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.
(via)
Peter
Is it bad that I’m genuinely curious about the headline “Hiroshima vs Detroit: Which city embraced the American Dream”?
Comrade Javamanphil
An erratic clown that has my elderly parents scared out of their wits. He’s a cancer disguised as a sideshow.
NobodySpecial
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.
Pococurante
I miss Beck. He made mocking Fox News so easy.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
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.
ThresherK
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.
forked tongue
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.
Chris
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.
leo
I’m distressed by the lack of prominence of the word ‘liberals’. Is it something we’ve done?
RP
So he was fired for making fun of Tunch?
MikeJ
@RP: Didn’t you know that Tunch wrote “Obama”‘s books?
Joseph Nobles
Another difference here: O’Reilly went to Harvard to research how to construct his current program. Beck made his own online university.
cathyx
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?
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@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.
Zifnab
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.
Comrade Javamanphil
@RP: Win!
Ash Can
@Zifnab:
They’d replace him with matoko, but that would put them in violation of child labor laws.
Hermione Granger-Weasley
@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.
Violet
@Zifnab:
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.
Villago Delenda Est
@MikeJ:
This explains that nasty lawsuit between Tunch and William Ayers…
bkny
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
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Zifnab:
Exactly right. Fox is Pharisee-TV and Beck has gone Dead Sea Scrolls on them.
The Republic of Stupidity
Or mebbe just the attention span of an Irish Setter…
Let’s not read something into the data that just might not be there…
TooManyJens
Cookies?
Edit: nevermind. I clicked through and RTFA.
Valdivia
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?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
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
handy
@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.
SpotWeld
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.
Just Some Fuckhead
Meh, looks like Billo is just more current news and Becko is a fool with a mic.
maus
Is there a way to get Beck tv/radio transcripts?
BombIranForChrist
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.
Kewalo
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.
Anne Laurie
@Ash Can:
I LOLed. Thanks!