Glen Beck berates Detroit

[Gistok]

many of you are obviously basing your opinions on hearsay and what you are told about conservatives...

Yea... hearsay.... that's it... obviously we've been watching more than "that one" news source.... [[rolling eyes emoticon).

[partyhardy]

Beck = Clown

I disagree. Clowns are at least entertaining and are probably way more intelligent.

[jackie5275]

Serious question: Who gives a fuck what Glen Beck thinks of Detroit?

Certainly not me. He's not relevant in my life, just as Detroit really isn't relevant to the nation except when they need an example of something negative for whatever point is trying to be made.

[Swimmaven]

Beck's visual presentation had 'Detroit Ruins' photos. Did Fox at least pay a royalty to use them? or, did they just use them?

[EASTSIDE CAT 67-83]

Good thing Glenn Beck doesn't matter in the big scheme of things. The guy is a ego/megalomaniac on the crash and burn final stages of his career. I used to listen to him many years ago when he was on the radio in San Diego and thought he was mildly entertaining but as he gained in popularity and transitioned to cable TV he let his ego get the best of him and grew into an overinflated sense of self importance. Bub bye Beck Detroit does not need you or your opinions.

[old guy]

Why do right-wingers never pick on much more liberal cities like Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle...

Actually, Chicago and San Francisco are his number 1 & 2 targets.

I almost agree with the statements about who cares what he's talking about except for the fact that he preys on the elderly. Several months ago I saw part of an episode where he was telling older, retired people they should go through their houses and find things they no longer use. Sell them and buy survival equipment. At the same time he was pushing his own line of survival gear. It almost reminded me of the famous Soupy Sales episode. Sorry, I loved Soupy and his show.

If you don't think this guy is a total whack job.
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201010010026

[daddeeo]

Beck is an alcoholic, self described clown who has hit rock bottom before. You'd think he would be more sympathetic for a city and it's residents who are struggling.
BUTTTT NNNNOOOO, he gets in a few kicks to the civic groin and doesn't let up.
Here's a guy that revels in the lowest common denominator and makes money by feeding into his listener's paranoid, prejudicial feelings.
He's the guy that stirs up a lynch mob and shakes his head after wards about how terrible it was that
an innocent man was hanged.

[WaCoTS]

this guy is merely another puppet of an all-to-easy-to-guess political party. he is only there to stand up and parrot the BS partisan dogma.

i dont watch these clowns because i am able to think outside of political platforms, as most human beings are.

straightline partisan $h1t-talk makes me vomit. if anything is "killing america" or whatever he called it, then it's partisan politics. and there is no need to waste 7 minutes of everyone's life dramatically belaboring your weak points on the topic at hand.

for-profit media is a tool of the rich to leverage their political views into our heads. i get my news from WWJ and WDET, and i can weed out the BS on my own. i dont need people like this Beck clown to "interpet" the news for me.

[LeannaM]

It is Glenn Beck. I'm a Conservative myself, but I don't take much of what he says very seriously.

He probably picks on Detroit over Chicago because, while both have been run by Democrats for a long time, Detroit makes his point that Democratic rule is disastrous. He just ignores Chicago because Chicago does not fit his hypothesis.

[JTistle1]

The comparison between Detroit and Hiroshima is not new and not"spewed" by just Glenn Beck. My opinion is that what Glenn Beck was suggesting is that Detroit is an example of what 60+ years of poor leadership and government can lead to. A lot of what he does is entertainment, like any talking head. He uses shock to get peoples attention and get people talking about him. Does anyone remember the last Republican mayor for the city of Detroit? I sure can't name him. I guess that we can't blame him for the financial crisis Detroit is in.
http://antioligarch.wordpress.com/20...5-years-later/

[maxx]

If Beck has lost half his audience, who does that half listen to now?

[jeffb]

who finds him "entertaining"?

[Glowblue]

Setting aside for the moment that Beck's premise is flawed [[Japan has more powerful unions and a stronger welfare state than the US), the "Hiroshima" pictures he shows in his little slideshow are not of Hiroshima at all. They are in fact pictures of Yokohama, a wealthy port city over 400 miles away from Hiroshima.

[jbd441]

If Beck has lost half his audience, who does that half listen to now?

