Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America »

DANA MILBANK is a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post and a prize-winning White House reporter. He has written three books, including the national bestseller Homo Politicus. He lives in Washington with his wife and daughter.

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank takes a fair and balanced look at the unsettling rise of the silly Fox News host Glenn Beck.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that “the tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” In America in 2010, Glenn Beck provides the very refreshment Jefferson had in mind: Whether he’s the patriot or the tyrant, he’s definitely full of manure.

The wildly popular Fox News host with three million daily viewers perfectly captures the vitriol of our time and the fact-free state of our political culture. The secret to his success is his willingness to traffic in the fringe conspiracies and Internet hearsay that others wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole: death panels, government health insurance for dogs, FEMA concen­tration camps, an Obama security force like Hitler’s SS.

But Beck, who is, according to a recent Gallup poll, admired by more Americans than the Pope, has nothing in his background that identifies him as an ideologue, giving rise to the speculation that his right-wing shtick is just that—the act of a brilliant showman, known for both his over-the-top daily out­rages and for weeping on the air.

Milbank describes, with lacerating wit, just how the former shock jock without a college degree has managed to become the most recognizable leader of antigovernment conservatives and exposes him as the guy who is single-handedly giving patri­otism a bad name.

The Washington Post - David Oshinsky

…[a] droll, take-no-prisoners account of the nation's most audacious conspiracy-spinner.

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Crying All The Way To The Bank 17

Chapter 2 God Smiles On A "Recovering Dirtbag" 29

Chapter 3 The White Horse Prophecy 44

Chapter 4 The End Is Near ... And The Ratings Are Through The Roof! 64

Chapter 5 Crazy Like A Fox 78

Chapter 6 A Hemorrhoid On The Body Politic 92

Chapter 7 The Midas Touch 102

Chapter 8 Glenn Beck's Love Affair With Hitler 117

Chapter 9 Woodrow Wilson, Spawn Of Satan 127

Chapter 10 Scalps 138

Chapter 11 Hey, Kids, Let's Put On A Show! 163

Chapter 12 Paging Agent Mulder 177

Chapter 13 The Facts Are Stubborn Things 188

Chapter 14 A Kindred Soul 204

Chapter 15 Some Of His Best Friends 217

Chapter 16 The 9/12 Movement 229

Chapter 17 Glenn Beck Is Not Responsible For Any Acts Of Violence Committed By His Viewers; He's Just An Entertainer 245

Acknowledgments 259