In a recent blog, "Would-be Tides shooter: 'It was the things [Glenn Beck] did, it was the things he exposed, that blew my mind'" I discovered an article written about exactly what the title suggests: how Glenn Beck "influenced" Bryon Williams to want to partake in a shooting rampage. David Neiwert's blog, featured in Crooks and Liars uses plenty of evidentiary support as his entire blog consists of quotes from the whole interview between John Hamilton and Williams. John Hamilton, "an enterprising young Bay Area radio journalist, freelancing for Media Matters" interviewed Williams who was accused of wanting to start a revolution.
Such political commentators as O'Reilly and Beck are notorious for their extremely conservative views so it is not surprising that a left-wing blog is reporting on an issue that involved a man trying to attack the Tides Foundation which Beck "rallied against." Of course Beck and Fox News have been under scrutiny lately for their highly biased news stories, so it is inevitable that Williams would claim, "I would have never started watching Fox News if it wasn't for the fact that Beck was on there. And it was the things that he did, it was the things he exposed that blew my mind. I said, well, nobody does this."
David Neiwert is clearly upset with Beck's "propaganda." He explains how one of his more clever ways of introducing a point is Beck's "'I'm not saying, I'm just saying' dodge whenever he wants to float an idea that is vile and outrageous and create controversy and thus boost his ratings." But one of Neiwert's arguments that seem more extreme is that Beck "has been inciting acts of terrorist violence." Neiwert explains how it is different if an unstable person lashes out on a group versus someone who acts out purely on "rhetoric specifically intended to inspire action."
Neiwert appears to use a lot of hyperboles to send fear to his audience, causing the left-wing to further despise Fox and its affiliates, and the right-wing to re-think their news sources. Williams concludes "now they've got Beck labeled as this guy that is trying to incite violence. And what I say is that if the truth incites violence, it means that we've been living too long in the lies." That is the problem with not being an informed citizen, people hear one side of an issue and take that individual's opinion as absolute. Sure, Beck blows things out of proportion which influences the minds of those that "follow" him, but to conclude that all American people will launch an attack from one of his ridiculous ideas is in itself ridiculous. Neiwert uses one case to portray that Beck is unhealthy for the American public... but couldn't such outspoken assumptions be called "Beck-like" actions?
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