Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin are living ironies: media personalities who claim to be abused by the very media that give them breath.
Beck, who held an evangelistic pep rally in Washington on Saturday, said he chose the date not because it coincided with an anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, but because that was when headliner Palin was available.
No dummy, Beck. He knew that Palin, who is famous for being famous, would attract not just crowds, but coverage. He knew he could use his media platform on Fox News to promote his gig while claiming to be a victim of the media.
Beck first claimed he didn’t know the significance of the Aug. 28 date, then asserted that he inherited King’s civil rights mantle. But Beck, who scribbles frenetically on a blackboard on his media platform while purporting to unveil hidden historical truths, apparently doesn’t know that King was deeply concerned about economic injustice. Maybe he needs to read up on the Poor People’s March.
Palin can be just as ignorant of history. She often tells Tea Party audiences that she wants to return the nation to its constitutional roots as the founders intended. Well, the founders intended that slavery be legal and women be quiet. Were the country to return to Palin’s vision, she would have to turn in her voter registration card.
Although the Beck-Palin distortion of history is lamentable, their hypocrisy regarding their lofty stature on an elite media platform is nonsensical. Without the media for which they work, they wouldn’t have a voice. Without coverage by the “lamestream” media they mock, their voices would echo across an empty wasteland.
Despite their claims to the contrary, they are media creatures.
