Glenn Beck: Closet liberal?
Maybe not, but he had bloggers on the left cheering when he took a stand in favor of Miranda rights, says Meghan Daum in the LA Times
Glenn Beck, historically a scathing critic of the Obama administration, shocked liberals last week when he... uh, agreed with them, writes Meghan Daum in the L.A. Times. The left's "cardinal antagonist" defended the reading of Miranda rights to Times Square bombing suspect Faizal Shahzad, even as Republicans like Senator John McCain attacked the decision. "We don't shred the Constitution when it's popular," said Beck. "We do the right thing." Leading commentators on the left lined up to praise Beck for saying something they agreed with, but perhaps we should take his "uncharacteristically dovish" position with a pinch of salt, writes Daum:
"Amusing as it has been, all of this has also somehow managed to be almost poignant rather than actually poignant — or even all that meaningful. That's because praising Beck seems less about giving credit where it's due than about seizing the rare opportunity to disprove certain laws of physics — like the one that says [liberals] and Beck will never share even a tiny fraction of ideological space...
"It doesn't rise above culture war cliches; it proves one of the biggest, that most media conservatives are too unsophisticated to grasp their own incompetence and too many media liberals' bleeding-heart inclinations extend to grading on a curve....
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"Beck's words were deemed commendable not because they were brave or revelatory but mostly because they were a departure from a norm; they represented, to many liberals, a moment of uncustomary unterribleness."
Read the full article at the L.A. Times.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Underneath the noise, however, there’s an existential crisis'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
2024: the year of distrust in science
In the Spotlight Science and politics do not seem to mix
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published
-
The Nutcracker: English National Ballet's reboot restores 'festive sparkle'
The Week Recommends Long-overdue revamp of Tchaikovsky's ballet is 'fun, cohesive and astoundingly pretty'
By Irenie Forshaw, The Week UK Published