Who cares. Beck is like Lindsay Lohan who is like Charlie Sheen and so on, ad nauseum. If no one gives them the time of day, they would just go away. Everytime Beck or any other ass clown utters a damaging or idiotic statement, many pay attention because some of us like to see famous people suffer.... or in Beck's case get ridiculed by the left wing or get a few "atta boy"[[s) from some conservatives. Half the crap they pull is for publicity.
When we STOP paying attention, they will go away.

[TKshreve]

Do people so often forget that the banks are first and foremost responsible for no one being able to purchase a car amid the recession?

The big 3 should not be held accountable for their inability to move the inventory. It's no wonder they needed $$$ to stay afloat while TARP was doind what it did best: Repairing the Holy concept of credit brought to us courtesy of GWB. How else would we have continued our haphazard spending, living outside of our means and not saving a dime while corporations found ways to send our jobs away and small businesses were swallowed/chewed up by large, snakelike conglomerates.

Glenn Beck reminds me of Pinnochio. A puppet first of all. His head is so far buried in FOX's ass, each lie is an instant orgasm for FOX and it's viewers.

[Traxus]

Serious question: Who gives a fuck what Glen Beck thinks of Detroit?

Addendum: Who gives a fuck what Glen Beck thinks?

[DetroitPole]

The subject matter isn't even worth addressing, because it has absolutely no merit. I guess what Hiroshima and Detroit objectively have in common is they are cities on the planet earth. Hell, if it suited his purpose, that fat asshole would draw some half-ass conclusion that Detroit was like, say, Vladivostok.

Here is the good news: most Americans are good, decent people. They are repulsed by extremism and the kind of hate speak that Beck and his ilk spew. Beck achieved his aim: by coming up with sensational nonsense, he got attention. Notice no one is really debating the merits of his argument, because there are virtually none. A more valid comparison would be Detroit to say, Pittsburgh, but that isn't sensational and stupid and wouldn't draw attention for that reason. However Americans grow weary of this vitriol. For example, Sarah Palin has become, while still irritating and unwilling to go away, like, say herpes, marginal in large part due to her own rage and stupidity. Americans were rightfully disgusted with her rhetoric after Tuscon.

However for these hypocritical "conservatives" who routinely scream about personal responsibility [[usually when it applies to minorities or just not to themselves) it is incredibly irresponsible to call these people "entertainers." That simply gives them a carte blanche to say whatever they want, even if it is without any basis in reality, and get away with it, while acting and looking like newscasters. I don't think they fit any kind of definition of "entertainer" that humanity has used thus far, either.

Anyway, as long as these people aren't condoning violence [[though sadly they often are), I say, have at it! What has he achieved from this besides alienating Metro Detroiters? Sure, maybe the 10%-20% of the fascist base that will accept his word as Gospel will eat it up, but they're a small percentage of the country. Nonsense like this, that jack-booted brownshirt in Wisconsin, Palin's unceasing idiocy, and the rest of their ilk will only send the moderates and the independents back into the Democratic camp in disgust. Come on, what can you conservatives come up with next?? Maybe Rush Limbaugh can deny the Holocaust! Propose a bill that ends Social Security! Reduce minimum wage to a dollar an hour! Keep it up guys; I look forward to 2012!

[JTistle1]

Compare Detroit with Pittsburgh? Let's do that.
Unemployment rate Pittsburgh...ranks 112 with unemployment rate of 7.5
Detroit.....ranks 311 with an unemployment rate of 11.1
source: http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm

Housing market Pittsburgh....Best in 2010:1) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Growth rate: 2.67%
Foreclosure Rate: Under 1%
Affordability [[Median House price vs Median Salary): Very High
Tidbits: Pittsburgh was hit adversely by a manufacturing slump before the current crisis. This helped it avoid the current recession. The city is being revitalized with service jobs and is a great place for investors.
Prediction: Pittsburgh will remain stable, but I don’t see any possibility of double digit growth because of a low economic base.

Detroit : 3rd worst ....3) Detroit, Michigan
Growth rate: -21.66% [[average house price is $6,500.. yes… SIX thousand)
Foreclosure Rate: 6.6% [[Five times the national Average, Delinquencies at 18%)
Affordability [[Median House price vs Median Salary): For people that have a job, a home is virtually free.
Tidbits: Detroit’s median house price was close to $100,000 before the recession and the real estate bubble burst. It has been speculated that Detroit was actually what caused the recession. Although investors are buying houses by the dozen, will there be a Detroit as we know it in the future?
Predictions: I feel like Detroit needs government intervention to survive. What does this mean? The Fed’s should put up some companies and jobs there. If there is no job creation in the near future, this could mean an end to the city as an American metropolitan giant.

