Podcasts Culture Point of Inquiry Alexander Zaitchik - Glenn Becks War on Reason

Alexander Zaitchik - Glenn Becks War on Reason

Published: Aug. 14, 2010, 12:02 a.m.

This week, the scope of Point of Inquiry expands to include politics and more particularly, the fount of misinformation that is Glenn Beck of Fox News. This TV and radio personality is ushering in a new reign of ignorance in our national discourse\u2014and even has the gall to liken his efforts to those of Martin Luther King, Jr.

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But investigative journalist Alexander Zaitchick has pinned Beck to a wall with his new book Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance. He\u2019s even provoked Beck into denouncing him for practicing "despicable, yellow journalism." Coming from Beck, that\u2019s a compliment.

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So tune in to learn more about how Beck has become a new icon of American irrationality\u2014and just general cluelessness.

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Alex Zaitchik is a freelance journalist living in Brooklyn, New York. He\u2019s contributed to Salon.com, The Nation, Wired, and many other distinguished publications. In the course of his career he has reported from locations ranging from Miami to Moscow, from Prague to Mexico City\u2014and Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance is his first book.