often, we have seen in our schools and in our post offices, acts of violence from misfits of society. Turning these horrific events into an opportunity for a political attack is a very childish response to a very grown-up problem,” Beck said. “This is not about winning a political blame game.”


Glenn Beck might feel a little different if cross hairs placed on the W.W.W.were pointed straight at him.


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Brought to you by the party that elected Al Frankin.


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America can do better than Glenn Beck. He clearly does more harm than good, and yet he has been elevated to celebrity status in our society. Even his fans call him a clown, even when he talks enthusiastically about shooting foreigners and poisoning politicians. Clearly, we are a very sick, insane society.


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Clearly, the only thing that is clear is your dislike for Mr. Beck. Clearly, others have a much different opinion than yours. Clearly, you don’t have the ability to silence him. Thankfully. I wouldn’t want to live in a country where people with your thinking can stifle others because they don’t like what they hear. God Bless America.


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Glenn Beck might be many things… but he sounds sincere and his heart seems to be in the right place… I can’t say that for icons and Ayatollah’s of the left like Catie Couric. Who’s right and who’s wrong in these discussions?… well, we never know until everyone is given a chance to speak. I for one find the current level of incivility refreshing. We are hearing from both sides now. Something good will come out of all of this.


As I mentioned earlier, it is too bad that this ‘group’ didn’t take an evening to hear FIRE’s President Greg Lukianoff speak at Cal Poly a few days ago on the first amendment and censorship … they would get a real lesson on the constitution and what hate really is and what it is not. The battle on PUBLIC college campuses is no different from what is happening here. An extreme entrenched orthodoxy in Academia is being challenged thoughtfully and finally regaining it’s right to speak in the marketplace of ideas.The first beach heads have been made and a larger battle is ahead which will transform universities back to as they were intended. Here is a brief look at FIRE:


“In 1998, Alan Charles Kors and Harvey A. Silverglate co-authored The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses. In response, they received hundreds of communications and pleas for help from victims of illiberal policies and double standards that violated their rights and intruded upon their private consciences. To answer these calls for help and to transform the culture, Alan and Harvey founded FIRE. ”


for more: http://www.thefire.org


Some folks find all of this free thinking troubling and challenging to their dogmatic and insecure beliefs… and this is great! However, shouting down those who do not believe as you do or imposing censorship never works for long. You must understand that areas like ours are opening up to discussion and reality after decades of existing in “Middle Earth.”


My only advice is that discussion and change is coming… will you embrace it, try to understand it , be a part of it… or hide, fail to participate and stay quaint?


Roger Freberg


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I get tired of hearing right wing talk radio…..but it sure is better than left wing talk radio! How about getting libertarian talk radio?


One thing for sure, Beck does not and has not advocated violence as a solution to anything. Regardless of whether you like his politics or not, he is very clear on that point, and always has been.


I also think it’s disingenuous and sleezy to use the Tuscon shootings as a “hook” for attacking Glen Beck…..just as bad as using Willie Horton was to attack “liberals,” back when these tactics were started.


The shooter was not a right wing “hater,” so why try to link him to talk radio?


The whole right/left thing is nothing but a distraction anyways. Once elected, they all do the same things, regardless of the lies they told in their campaigns or party affiliation…..


Remember Obama was going to get us out of the wars? Hmmm????


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“One thing for sure, Beck does not and has not advocated violence as a solution to anything.” Um, no; “I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out — is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus — band — Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, “Yeah, I’d kill Michael Moore,” and then I’d see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I’d realize, “Oh, you wouldn’t kill Michael Moore. Or at least you wouldn’t choke him to death.” And you know, well, I’m not sure.”

I do not listen to Glen Beck, nor will I ever. Do I care that he is on KVEC? Not really; if people don’t want Glen Beck on the air, they should work to remove him from ALL of the airwaves, not just KVEC. I do feel however that there may come a day when someone does go over the edge and either kill or attempt to kill someone or several people and that person will either be a listener or a reader of Glen Beck and his published or broadcast thoughts. I hope that day never comes, but given how our current “dialog” is so fractured, I fear that it will.


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You see, you are the big problem here. You don’t know what you are talking about, you have no idea yet you spout off. Beck has threatened Speaker Pelosi, Michael Moore, and others with shootings, poisoning and beating to death with a shovel. Its too bad there is so much ignorance out there, and folks like you are either innocent dupes, fools or downright evil. This is not legit conservative talk as opposed to progressive talk; beck promotes physical violence against those he disagrees with. Hello, that is what some of the idiots posting here accuse my side of, which is a total hypocritical lie. The most virulent left wing talk show person has NEVER advocated violence. Yet beck, and others on the right, have.

