‘Restoring History’

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Professor Beck

“A few months ago, the cable-television and radio host Glenn Beck began his Fox News show with one of his favorite props: a pipe clenched between his teeth. ‘I’ve got my pipe,’ he told his audience, his speech slightly muddled by the stem, ‘because we’re going to speak about schoolish kind of things.’ The theme of the day was “Restoring History,’ and Beck, looking professorial in a neat dark blazer and a pink button-down shirt, began the lesson by peering at a stack of history textbooks and pronouncing them full of falsehoods, produced by ‘malicious progressive intent.’ ... For the next hour, Beck earnestly explained some of the history that ‘is being stolen from us’ ... For the fractious Tea Party movement, Beck—a former drive-time radio jockey, a recovering alcoholic, and a Mormon convert—has emerged as both a unifying figure and an intellectual guide. One opinion poll, released in July by Democracy Corps, showed that he is ‘the most highly regarded individual among Tea Party supporters,’ seen not merely as an entertainer, like Rush Limbaugh, but as an “educator.’”

—Sean Wilentz, writer, “Confounding Fathers: The Tea Party’s Cold War Roots,”
The New Yorker, Oct. 18, 2010.

Editorial Comment: Professor Beck, the dog wouldn’t eat my homework.





Today’s Extra: Miniature Earth (video)

PeezPix: Burnished Fall Field

JCOM News Note: NPR foreign correspondent ANNE GARRELS comes to Utah State next week for class meetings and to deliver a Morris Media & Society Lecture: “Bearing Witness—One journalist’s take on covering the world.” Garrels comes to USU fresh from several weeks in Russia. When the U.S. “shock and awe” bombing started in Baghdad, Garrels was one of 16 U.S. journalists who stayed to cover the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. Her 2003 book, Naked in Baghdad, tells that story. Over three decades, Garrels has been in Russia, China, the Middle East and elsewhere in war and peace to bear witness and tell the rest of us what she has seen. JCOM student session Wednesday 11/3, 2:30 p.m. AnSc 303. Public speech Thursday, 11/4, 2-3:15 p.m., USU Performance Hall. Free & open to everyone.

WRITING PROF WANTED! JCOM @ USU is hiring. A search for a new tenure-track faculty member to focus on the teaching of writing. Revolutionary! See job posting at Utah State University HR or email ted.pease@usu.edu.

NOTE: Today’s WORD on Journalism is now on Facebook! Join up and rant daily! And join USU JCOM Alumni & Friends on FB.

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