I want to equip everyone with resources to help them analyze and evaluate anything they're told by followers of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, FOX News, or Glenn Beck.
The following links are very useful and reliable. As far as I've been able to see, FactCheck and Media Matters are both non-partisan organizations dedicated to debunking all sorts of political claims from both sides. PolitiFact was started by a newspaper in Florida and has long been recognized as one of the best sites for weeding through what's fact, what's opinion, and what's total bunk.
When it comes to Glenn Beck in particular, I have even more concerns. Rush, and O'Reilly are just your run-of-the-mill demagogues. FOX President Roger Ailes and owner Rupert Murdoch, like the Koch brothers are just powerful billionaires who use their influence to advance their own interests. Glen Beck however, invokes religion frequently and likes to deliberately evoke a religious fervor in his viewers that really makes you wonder if he isn't in it for the money or the politics, but the power-high of having so many people believe him and act on his instructions, like some kind of a cult leader.
The links above can help you sort through his various specific claims, but for me, the bottom line is that almost every time he speaks he uses fear. If he were really trustworthy, why would he need to do that? 1 John 4:18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out all fear. By connecting any given issue with non-rational aspects of viewer's thinking, like loyalty, emotion, or moral absolutes, Beck makes it more difficult for anyone to reason with them using facts, details or rational argument.
I wrote about Beck's Mormon faith and his appearant use of religious and moral sentiments for leverage in creating division on my religion blog back when he held a rally on the National Mall-http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com/2010/09/glenn-beck-mormon.html
Here are two websites that are clearly not objective, they both make it their mission to document and challenge what they consider Beck's history of distortion, smears, defamation, vitriol, disinformation, and taking advantage of people's anxieties.
My advice is that rather than worrying about trying to have a logical answer for every theory and assertion, try changing the subject or gently explaining that you probably won't always see things the same way and so you'd just assume not get into it at this time. Hopefully, eventually, whoever it is that is trying to convince you of their conspiracy theory of the week will eventually get the message and back off.
WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK IT OUT
- ► FactCheck- for politics and viral email fwds
- ► PolitiFact- to help you find the truth in American politics
- ► Media Matters
The links above can help you sort through his various specific claims, but for me, the bottom line is that almost every time he speaks he uses fear. If he were really trustworthy, why would he need to do that? 1 John 4:18, there is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out all fear. By connecting any given issue with non-rational aspects of viewer's thinking, like loyalty, emotion, or moral absolutes, Beck makes it more difficult for anyone to reason with them using facts, details or rational argument.
I wrote about Beck's Mormon faith and his appearant use of religious and moral sentiments for leverage in creating division on my religion blog back when he held a rally on the National Mall-http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com/2010/09/glenn-beck-mormon.html
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