Glenn Beck: Huckabee / Romney…

I’m not ashamed to say that I really enjoy the Glenn Beck Program on the radio.  It’s the most unusual 3-hour mix of fun and important issues, or as they say, a fusion of entertainment and enlightenment.  Glenn is an excellent broadcaster with a far better com style than Rush when it comes to being culturally relevant.  I mean that mostly in the sense that Rush represents the old school, and Beck is much more of a representative of where our culture is now. 

I’ve listen to Beck consistently for over a year, however, since October 2nd, the day after I first learned about Mike Huckabee, I’ve listened pretty much to all three hours, everyday (officially makes me a complete sick, twisted, freak).  This is easier for me than for some since, in my regular life, I’m a self-employed ceramic tile installer.  I’ve got a small radio I clip on and listen with earbuds while working.  I’ve been intently monitoring the show to know exactly how much exposure Huckabee has been getting, and to see what Beck’s take has been on him.

I was very pleased on October 19, 2007 when Beck did a full hour interview with Huckabee on his CNN Headline News TV show.  I thought the interview was an out-of-the-park homerun for Huckabee.  This interview showed me not only that Huckabee had the right answers, but that he definitely had what it takes to be President of the United States.

There’s actually a unique common thread that I see in both Beck and Huckabee… and that’s an extremely unusual openess and honesty.  I believe that the “truth” really means something to them both.  It’s reflected in this interview, both in the questions from Beck and in the answers from Huckabee.  It’s this specific quality of both of these men that attracts me to what they have to say.

However, I noticed something very disturbing to me on the radio show on Thursday, November 29th.  It was the day after the YouTube debate.  (BTW, I really liked that debate, even if many talk radioheads didn’t).  I was also pleased because I believe Huckabee still stood out as the most “human” of all the candidates (and I am pretty much looking for a human to be my President). 

So, anyway, it was in the first hour of the radio show on 11-29-07  (this would be a good time to interject that I’m pretty much a details kind of guy and I’m often times hyper-observant).  So, Glenn had Romney on the phone, and he opened the interview by saying “Governor Romney, welcome to the program.”  Romney responded “I’m doing great, thanks.”  And I thought, what?  That was weird, why did he answer like that?  I admit that it’s no biggie here, he simply answered a question that wasn’t asked, and any of us could make a silly mistake like that.  But it really stood out to me, it was very obvious.

Hang on, I’m still getting to the disturbing part…  so, along the way in the show, Beck mentions that they are going to play the Romney interview again in the third hour.  I’m thinking, hmmm great, that’ll be fun, more Romney I’ve already heard.  Now we get to the big, distrubing issue.  Glenn is doing an intro for the interview saying “spoke with Governor Mitt Romney earlier today, and started with the obvious question – after last night’s debate, how are ya?”  And then next, I hear “I’m doing great, thanks.”  Say what!?  That’s not how this interview went.  Honestly, I was stunned… they edited the lead-in question so as to make Romney look like his answer made sense.  Light bulbs went off in my head immediately (and these weren’t LED’s, they were very bright, heat-generating, electricity wasting incandescents!). 

Honestly, I’d been getting an uneasy feeling that Beck was not giving Huckabee a fair shake by this time since the “Huckaboom” was emerging but Glenn wasn’t really talking about it (and c’mon, an underdog with pennies on the dollar against the leading candidate, and he’s moving into the lead in the polls?  You don’t ignore that story unless you are ignoring the truth).  Then this edit of the interview happens and I get my first serious clue that “truth” is not at the center of what’s going on here.  And then, based on what happened in the next 4 weeks leading up to the Christmas/New Year’s break, it was easy to see that there was a clear bias against Huckabee. 

I still think Beck runs a great entertainment show, but I’ve been forced to believe that his
“enlightenment” doesn’t really include the “truth” above all else.  I would have been ok if Beck had simply said, ya know, Romney is my guy, but instead it really seems to me that he has run an anti-Huckabee effort to specifically redirect support toward Romney. 

It’s absolutely fascinating that just 2 days ago, I saw a comment left at a news story website that mentioned the connection between Bain Capital and Clear Channel Communications.  I admit that I don’t know for sure what connection Mitt Romney has today to Bain Capital, the company he founded and ran for many years, but research seems to indicate that he is still a silent partner.  This becomes a rather huge issue when you realize that Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners received shareholder approval in their effort to buy Clear Channel Communications on September 25, 2007.  Clear Channel oversees talk radio giants Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity as well as many others. 

Two final thoughts: 1) it seems Romney has been trying really hard to buy the election in Iowa, and 2) I believe that later tonight, Mike Huckabee, and the goodpeople of Iowa, are gonna show that it doesn’t take money to win in Iowa!

GO MIKE GO!

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Martt Clupper 1.03.08
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