United Liberty
Glenn Beck’s new “libertarian” network is a good thing
Wed, 01/09/2013 - 11:30am | posted by Brian Lehman
When I first heard that Glenn Beck was going to relaunch his “The Blaze” as a libertarian-focused network, I was skeptical as I’m sure a lot of libertarians were. While Beck has called himself a libertarian for some time, he has spent the last few years peddling in conspiracy theories and general looniness that has served to be quite an embarassment. I used to listen to his radio show and watched his Fox News program for about a year before I became tired of his antics. So when his show was canceled and he moved to a pay-per-view format, I was glad to see him go.
But Beck has proven he knows what he is doing. He has been able to create a successful business outside the cable world. He is reaching a sizable audience, largely of the young folks that need to be won to the libertarian cause. These folks might already be leaning that way and would benefit greatly from hearing more libertarian viewpoints and analysis. And there are many more who simply never hear this perspective who might be getting it for the first time, or the first time by actual libertarians instead of cartoonish versions given by the regular media.
By no means should we be naive here - Beck could be doing this for purely cynical reasons and he has not shown the best judgment in who he chooses to give a platform. He is by no means a “perfect” spokesman - he has loads of baggage and a tendency to say some bothersome things. But on the other hand, libertarians simply do not have much media penetration at all now. We get the occasional visit by Judge Napolitano on Fox News (who subscribes to some truther conspiracies) and the excellent show hosted by John Stossel. Beyond that, though, what we get is the mainstream media either ignoring us or portraying us as nutjobs. The average American cannot define what a libertarian is or how our viewpoint differs from left and right.
So if the new Beck network gets these views out there, I’m all for it. If it brings more into the fold of thinking beyond red and blue, who am I to argue? Surely it could backfire and end up causing more of a headache than a benefit, but for once I’m choosing to be cautiously optimistic. The libertarian worldview simply must reach a wider audience, and it may just take an imperfect messenger to do so.
Thanks for the article…from an LIO post elsewhere…
The LIO divides Libertarians as a co-operative movement acting through 3 groups: oriented ( Liberal centrists with some Lib ideas or LIO co-operants), direction ( pledged Libs in a national directional group or to LIO) , and LIO ( pro-Lib fan, advisor or senior ). Others are denominated as simply Lib-interested.
We certainly hope to see more media efforts receptive to Libs and in the future welcome media interested more discussion of Lib tools and wins. Libertarianism is a broad personal, civil society and civic approach based on respect for rights, interest in self-empowerment and voluntary tools, and a specific mission of encouraging Libertarian-based, non-punitive and voluntary eco-communities starting with homes.
The SMILE self-organizing platform is at our site, and many tools are used by average people catalyzed by over 1 MM supporters leading progressive change in every nation today.
For info on people using voluntary Libertarian tools on similar and other issues worldwide, please see the non-partisan Libertarian International Organization @ http://www.Libertarian-International.org ….
For the record, I agree with Brian. Anyone with that large of a following promoting acceptance of libertarian ideas is a good thing.
Our job as *actual* libertarians is to promote the ideas put forth on his platform that are libertarian and soundly rebuke the ideas put forth that are not, while providing alternative solutions.
Any way you slice it though, having 10 or 15 million people who would have never considered investigating libertarianism now able to go ahead and google the term because GB has given them the “okay” is a good thing. Just need to keep the message coming out of The Blaze between the rails.
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I am a college student, recently diagnosed with ADD. I may have synesthesia, as I sometimes do things like thinking of scents/sounds as having colors, shapes, or both (in case any of that information provides relevant context).
Being a leader is that good. All we need to do is make a good member. - Reputation
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