Michael C. Moynihan on the Glenn Beck Show

On Wednesday, March 18, 2009, Reason senior editor Michael C. Moynihan visited the Glenn Beck program on Fox News to discuss newspaper bailouts and the Fairness Doctrine.

Comments

[TallDave]

Looking good, Michael.

State + media = ungood.

[FTG]

Good show. I was reading the Letters to the Editor section of that falling-in-revenue piece of crap of a paper, the San Francisco Chronicle. Seems like the paper is going to increase its price, as if the market demanded it more. Some letters were from people saying that the increase in price would be "worth it" because the paper was worth it...

Those guys sounded like the assholes that have "Buy Local" bumper stickers in their Volvos (I live in the People's Democratic Republic of Santa Cruz, CA.)

Will Nancy Pelosi obtain bailout money for her beloved brown nose paper? Will that save that venerable paper, so that it can continue supplying us with something to place on the floor of birdcages and to toilet-train puppies?

[Harold]

You are giving Glen Beck legitimacy. The man is a moron, and possibly a dangerous one.

[Angelo]

"You are giving Glen Beck legitimacy. The man is a moron, and possibly a dangerous one."

No doubt. I get a heavy Jimmy Swaggart / Jim Baker vibe from this guy every time I've seen him.

[jtuf]

I recently subscribed to a printed newspaper, because it was in a niche market that caters to my viewpoint. Their website had gotten so overburdened, that buying the subscription was worth saving the download time. If a paper writes quality articles, I will buy it or download it regularly. If it just echos the popular opinion, I can get that for free on the NY Times website.

[Kunal]

You are giving Glen Beck legitimacy. The man is a moron, and possibly a dangerous one.

Word. That was altogether too chummy for my comfort. You may be with him tactically on this one thing, but that's Glenn "prove to me that you are not working with our enemies" Beck godsdammit!

[Lefiti]

Jesus, Moynihan and Beck have an almost identical little sniggering laugh. Is that laugh taught in some sort of political fanatics' school?

[Jerry]

Fox News & libertarians still seems like an odd combination.

[lukas]

Jesus, Moynihan and Beck have an almost identical little sniggering laugh.

Jesus is part of the VRWC now?

[jtuf]

I think Reason has a columnist who is a regular on Fox News's "Red Eye". Plenty of reason editors contribute to media outlets across the political spectrum. I've seen their articles in the Atlantic, LA Times, NY Times, and Boston Globe.

[lukas]

Also, MCM, you look terrible in black. And WTF is up with that hair of yours?

[Daze]

That's it, Moynihan, you're headed to one of the secret FEMA camps.

[Tim Cavanaugh]

I tremble for my nation when I reflect that Glenn Beck is leading the opposition. But the tent should always be big enough to include people who can get you TV time.

[Lynne]

"Jesus is part of the VRWC now?"

Eats Shoots & Leaves

[mantooth]

Believe in something!!! Even if it is wrong!!!

[Mari Dupont]

Good move by Reason! Glenn Beck is a nutcase, but his ratings are doubling every week. I don't really understand his politics and I don't think he does either: one day he's a claiming to be conservative, the next day, a libertarian. Not that it really matters, as long as he doesn't have one of his trademark crying spells while you're trying to explain anti-trust policy, his show can be a great promotional tool.

[jasa]

But the tent should always be big enough to include people who can get you TV time.

Tool comes to mind.

As in "Hooker With a Penis".

[henry]

As I understand it, Beck had a nervous breakdown, but "got better" when he began to believe in the power of magic underwear.

This is essentially correct, no?

Great company you are keeping, MM!

[Underzog]

A favorable mention of Michael Moyihan?

The Ernst Rhoem contributors to Hit & Run will have a tizzy!

"There's no need to fear. Underzog is here!"

[PapayaSF]

Fox News & libertarians still seems like an odd combination.

To me, not as odd as that "liberaltarian"/libertarians for Obama thing from last year. How's that working out, Dave Weigel?

I think that libertarians have more in common with conservatives (limited government and free markets etc.) than with liberals (drugs and abortion etc.) I figure that if conservatives are in charge, at least people are more likely to have the money to buy (even illegal) drugs and abortions. On the other hand, drugs and abortions are small consolation if you're living in a stagflationary, all-encompassing welfare megastate.

