As we’ve often said here, hot talk partisan talk radio is about going negative, getting people riled up and sometimes getting listeners who’ve riled up or who tune in to listen to an intellectual car crash. Glenn Beck has now taken his show to a new level low bycoming out against that terrible holiday that is (supposedly) being shoved down our throats: Mothers’ Day:
Apparently, the people from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company had a sponsorship deal of some kind with Glenn Beck’s radio show. You know the sort of deal: the host takes a moment to read some ad copy on the air about what a great product the Vermont Teddy Bear is, maybe get it for your mom on Mother’s Day? That sort of thing. Beck’s been in the radio biz for decades, so this should be no big deal, right?
Wrong! Beck, for reasons I suppose only he can understand, interrupted his monotone introduction of the ad copy by going off on an anti-Mother’s Day screed, calling it a “big business scam” that was created by Woodrow Wilson — whom Beck “hates.” Then, apparently realizing that he had essentially trashed the hopes of his sponsor, he momentarily slagged Hallmark before pimping Vermont Teddy Bears and their delightful scents.
So Beck thinks Vermont Teddy Bears smell good but Mother’s Day stinks.
Not since Bill O’Reilly started his crusade in the War Against Christmas — when there was no war against Christmas (but he starts up on the theme almost every year) — has there been such a quintessential talk show moment: a)pick out a target, b)exaggerate and oversimplify it, c)distort or ignore facts d)press the hot buttons for your audience.
A talk radio show dealing with positives, statements of support and policy ideas would never stay on mainstream radio or cable air.
THIS JUST IN: Stay tuned to Glenn Beck to hear about the political evils behing Valentine’s Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and canned peas.
PS: Just this morning I arranged for my 88 year old mother to get a flower display. And, sorry Glenn, it wasn’t done to enrich merchants…it was an honor to send her the flowers the cards and I’m thankful the holiday exists. Woodrow Wilson or no Woodrow Wilson.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.