I will post proof of my allegations about this liar in short order, maybe it will at least shut up the people who think beck is any source of legit information. He is a screamer to the disaffected and powerless; gives them a vicarious thrill to hate to fill their pitiful lives with something. Too bad they don’t have the juice to fill their lives with intelligence and progress.


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” Ayatollah’s of the left like Catie Couric.”


OMG, that no good Katie Couric, better check her birth certificate. I’ll bet she’s one them there Muslims. Are you kidding me, you must be a bagger/birther. What pre tell has that no good Katie done now?


I looked at your silly web site, it looks like a Tea Bagger website.


‘Change’,’ free thinking’,,,give me a break, you extreme righties are so afraid of change. Thinking people know that the extreme right follow like sheep, they don’t have the ability to think freely. I was watching Rick Santorum on Faux News last night. He made a statement earlier about Palin. When their leader Palin got wind of it and insulted him with her condescending grin he back peddled so fast his eyes were spinning. For awhile I thought that perhaps there might be a republican politician that had an independent thought. But sure enough he made the mistake of not getting the okay from Palin, Rush or Beck,, and he got spanked for it, same old song and dance. You make no sense at all. Your Becks and insHannity’s are the ones shouting down those that do not agree with them.


I guess we need to have the govt. come in and stop these people from trying to get Beck of the air. We need to make sure that we run his program at all costs. After all he deserves to have more rights those trouble makers.


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Come off it, Mr. Freberg. We don’t need to hear your pal lecture to us to know what hate is and is not.


It is obvious you don’t know what you are talking about. A little education on the history of radio licensing in the United States might temper your comments. The radio airwaves are a LIMITED PUBLIC RESOURCE and NOT OWNED by any individuals. This makes it a very complex issue without simplistic solutions as you suggest.


You are so off-base in your comments and your rationalizations that its scary. You should really study the documents pertaining to the founding of radio licensing in the United States before you start spewing so self-righteously and telling us we need to re-educate ourselves according to some college campus speaker to understand what is and what is not healthy for our community and our radio airwaves AND our rights as citizens to shape the policies that allow those PUBLIC airwaves to be used.


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“We believe (so I guess it must be true??) the violence is connected (even though the shooter was NOT a Glen Beck listener and NO connection to talk radio has been established??) to the nasty (it’s nasty because YOU say it is?) rhetoric that they are supporting. They have nine hours a day of fanatics (and a fanatic is someone YOU don’t agree with?) which is way too much (so, Mr. Evans, you are the opinion police now, and have some sort of time yardstick YOU get to measure us all with? Are YOU also going to regulate what movies we can watch?) ,” said Pete Evans, founder of Alliance for Positive Programming (APP).


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Jeeze people. Anyone awake here? Well, some are, and have it right. I know this will fall on mostly deaf ears, those who need some sense the most, but here goes, again.


This is not a free speech issue. The tea bag idiocy of ‘this is still America’ junk is childish rhetoric. It’s an issue of inciting to riot, to kill. It’s an abuse of the public airwaves. Though the Tucson incident inspired the public conversation, again, this effort has been probably promoted after many years of angry and violent rhetoric (Beck has been recommending murder since at least 2005).

Oh, the lefties can’t stand to have another attitude mentioned on air? You lame brains, we are talking about murder. O’Reilly urged his listeners to attack a doctor; he was killed in his church by a lunatic, crazed by the political rantings of a talk radio show.

I know the dumb talk will go on, using simplistic and inane references to the constitution, America, blah, blah, blah. By the many comments here I would say Congalton is right in one of his, this area sure has a large compliment of right wing fanatics.


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hotdog

Having the goal of pulling a radio stations license because you disagree with what is said on a radio show is the picture a free speech issue.


I fail to see how a group that identifies itself with our original British tax protesters, the Tea Party, is “childish rhetoric”.


I would love to start another business and create more jobs but can not as any profit incentive is virtually gone due to City, County, State and Federal taxes, fees and regulations. My current goal is to try and protect the jobs I now provide.


An appropriate level of fair taxes is a good thing. Endless and impossible to fund entitlements, trying to be fed by increasing taxes and fees on strapped business is just not working. This approach is killing jobs. (I used the word “kill” please do not misinterpret this to mean you should kill someone)


Stifling taxes and unfair distribution of those taxes are the same issues the original Tea Party was standing up against. Standing up to protect the ideals of America is childish???? I would rather think that name calling like “Tea Baggers” and grossly misrepresenting what is said on Beck’s show to try to make a poor argument is a bit more childish. Not sure why I am writing this, all of this is painfully obvious.


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