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Technical Difficulties: Career

Controversies

Beck’s career has always been saturated in controversy, starting with the offensive pranks he pulled during his morning zoo

DJ days. It seems that creating controversy is simply in Beck’s nature. As his fame and popularity have grown, he has accumu-lated fans as well as enemies.

Beck’s supporters see him as a “real” American, an intelligent everyman who is not afraid to speak his mind and reveal secrets that the government and “liberal media” supposedly do not want Americans to know. A 2010 speech at the National Rifle Association’s Freedom Experience in Charlotte, North Carolina, for example, demonstrates Beck’s tendency to energize a crowd by convincing them that they are being lied to by politicians. “We say, ‘Why doesn’t someone just tell us the truth?’ And the politicians tell you because you’re either too stupid, you won’t understand it, or people will panic. Who are we? We’re Americans! We can handle the truth, we demand the truth, and we can understand the truth!”39

Beck’s critics, on the other hand, see him as an opportunist, a conspiracy theorist, and a man with a selective memory who edits history to support his personal beliefs. Nonsupporters believe he picks fights, makes outrageous claims, and gets overly emo-tional on the air just for ratings. He has even been accused of

Chapter 5

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Technical Difficulties: Career Controversies 63

exploiting his personal life for this purpose. For example, many critics doubt Beck’s claim that his mother committed suicide, and argue that she simply died in an accidental drowning. They accuse Beck of perpetuating the lie that she committed suicide for dramatic effect. Opponents have dug up death certificates, interviewed residents of Puyallup, and studied old news reports in Washington around the time of her reported death, dragging this deeply personal issue into the public spotlight. Although no one will ever know the exact cause of Beck’s mother’s death, it is clear that at least on some occasions, Beck has exaggerated the details of certain aspects of his life.

Beck delivers an impassioned speech to National Rifle Association members at their annual meeting in North Carolina in 2010.

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