WSJ conservative James Taranto with long sympathetic interview with Glenn Beck today. Plenty of movie talk on Beck as Network's Howard Beale and A Face in the Crowd's "Lonesome Rhodes." Here's an excerpt on the latter:
Some of Mr. Beck's detractors on the left, including MSNBC ranter Keith Olbermann, draw a more sinister cinematic analogy. Mr. Olbermann calls Mr. Beck "Lonesome Rhodes," the cynical TV demagogue played by Andy Griffith in 1957's "A Face in the Crowd."
"I had never heard of Lonesome Rhodes," Mr. Beck says. "I had never seen the movie. . . . As soon as I heard that, I watched it. . . . Lonesome Rhodes and I, I guess, had a few things in common. He was a drunk. I'm in AA; he wasn't. He, at the very beginning, said things that he believed—I think. I'm not really even sure on that. I used to not say the things I believe. . . . Now I've made a vow to myself—it actually comes from Immanuel Kant, the philosopher: 'There are many things that I believe that I shall never say. But I shall never say the things that I do not believe.' . . . The minute I violate that, I'm back to the old drunk Glenn."
There is you when you are drunk and you when you are sober. The only difference is the effect alcohol has on YOU. He cannot be "the old drunk Glenn" with a different attitude. He can only be that with booze.
ReplyDeleteIf his behavior just goes bad, it is just Glenn Beck being Glenn Beck; without the excuse of being drunk.
Thanks for posting this. I kept wondering what the heck Olbermann was referring to when he mentioned Lonesome Rhodes. I thought it was roads.
ReplyDeleteAnother mystery solved by Editor & Publisher!