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You are here: Home / Word Salad

Word Salad

by $8 blue check mistermix|  April 20, 201110:07 am| 33 Comments

This post is in: General Stupidity

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Josh Green ran the Beck and O’Reilly show teases through word cloud software and got this result (Beck is first):

Looking at this, I can’t disagree with Green’s conclusion, which is that Beck was fired because he wasn’t pushing Fox memes. But that’s not all — judging from those clouds, being a Beck watcher is a full-time job, because Glenn is all over the map. You need to have a level of devotion akin to that of a serious Trekkie or Star Wars geek just to follow Glenn’s latest stream of crazy talk. And that kind of inward-focused fandom isn’t really the basis of any kind of effective political activism.

Fox was wise to jettison him, but what good did he really do? For a short period of time, a few of his teatard listeners fought the socialist menace, and perhaps that coincided with Fox’s meme of the day, but mainly he’s just an erratic clown.

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Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    Peter

    April 20, 2011 at 10:12 am

    Is it bad that I’m genuinely curious about the headline “Hiroshima vs Detroit: Which city embraced the American Dream”?

  2. 2.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    April 20, 2011 at 10:17 am

    An erratic clown that has my elderly parents scared out of their wits. He’s a cancer disguised as a sideshow.

  3. 3.

    NobodySpecial

    April 20, 2011 at 10:21 am

    O’Reilly is a shill, and known as such from his days as a celeb chaser. He’ll toe the company line.

    Beck, however, BELIEVES the crazy he’s bringing. He’s a metaphor for the Tea Party vs. GOP drama writ large.

  4. 4.

    Pococurante

    April 20, 2011 at 10:22 am

    I miss Beck. He made mocking Fox News so easy.

  5. 5.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    April 20, 2011 at 10:25 am

    meh. FOX just scraped him off their shoe like the conservative elites are trying to scrape Palin off of theirs.
    He had become a liability instead of an asset.
    In the run up to the 2012 election look for the Wingularity to engulf all three legs of the conservative stool; social conservatives, fiscal conservatives=libertarians/freemarketeers, and neocons.
    Birtherism and islamophobia will be mainstreamed, and the dead end paths (Beck) will be pruned.
    The LoOG is already mainstreaming islamophobia with Kowal.

  6. 6.

    ThresherK

    April 20, 2011 at 10:30 am

    You need to have a level of devotion akin to that of a serious Trekkie or Star Wars geek just to follow Glenn’s latest stream of crazy talk.

    …and keep from “falling in” at the same time.

    I sense the need for a college-level course studying him, like one can dig into the zeitgeist of an Aimee Semple MacPherson or Father Coughlin. Future journos need to know how the mainstream press got suckered into breathlessly following his crap.

  7. 7.

    forked tongue

    April 20, 2011 at 10:30 am

    I admit, I was curious as to why Beck was talking about cats. I couldn’t imagine him liking them, so I wondered whether he was tying them up into the jihadist conspiracy or something. Following the link, I see that it was a reference to “fat cats.” Relief.

  8. 8.

    Chris

    April 20, 2011 at 10:32 am

    judging from those clouds, being a Beck watcher is a full-time job, because Glenn is all over the map. You need to have a level of devotion akin to that of a serious Trekkie or Star Wars geek just to follow Glenn’s latest stream of crazy talk.

    I fall in both categories and strongly resent the association with Beck.

    But seriously, um, yeah, that’s a very good analogy for the level of devotion we’re talking about – with the caveat that for Beck’s followers, the universe they’re exploring is what they think is the real world. I don’t watch Beck, but I imagine his being “all over the map” is a huge part of the appeal – he “explains” everything and its place in the world through the strictly conservative lens. In essence, he tells them what to think about just about anything, not just a few pet issues.

  9. 9.

    leo

    April 20, 2011 at 10:32 am

    I’m distressed by the lack of prominence of the word ‘liberals’. Is it something we’ve done?

  10. 10.

    RP

    April 20, 2011 at 10:33 am

    Following the link, I see that it was a reference to “fat cats.” Relief.

    So he was fired for making fun of Tunch?

  11. 11.

    MikeJ

    April 20, 2011 at 10:37 am

    @RP: Didn’t you know that Tunch wrote “Obama”‘s books?

  12. 12.

    Joseph Nobles

    April 20, 2011 at 10:39 am

    Another difference here: O’Reilly went to Harvard to research how to construct his current program. Beck made his own online university.

  13. 13.

    cathyx

    April 20, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Wow, my word cloud would have chocolate, wine, dark chocolate, red wine, dancing with the stars, and american idol in it. Does that sound shallow?

  14. 14.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    April 20, 2011 at 10:42 am

    @Chris: dude. His ratings were falling.
    And it isn’t possible to mainstream Beck.
    Like DougJ predicts, there will be an attempt to mainstream birtherism in the run up to 2012 as the Wingularity begins to engulf the libertarian wing of the GOP.
    The LoOG is already mainstreaming islamophobia.

  15. 15.

    Zifnab

    April 20, 2011 at 10:42 am

    So they canned him because he wasn’t repetitive enough?

