Philip Martin
Burnt Orange Report
Saturday, February 20, 2010

Last week, I argued that Debra Medina was set-up by Glenn Beck and Rick Perry (“Gut Reaction: Team Rick Perry Used Glenn Beck to Attack Debra Medina”). As you’ll recall, Medina was skyrocketing in the polls — it was certain she would force a runoff, and becoming increasingly possible that she would be in that runoff herself. For Medina, a quick appearance on Glenn Beck’s radio show probably seemed like a terrific idea — Beck’s constant promotion of extreme right-wing views appealed to the type of people who were supporting Debra Medina.

But Medina was not talking to Glenn Beck the activist — because there is no such thing. Especially not when Beck’s boss is such a major supporter of Rick Perry. According to the Texas Ethics Commission, Clear Channel CEO and Chairman Lowry Mays has donated almost $300,000 to Rick Perry.

Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and countless other right-wing radio station personalities are owned by Clear Channel. Beck is paid $10 million by a Clear Channel subsidiary for his radio show (Source: Forbes). Is it any surprise, then, that he ambushed Medina the way he did — and subsequently told all of his radio listeners to support Perry? After he finished his interview with Medina, Beck went on to pronounce his love for Rick Perry (Source: Radio Interview Transcript):

GLENN: I think I can write her off the list. Let me take another look at Kay Bailey Hutchison if I have to. Rick, I think you and I could French kiss right now.

PAT: Let me tell you something. He’s a damn handsome man.

GLENN: He’s a damn handsome man.

PAT: Looks good in a pair of jeans.

GLENN: Wow.

PAT: He’s a handsome man.

GLENN: Wow. The fastest way back to 4%.

The set-up by Beck was quickly echoed throughout the mainstream media. The Dallas Morning News went on to immediately call it a “game-ending-gaffe.” Few in the media, however, noted Perry’s financial ties to Clear Channel and Glenn Beck — or took any moments to repeat the absolutely bizarre conspiracy theories Beck puts out on his own. After all, this is Glenn Beck:

It sadly is not surprising that violence can result when Beck proclaims that our government is marching towards fascism, or when he salivates at the thought of the rising up of a militias, or when he warns that “we are a county heading towards socialism, totalitarianism, beyond your wildest imagination”. Distrust and hatred of government are not unforeseeable results when Beck tells his audience that “everything” reported on by the traditional media “is a lie”, or when he claims that the AmericCorps bill “indoctrinates your child into community service through the federal government”. When Beck muses aloud about the various ways he could kill Michael Moore, or lashes out at the “the war against the American way”, and when he claims that the president’s budget is enslaving and “out and out evil” (more evil than extraordinary rendition, according to Beck), he cannot feign surprise if and when the seeds of hatred and panic he sows bear fruit.

When he flatly and unequivocally states that the “destruction of the West is happening”, or when he shows photos of the president transitioning to photos of Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin and asks “is this where we’re headed?”, he is not merely playing the role, as he puts it, of the “rodeo clown.”

Debra Medina’s gaffe — set-up by a suspicious line of questioning from an employee of one of Rick Perry’s top contributors — could end up being the turning point from the election going to a runoff to Perry winning the primary outright.

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