Earlier this year, when Tucker Carlson launched The Daily Caller, his purportedly non-ideological HuffPo-style website, mainstream outlets approached the news with the same mix of hope and skepticism you see on a little kid’s face after he hits his first little league home run. Writing for The New Republic, Jason Zengerle called the libertarian-minded Carlson an “excellent” journalist, in spite of his “lousy” TV persona. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz remarked that Carlson, on the eve of the Caller’s launch, “maintained his boyish enthusiasm and preppy look.” Overall, coverage was pretty kind; the journalistic community seemed eager to give the guy another chance.
But The Blaze, Glenn Beck’s brand spankin’ new foray into digital journalism received such fanfare. Perhaps because the site, slapped together in just two months, makes no attempt to hide its vicious agenda. Carlson followed through on some of his ombudsmanly promises, like gaving Arianna Huffington a column and hiring former Guardianeditor Megan Mulligan to serve as executive editor. Carlson also broke a big story about RNC spending. But Beck has sunk further into his familiar cesspool of diatribes and hatemongering. The Blazeseems to be fueled exclusively by the noxious, leftover fumes wafting off his TV and radio shows.
There are many places to start criticizing the site, so perhaps it’s best to start at the top, where readers are immediately greeted with advertisements for Goldline International, a gold company currently under investigation for misleading customers. Those that know Beck know he has a reputation for robustly exalting Goldline on the air—it is, he has gushed, a “top-notch organization,” composed of “people I trust.” But according to the Santa Monica District Attorney’s office, which is currently conducting the joint investigation with L.A. County’s District Attorney, the company has made a habit of providing false information to its patrons. Its “superior rating” from the Better Business Bureau is, as Mother Jones’ Stephanie Mencimer reported, available to “pretty much any Joe with a credit card.”
The ads are one problem; actual content is another. Readers who visit Beck’s site yesterday could not avoid a lead story (right below those Goldline ads) concerning Rev. Al Sharpton’s supposed “involvement” in a black power rally at the Lincoln Memorial 10 years ago. According to The Blaze’s Scott Baker, video of the rally “features Sharpton’s affirmation of the New Black Panthers and [Black panther leader Malik Zulu Shabazz] declaring solidarity with Sharpton.”
This summary is, of course, misleading. Sharpton does indeed affirm the Black Panthers’ right to exist, but he does so in the middle of listing a whole slew of other black advocacy groups that he believes have the same right. Additionally, Sharpton never even comes close to validating Shabazz’s more volatile viewpoints, as Baker suggests. He simply takes the podium after Shabazz finishes speaking. The claim Baker is left with—that Sharpton’s silence somehow denotes solidarity with the militant movement—is dubious at best, and reeks of Shirley Sherrod’s fiasco.
Finally, there’s Beck’s address to readers—a jumble of excuses, polemic and hedged promises about journalistic integrity. “Of course we will make mistakes,” he writes. “Honest mistakes. And we’ll be quick with corrections. We intend to earn your trust and keep it day in and day out with hard work and a lot of transparency.” This admission, ostensibly an earnest attempt to bolster readers’ confidence, also allows for a convenient degree of ethical flexibility, the kind that Beck has honed to a dagger’s point.
Beck continues: “Flame is a powerful image. It has long stood for a burning truth. A truth that is not consumed. The Blaze will pursue truth.”
One wonders if he gets the irony.