    Say what you will about Beck, but he’s running a decidedly different con than the FOX’n’Friends folks. Murdoch is running a propaganda operation. Beck was shooting for cult status.

  16. 16.

    Comrade Javamanphil

    April 20, 2011 at 10:47 am

    @RP: Win!

  17. 17.

    Ash Can

    April 20, 2011 at 10:48 am

    @Zifnab:

    So they canned him because he wasn’t repetitive enough?

    They’d replace him with matoko, but that would put them in violation of child labor laws.

  18. 18.

    Hermione Granger-Weasley

    April 20, 2011 at 10:52 am

    @Ash Can: if you look at the difference between word clouds, you can see why it is not possible to mainstream Beck, to umm….legitimize him…he is too outlier in his word cloud.
    There is no plausible deniability for the crazipants.

  19. 19.

    Violet

    April 20, 2011 at 10:52 am

    @Zifnab:

    Say what you will about Beck, but he’s running a decidedly different con than the FOX’n’Friends folks. Murdoch is running a propaganda operation. Beck was shooting for cult status.

    This is exactly right. The FnF folks and O’Reilly recognize they are cogs in the propaganda wheel. They’ll toe the party line. Beck wants people to follow him. He wants to be the leader.

    You don’t see O’Reilly out there staging his own marches on the Mall in DC. He might show up at some Tea Party event if asked by his bosses at Fox, but he’ll never organize the whole thing himself.

    Fox is a propaganda organization. If you aren’t helping sell the message, or if you are becoming the story, you are out the door.

  20. 20.

    Villago Delenda Est

    April 20, 2011 at 10:53 am

    @MikeJ:

    This explains that nasty lawsuit between Tunch and William Ayers…

  21. 21.

    bkny

    April 20, 2011 at 10:56 am

    OMG … the nyt has photographic proof on the front page that not only is barack hussein obama a kenyanmuslimoogabooga — he’s also a PIRATE!

    i can’t wait to see what the teatards do with that… lol

  22. 22.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    April 20, 2011 at 11:02 am

    @Zifnab:

    Say what you will about Beck, but he’s running a decidedly different con than the FOX’n’Friends folks. Murdoch is running a propaganda operation. Beck was shooting for cult status.

    Exactly right. Fox is Pharisee-TV and Beck has gone Dead Sea Scrolls on them.

  23. 23.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    April 20, 2011 at 11:02 am

    You need to have a level of devotion akin to that of a serious Trekkie or Star Wars geek just to follow Glenn’s latest stream of crazy talk.

    Or mebbe just the attention span of an Irish Setter…

    Let’s not read something into the data that just might not be there…

  24. 24.

    TooManyJens

    April 20, 2011 at 11:11 am

    Cookies?

    Edit: nevermind. I clicked through and RTFA.

  25. 25.

    Valdivia

    April 20, 2011 at 11:11 am

    I’ve thought for a long time that birtherism only works because Obama’s mom and grandparents are dead. Can you imagine that shit if she were alive?

  26. 26.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    April 20, 2011 at 11:16 am

    those clouds remind me of the appropriately titled band, garbage.
    I’m only happy when it rains
    I’m only happy when it’s complicated
    And though I know you can’t appreciate it
    I’m only happy when it rains
    You know I love it when the news is bad
    Why it feels so good to feel so sad
    I’m only happy when it rains

    only happy when it rains

  27. 27.

    handy

    April 20, 2011 at 11:23 am

    @Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:

    I kind of liked that song (and the band). They were a nice refresher from all the Brit pop blowing up at the time on the radio.

  28. 28.

    SpotWeld

    April 20, 2011 at 11:23 am

    I stand by my current theory that Beck will be back and repackaged as a special “Tea Party Corrispondent” for the Tea Party coverage for Fox during the 2012 elections.

  29. 29.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 20, 2011 at 11:53 am

    Meh, looks like Billo is just more current news and Becko is a fool with a mic.

  30. 30.

    maus

    April 20, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    Is there a way to get Beck tv/radio transcripts?

  31. 31.

    BombIranForChrist

    April 20, 2011 at 4:52 pm

    Does anyone happen to know if there is any good software out there that will create word clouds but that are NOT online? I want to do some of this for work, but I don’t want to paste our work stuff into a 3rd party site in order to get the word cloud.

    Also, I am having a hard time finding the word “Nazi” in Beck’s cloud. I guess FOX doesn’t let him tease with the word Nazis.

    I see Cookies is up there, so maybe that is a wingnut code word for Nazis. Dunno. Confused.

  32. 32.

    Kewalo

    April 20, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    One of the things that Beck has been most successful at is demonizing prominent lefties. I post on a message board with a ton of crazy, stupid wingnuts. They always bring up Soros and Van Jones. And rarely a week goes by that someone doesn’t mention Alinsky, as if they have any idea what he wrote about.

    And I don’t think it’s so funny. He has continually called the left socialist, commies and heaven only knows what else and the people that have watched him actually believe him. I’m really glad he is gone (or going) and I really pray that he doesn’t get another high profile job.

  33. 33.

    Anne Laurie

    April 20, 2011 at 8:46 pm

    @Ash Can:

    They’d replace him with matoko, but that would put them in violation of child labor laws.

    I LOLed. Thanks!

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