One of the most infuriating things about watching Glenn Beck’s radio and television programs is his constant assertion that his network is the only one that is, has been, or ever will be reporting whatever information or story he is covering at any given time.
He does this constantly, myopically insisting that whatever issue or piece of news he is currently fascinated with is not only the most important issue of the day but also that he is the only one with the courage to cover it. For Beck, the fact that he hasn’t personally seen something covered in whatever media outlets he visits must mean that nobody anywhere has ever covered it, leading to truly ridiculous segments like this one today where he reacts to a report today that former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has confirmed that during the economic crisis of 2008, Russia approached China about the possibility of selling off massive amounts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securities in order to create even more chaos; a proposal that China rejected.
Beck can’t understand why people think that is new because his network reported it a whole eight months ago when everyone supposedly mocked and ridiculed them for reporting it because it was too crazy, but now they have been proven correct:
Of course, that piece of information has been known for years and was even dramatized in the 2011 HBO movie based on Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book “Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System–and Themselves“:
The movie isn’t afraid to hammer home its politics in moments like that, or in a scene set during Paulson’s trip to China. It begins with a moment of physical comedy when a Chinese official tries to get Paulson to take a miniature Chinese flag. When he won’t accept it, the official hands the flag off to a little girl, who Paulson hustles to get out of the frame. Later, over dinner, another official tells Paulson that the Russians approached the Chinese about dumping their investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in concert to strike a blow to the American economy. “The amount of debt your country carries is a terrible vulnerability,” the official demurs, delivering a warning. “We declined, respectfully.”
This piece of information has been known for several years, but Glenn Beck is acting as if everyone else is stupid and uniformed for not knowing or caring that his network happened to report it eight months ago.