[Coarsetad]

papayaSF,
Conservative just play lip service to free markets and limited government. I find that VERY FEW of their actions actually promote those things.

[Tim Cavanaugh]

By the way, Beck's libertarian credentials are such that the first time I ever heard of him was when he was denouncing a pro-drug (IIRC) position that had been pointed out to him in some magazine he'd never heard of before...called REASON.

I don't want to fall into the old anybody-who-hasn't-read-my-work-obviously-knows-nothing trap, but the brilliantly incisive and original Beck also worked the old chestnut of doing arch emphases on the word reason, as in: "The so-called REASON position is that we don't need universal health care for cats. Doesn't sound very REASONable to me!"

I don't know what show it was, but it couldn't have been more than three or four years ago. He had a sidekick on the show who eventually cut short his anti-REASON rant and told him he should look at the magazine, which he might find himself agreeing with.

So Glenn Beck is as retarded as Obama's bowling, but I'm with the sidekick. If he wants to start glomming onto [T]reason magazine, he should be encouraged to do so. God loves idiots; that's why he made so many of them.

[cuernimus]

Being conservative is to be steeped in the traditions of a country, which for much of America's history would be comprised of notions of small government and individual liberty. Today's conservatives are largely of the neoconservative and social conservative breed, which means libertarians will find no home in their political movements. You can wail and gnash your teeth about how better things were before the diaspora, but it's better to just move on.

@Tim
Sounds like an interesting drinking game. Drink every time Glenn Beck makes an ass of himself, whoever doesn't need to have their stomach pumped before he has his first guest on wins.

[Larry Edelstein]

Why in FUCK is Moynihan appearing on that guy's TV show?

When will my fellow libertarians be able distinguish between assholes and, you know, everybody else.

[ANONYMORE]

I dont like the giggling

[R C Dean]

Christ Almighty, but this is a bunch of narrow-minded, intolerant prigs.

Reason has a message to get out. Beck gives them a forum to get that message out. If Reason people only appeared on shows with pure quill libertarian hosts that were broadcast on 100% libertarian networks, guess how much broadcast time they would get?

I suppose this crowd is probably pissed that Reason mails its magazine through the US Mail, where it is touched by the hands of actual US government employees.

[MNG]

"That was altogether too chummy for my comfort."

You don't read much Moynihan, do you? Moynihan and Beck try for the same audience dude.

And yes, down with the Fairness Doctrine, newspaper bailouts, and other things not likely to happen between now and 2050...Why not Mass Gun Confiscation and Forced Abortions Paid for With Taxes on Working People.

[MNG]

It's nice to see RC Dean defending tolerance.

Of course its tolerance of someone he surely likes and agrees with ideologically, but nonetheless at least he's using the word, which is often, though admittedly not always, a first step to understanding what said word means.

[SpongePaul]

hands of actual US government employees
The post office is NOT a goverment entitiy. It is a private monopoly. One thing most people don't get. My Uncle has been working for the Post office for 20 years. It is Independent of the Goverment. has its own budget. and answers to itself. Thier employees are corparate employees with a union. They pay into social security etc etc.

[Nooge]

It's good when MNG cries. It really is.

[MNG]

Nooge
I had such hopes for you. For a while there, you were able to compose multiple sentence posts, even reaching to the point of a paragraph now and then. But now it seems you just had hit your Flowers for Algernon apex...

[MNG]

Spongepaul
It's also explicitly allowed for in the U.S. Constitution, Art I, Sec 8.

[kwais]

They pay into social security

Everybody pays into that scam. Military, police ect.

The US Mail is a little more than a government enforced monopoly. They have their own rules. You can't carry concealed into a post office, there are other stupid rules too, but that one springs to mind.

[PapayaSF]

Coarsetad: It's better than nothing. Politics in a democracy involves compromise. No libertarian is going to be elected president anytime soon, so we have to take what we can get.

Regarding newspaper bailouts, I will put in a good word for Pelosi (first time ever), because (AFAIK) she hasn't talked about bailing out newspapers with cash. She talked about removing some anti-trust rules to make it easier for them to operate, which should sound fine to folks around here.