Source: http://smarterspend.com/2010/03/the-...rkets-of-2010/

You're right, we should compare Detroit with Pittsburgh.

[DetroitPole]

Compare Detroit with Pittsburgh? Let's do that.
Unemployment rate Pittsburgh...ranks 112 with unemployment rate of 7.5
Detroit.....ranks 311 with an unemployment rate of 11.1
source: http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm

Housing market Pittsburgh....Best in 2010:1) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Growth rate: 2.67%
Foreclosure Rate: Under 1%
Affordability [[Median House price vs Median Salary): Very High
Tidbits: Pittsburgh was hit adversely by a manufacturing slump before the current crisis. This helped it avoid the current recession. The city is being revitalized with service jobs and is a great place for investors.
Prediction: Pittsburgh will remain stable, but I don’t see any possibility of double digit growth because of a low economic base.

Detroit : 3rd worst ....3) Detroit, Michigan
Growth rate: -21.66% [[average house price is $6,500.. yes… SIX thousand)
Foreclosure Rate: 6.6% [[Five times the national Average, Delinquencies at 18%)
Affordability [[Median House price vs Median Salary): For people that have a job, a home is virtually free.
Tidbits: Detroit’s median house price was close to $100,000 before the recession and the real estate bubble burst. It has been speculated that Detroit was actually what caused the recession. Although investors are buying houses by the dozen, will there be a Detroit as we know it in the future?
Predictions: I feel like Detroit needs government intervention to survive. What does this mean? The Fed’s should put up some companies and jobs there. If there is no job creation in the near future, this could mean an end to the city as an American metropolitan giant.

Source: http://smarterspend.com/2010/03/the-...rkets-of-2010/

You're right, we should compare Detroit with Pittsburgh.

Sweet Jesus, it was an example I was using to try to illustrate that it makes more sense to compare, say, two rust belt American cities than two cities across the world from each other with absolutely no shared history, culture, economy, language, government, etc. Why didn't Beck just compare it to fucking Babylon, or Sodom and Gomorrah, it would have made just about as much sense.

[Hypestyles]

being familiar with beck's schtick, it doesn't tick me off outright, but I know that plenty of his fans will accept his positions uncritically. i will be sending him a long letter.

[JTistle1]

LOL DetroitPole, It was interesting comparing Pittsburgh and Detroit. I wish I could have found comparable graduation rates. We did stray a bit from this threads point though. Detroit does need to somehow lower its crime rate, make the "hood mentality" be a thing of the past, and bring in more viable businesses that can create employment opportunities in order to move forward. Somehow the tax base of Detroit must be increased to provide satisfactory services to its residents.

[FlyingJ]

isn't Chrysler, Auburn Hills???

Um, if you wanna be technical Ellis, Kansas & Long Island, New York with a buncha moves in between

[jeffb]

52% of wxyz tv's poll say hes spot on...yipes....

[suitsoot]

#1 Glen Beck is a weird guy. I can't take him seriously.
#2 Detroit is a sorry mess and #1 doesn't make #2 false.
#3 Most of the Detroit radio people [[especially Mike Valenti & Pat Caputo) were so stupid and lazy when it came to this topic it made me sick. They didn't even take the time to read a summary of what Beck was saying. They decided to just state over and over that Beck "compared Detroit to a nuked city" when Beck's point was quite different [[Detroit is in much worse shape than a city that was nuked 65 years ago). How can anyone take these guys seriously when they are too lazy to even read an article before they start bitching?
#4 This email has been floating around for a few years and I've received it several times from Detroiters.
#5 A lot of you are missing the point too. Hiroshima IS a beautiful city. Don't just judge by those few pictures. Look it up.

[fryar]

Glen Beck's ratings have tanked to about 50% to what they were a year ago. People are just annoyed with him

Phew...

and he has to go more extreme [[he went on nightly Egypt rants claiming all Muslims were aligning to basically take over the world) to even draw in some audience.

Phew...