Crazy of the Year!
2009 will be remembered as the year that one man's craziness gripped America with fear
ByTopics: News
The staff and readers of Salon had a big debate over choosing Glenn Beck our “Crazy Person of the Year.” As we stated in the introduction to “The Year in Crazy,” we disqualified certain media stars — Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly — and some GOP leaders — Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney — whose crazy behavior was purely opportunistic. We rejected prominent people who had a crazy belief or two — Whoopi Goldberg casting doubt on the moon landing — but didn’t seem driven by crazy.
Only one man was crazy enough to possibly trick us. Only one man stood on a media platform comparable to O’Reilly’s and Limbaugh’s, and delivered a crazy shtick that was so over the top that sometimes you’d say: He doesn’t believe any of this, right? The tears, the shaking, the hysteria — it’s all an act, right? And sometimes you’d say, “Get the nets, Fox News!”
Yes, that man is Glenn Beck, and we come down on the side of “Get the nets!” An overview of Beck’s career shows that his success is equal parts talent, timing, cruelty and crazy.
The man who would be King of the Crazies emerged when nut-job America really needed a leader. Since he started his career as a prank-and-smear shock jock with a bad perm, one who once called a rival DJ’s wife on the air live to ask her about her miscarriage, it’s clear Beck will do anything for attention. But, somehow, the anything always involves a big helping of crazy.
The kinds of statements and behaviors that got folks on our crazy list — they’re Beck’s daily bread. On one recent Monday alone (thanks, Media Matters!) he claimed that on climate change, “America is now an Axis country … on the wrong side of history” (for the young folks: Nazi Germany was an Axis power); that Democrats will “retain power … in a way that Americans” won’t “recognize” after their policies fail; that he was readying a healthcare exposé for his Monday Fox News show that would be a Van Jones-size coup. (It turned out to be that the husband of a congresswoman who supports healthcare reform went to jail for fraud — and Beck claims he wrote the Democrats’ healthcare reform from jail.) Of course, the Democrats actually don’t have a healthcare reform bill (and they should probably collectively go to jail for their failure to produce one by now).
Of course, the mention of Van Jones, the White House green jobs czar toppled by Beck’s combination of sensationalistic reporting and bullying (Jones signed a 9/11 Truth petition and flirted with extreme leftism in his youth), is a reminder that crazy has consequences. Beck’s crazy has intersected with a broader social paranoia on the right, and it’s clearly something to worry about, not merely mock. We also don’t want to make light of mental illness, and given Beck’s own confessions about his drug addictions and his mother’s suicide, it’s clear he deserves some sympathy.
But not much. There are great therapists, therapies and even some legal drugs out there that could help Beck, but instead he’s chosen to funnel his crazy into stirring dangerous hatreds. Glenn, if you decide you need psychological help, we’ll help you get it, but until then all we have for you is this ignoble award, the craziest person in this crazy year of 2009. Congratulations!
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Teen activist to meet with Abercrombie CEO
-
Watch: Family emerges from storm shelter after tornado
-
Must-see morning clip: Barackalypse Now
-
Okla. tornado survivor reunited with dog trapped in rubble live on camera
-
Is Pope Francis an exorcist?
-
Oklahoma death count confirmed at 24, 9 children
-
Frantic parents search for children in tornado's wake
-
Crews dig through rubble after deadly tornado
-
51 killed in massive Oklahoma tornado
-
Don't cry climate-change wolf
-
Record tornado devastates Oklahoma
-
Limbaugh: No one willing to impeach the first black president
-
Tornado reduces Oklahoma City suburb to rubble
-
AP: Toll at least 37 dead in Okla. tornado
-
Entire Midwest on tornado warning
-
Oregon senator proposes appeal to Monsanto Protection Act
-
Supreme Court to rule on prayer at government meetings
-
Beltway scandal machine breaks, knows nothing about America
-
Gitmo hunger striker launches Twitter campaign
-
"Hero" cop, honored by Obama, accused of double rape
-
Father of gay high school student arrested for dating classmate speaks out
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Horrifying new trend: Posting rapes to Facebook
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
"Jodorowsky's Dune": The sci-fi classic that never was
Andrew O'Hehir
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
My open relationship went awry
David Farley
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Will you marry me -- once you're done peeing?
Tracy Clark-Flory
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
GOP attorney general candidate tried to force women to report miscarriages to police
Katie Mcdonough
-
Penn Jillette's secrets of "Celebrity Apprentice": Donald Trump is a whackjob!
Penn Jillette
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

940 points941 points942 points | 198 comments

42 points43 points44 points | 8 comments

27 points28 points29 points | 12 comments
From Around the Web
Presented by Scribol
- Chatter: Mile-wide tornado rips through Oklahoma
- Iraq: At least 12 dead in bombings as sectarian violence continues
- Israeli forces exchange gunfire over Israeli-Syrian border in Golan Heights
- Spanish opera protests austerity
- Catholic Church takes on reproductive rights in Philippines, risks further alienation



Comments
99 Comments