Lately more and more journalists excuse the Glenn Becks and his compatriots in hate-mongering by asserting without evidence that Beck et.al. are not really that stupid and are not racists, but are entertainers feeding the masses what they want. Well, first I would say that cynical exploitation of racism and race paranoia for money is a greater evil because then you are saying Beck and his cohort are willing to risk racial violence, riots, presidential assassination and the breakdown of civil society for a buck - and not out of sincere concern for an ideological idea. Really, arguing that Beck is not a racist, he just exploits racism for money is not a defense of his character.

I don't understand the media desire to excuse the crazies like Beck, Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter, G. Gordon Liddy and Rush Limbaugh. Considering the things they have said and done, these are people that a sane society would ostracize and shun. They would not be invited on any respectable television program. We can just posit that FOX is not respectable and so would likely always be welcome there, but they should be invisible to the rest of the world. It's not true that shedding light on the crazies exposes their craziness. It merely helps them connect to more crazies.

Now, I know they are not constant. They were fine with runaway deficit spending when it was Republican deficits and their devotion to a balanced budget is completely partisan. Likewise, the position on nearly every issue that comes down the pike. They are reflexively oppositional and a pure weather vane on partisan policies. But they are constant and unwavering in their devotion to Republican power and electoral success - at any cost and will sacrifice any and all principles to that end...so they are sincere, sincerely devoted to the building of GOP power, at the expense of anything, even civil society. They would let millions die from Swine Flu if it build GOP power, they would promote the assassination of a president if it built GOP power, they would destroy our economy and the long-term security of the united states if it built GOP power. Once you realize that the GOP and this commentariat are one and the same and they have no principle but power, they are constant and consistent and compeltely sincere.

Most of the people like Beck, Rush, and G. Gordon are quite sincere and secure in their beliefs. Some people call them crazy, fringe, and opportunistic, and wonder why they have a large following. The answer is simple, even if nobody wants to hear it. They have a large following because there is a large population of people in America who are, in a word, bad. As in racist, self-centered, hateful, or otherwise not nice to others.

Somehow there is a feeling that Americans are noble, intelligent, forward-thinking, right-minded, and morally upstanding. I have no idea where this idea comes from, it is not born out in our history. We did have a history of success at nation-building, but only at a cost of many (often ignored) acts of oppression and atrocity. But the gradual decline of our empire has started, and it exposes what was previously hidden and overlooked: that Americans generally do not live up to the high standards that are attributed to our founding fathers and occasional great leaders.

What's scary is that neither side realizes just how crazy they truly are, and this thread is an excellent example of that. The left-wing nuts in this country are just as crazy, narrow minded, self centered, and hateful as the right-wing nuts. It's always funny (and scary) to hear one side bash the other side for these qualities without realizing that many on their side also have the very same traits.

I think the sincerity varies. Olberman recently opined in an interview that Limbaugh was sincere but Hannity was just running a Shtick.

Now I don't think that even someone running a schtick would spend as much of their life hanging out with folks he didn't have some affinity for. But at the same time I think its pretty clear that Hannity, Limbaugh and even Beck are very well aware of how they are distorting and mis-representing the facts.

And yes this IS rather evil. And I don't think the media is actually giving them a pass by pointing out their mendacity in their content. I DO think that they very much are underscore the evilness of such mendacity.

Why do I believe that these guys are distorting the facts? Because of how carefully and narrowly couched their language invariably is. Because of how carefully they select both their guests and their callers. Because of how carefully they guide the discussions when they do have "hostile" guests.

Notice they don't invite the Viktor Navaskis, the Noam Chomskies, Robert Reich, Paul Krugman, Bill Maher, or even McCain's Daughter. Why? because each of these are either intellectual heavyweights who KNOW how to call out their illogic and have facts to back it up - or they- like McCain's Daughter, can't be attacked later on.

Remember Clinton's interview on Fox with Chris Wallace - where Clinton called him out very clearly on Wallace's bias, now think what would happen to Hannity if someone of similar passion, intellect and communication's skills faced off with him? With Limbaugh? with Gingrich?

The idea that there is equivalence between the right and left on this is as convenient as it is false. Name left-wing opinion leaders (not anonymous commenters on blogs but cable pundits and talk radio and electeds) who say and do such irresponsible things as telling people to shoot federal agents in the head, wish McVeigh had blown up the NYT, acted otu the murder of an elected congresswoman, approved bringing assault weapons to presidential town halls and need I go on?

Yes, you can find crazies on the left who leave nasty comments in blog posts and say outrageous things, but they don't get a tv cable show.

You're right! Only people in your political party are sane, rational, and inherently good.

Bojnik:

You're right! Only people in your political party are sane, rational, and inherently good.

OK which Dem National leader ever accused Reagan, GB Pere, or GB Fils of

• Being a Nazi? Hitler? A commy?
• Which ex VP candidate for the Dems did that?
• Which Left Leaning talkshow host put up pictures of GWB's daughters calling them dogs?
• Which left leaning pundit wished publically that McVeigh had hit Newscorp HQ instead?
• Which democrat called Reagan, GB Pere or GB Fils a liare on the floor of Congress - even though all 3 were demonstrably lying at the time?

Sorry, It is true that scoundrels are not the province of any one organization.

It is ALSO true that the conservatives are engaged in an irrational hate filled vitriol which we have naver seen from the liberals. They are moe akin to the SLA, Charlie Manson and the SDS in their rhetoric.

Except that they are not "fringe groups". They are mainstream conservative Pols.

I swear poor reading comprehension is a partisan issue. Of course you can find fringe yahoos on the left who are bad, hateful and nasty people. But you won't find that kind of behavior in the leadership, the elite or the left media - but go ahead and pretend that some yahoo in his pajamas in his mom;s basement has as big a megaphone as Sean Hannity