Of course, she loses some credit for being in favor of that sort of economic regulation at every other opportunity....

[JoeB]

Proof: It IS possible to kiss ass through a split screen.

That was embarrassing. But good job MM, no doubt you've secured invitations for guest appearances in the future.

[@]

Glenn Beck is in the lead opposition to the Socialist programs of BO and his minions.

It's a great, informative show.

[Nooge]

Glad to see I still get under your skin, MNG.

[rob levine]

Even if you agree with Beck on this one issue, you have to be nuts to go on his show. With every episode Beck seems more extreme, if that's even possible. He's turned into some kind of paranoid freak.

[Barack Obama]

Why not Mass Gun Confiscation and Forced Abortions Paid for With Taxes on Working People.

Yes We Can!

[Odd]

She talked about removing some anti-trust rules to make it easier for them to operate, which should sound fine to folks around here.

Where did you get the idea libertarians are pro-monopoly? Especially pro-media-monopoloy?

And yes, down with the Fairness Doctrine, newspaper bailouts, and other things not likely to happen between now and 2050...

Right, moron, it's not like top Dems support the idea.

"Do you personally support revival of the 'Fairness Doctrine?'" I asked. "Yes," speaker Pelosi replied, without hesitation.

[L. Ron Hoover]

Why all the Beck-hatred? He seems like a nice guy, if a bit of a dimwit.

[Tony]

The thing is the media outlets that make up the propaganda arm of the Republican party have been moaning about a lack of fairness on the airwaves for a long time. So they admit a need for balance, they're just whining about the possibility that they won't have a monopoly over talk radio.

The right relies on one thing to spread its message: demagoguery. And Beck is just one the latest and looniest iterations.

If any of you thinks Obama or the Dems as a whole wants to squander political capital on the FD, well you watch Beck too much.

[jester]

Did you catch it Moynihan? Your name was put up as 'Moyniham'.

Does that mean you're a ham, hamming it up every chance you get?

As for Beck, he makes an easy target for people like Jon Stewart to successfully mock. And the good things that Beck defends go along mocked with him. If a spineless moronic dick like Stewart can make fun of someone then he must be the nadir of respectability.

[jester]

If there were fairness, libertarians would have a voice on radio and not get lumped with shitheads like Glenn Beck or (your contrarily/our similarly) whomever is your favourite Euro-style socialist.

Visiting this site, you should uderstand that. The old 'Liberals-and-Conservatives-aren't-represented-equally is an unfair sideshow, and you know it.

[jester]

And the left also relies on one thing to spread its message: demagoguery.

It's an amazing concept for the small-minded like you, Tony.

Did I accidently split an infinitive? Did I commit some other grammatical error that rendered my comment unreadable to you?

[Darrel]

"You are giving Glen Beck legitimacy. The man is a moron, and possibly a dangerous one."

Most morons aren't rich or have high rated shows on TV. In fact, most are like you and me, comment board posters. I'd trade my genius for rich moroness anyday.

[Kerry Howley]

Beck's former encounter with "Reason" Magazine here: http://www.reason.com/blog/show/115713.html

[Jorgen]

What bothers me about this is that I can imagine both of these guys supporting the relaxing of laws against media consolidation if they weren't proposed by Nancy Pelosi, but here they reduce them to condescension and sniggering. One of my favorite things about Reason generally is that they don't base opposition to or support for policies on which team those policies come from, but Moynihan seems intent on getting himself in with team Red enough that he can share their power and influence.

[MNG]

"Most morons aren't rich or have high rated shows on TV."

I love this kind of argument, because it means Britney Spears is obviously NOT a moron!

[JohnD]

Beck is over the top sometimes, but on the whole he makes more sense that many of the moronic assholes (like Tony, Henry, Larry, etc.) on this site.

[Gilbert Martin]

"Most morons aren't rich or have high rated shows on TV."

"I love this kind of argument, because it means Britney Spears is obviously NOT a moron!"

Spears has a highly rated TV show?

What network is it on?

[Solana]

Moynihan, you're just... my hero. Haha. Keep up the good work.