Glenn Beck's Overton Window

[IanEye]

I wasn't sure if Hugh Manatee Wins had seen this yet...

further research here

[Nordic]

Wow, this completely astounds me. He's actually titling his book "The Overton Window"?

Yeah, I think this is a new type of word-hijacking, which they call SEO. It's all the rage with corporations, this SEO business.

It stands for Search Engine Optimizer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

The acronym "SEO" can refer to "search engine optimizers," a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into web site development and design. The term "search engine friendly" may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

The point being that the right-wing propagandists, who are quite brilliant at using The Overton Window -- in fact that's WHY they exist, these people like Beck and Coulter, are realizing that they really don't want people to know what The Overton Window really is -- because they're the ones who are exploiting it to full advantage. So Beck is going on the offensive, having his own little youtubes where he describes it in his own perverted fashion (see the OP's 2nd link), and actually WRITING A FUCKING BOOK with The Overton Window as ITS TITLE.

Wow. The guy is brazen, but it works.

So now, once his book comes out, when anyone does a google search for Overton Window, they're gonna be hit with page after page of links to his book, reviews of his book, stuff about him, blah blah blah.

In this way, The Overton Window's true function and true definition becomes lost.

SEO baby. It's the future of corporate information control.

Oh, and by the way, Beck made $32 million dollars last year, even after losing almost all his sponsors on his TV show.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0426/ ... k-inc.html

His hyperactivity is a blessing and a curse for his 34 full-time staffers, too, who chase after Beck and his volcanic mental eruptions, helping him turn those words into new productions and sources of profit. Glenn Beck Inc., formally known as Mercury Radio Arts (after Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre on the Air), pulled in $32 million in revenue during the 12 months ended Mar. 1. You may love or hate him for his outlandish words, but that is how he gets an audience--and sometimes repels advertisers. Some classic Beckisms: "This President, I think, has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" (2009). "Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them. It is the same tactic, however. The goal is different. The goal is globalization" (2007). "I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself or if I would need to hire somebody to do it" (2005).

With a deadpan, Beck insists that he is not political: "I could give a flying crap about the political process." Making money, on the other hand, is to be taken very seriously, and controversy is its own coinage. "We're an entertainment company," Beck says. He has managed to monetize virtually everything that comes out of his mouth. He gets $13 million a year from print (books plus the ten-issue-a-year magazine Fusion). Radio brings in $10 million. Digital (including a newsletter, the ad-supported Glennbeck.com and merchandise) pulls in $4 million. Speaking and events are good for $3 million and television for $2 million. Over several days in mid-March Beck allowed a reporter to follow him through his multimedia incarnations, with one exception, his 5 p.m. daily show on Fox News, which attracts just under 3 million viewers. (FORBES has a relationship with that channel via Forbes on Fox.)

It goes on for a few more pages.


Of course, which one of his 34 full-time staff actually wrote the book?

[IanEye]

here is a haiku i wrote to Mr. Beck:

if your followers
ever touch my family
you will feel my wrath

.

[IanEye]

[JackRiddler]

It's whole new form of hijacking. He's titled the book after the technique on which he bases his own career. He will dishonestly attribute it to a Bill Ayers character or the like. But ask anyone who knows how the Overton window works and they're as likely as not to cite Beck as the best current example.

Coming soon:
Richard Cheney, The Lords of War. (But it's actually about Saddam's plot to destroy the world)
Oliver North, The Drug Mafia. (About stopping it, not being it)
George W. Bush, The Stooge. (etc.)
Barack Obama, The Opportunists.

SORRY! I forgot why I logged in here in the first place:

I'm glad you're not shy to show us what a good looking fellow you are in your new avatar. It's kind of irresistible.

[IanEye]

I'm glad you're not shy to show us what a good looking fellow you are in your new avatar. It's kind of irresistible.

eye blame the Wombat. He kept staring right at me, with nothing to hide.

[Nordic]

Listen, the best article to cover the Overton Window is right here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/5/9/205251/2950

I know it's from Dailykos, but it's from 2006, back when that site still had some good stuff on it.

And here is the quote from it (actually from another source, but whatever) that distills it to its very essence:

The mission of a think tank is to introduce ideas into public discourse and normalize them within the public discourse. The steps an idea takes to full legitimacy are roughly as follows:

--Unthinkable
--Radical
--Acceptable
--Sensible
--Popular
--Policy

It's almost funny that Beck is the quintessential Overton Window operator these days, yet he's the one who is denying the very thing he does. He instead accuses "the left" of using it. And now, to cover his tracks, and so that people won't ever actually find the real definition, he's titling his book The Overton Window in a classic SEO fashion.

The guy is just an evil motherfucker, as are all the people who back him. Luntz for one, who's brilliant at this kind of long-term propaganda.

Once you understand how this all works, a lot of things suddenly make sense. You get it.

[bobdobbs]

It's almost funny that Beck is the quintessential Overton Window operator these days, yet he's the one who is denying the very thing he does. He instead accuses "the left" of using it.

He also has a book called "Arguing With Idiots".

[ultramegagenius]

this is like the million dollar jackpot for the Manatee, i almost wonder if somethin' isn't up. i once accused him of over relying on SEO and unfairly extrapolating it to the decades preceding the digital revolution. now we've come full circle, and the whole business is regurgitating itself through the process of total digitization.

as we are in the midst of a thoroughgoing (top-down) deconstruction, it's only fair that we get at the genealogy of this so-called SEO thing. when Hugh first put a spot light on it, it was called semantic/lexical priming. in the interest of maintaining a legitimate genealogy of power, i'd favor maintaining the original designation over the re-branded "SEO." as Hugh originally described it, the whole thing has been a pretty head-on, no holds barred attempt to re-engineer the very way people encounter any new-to-them concepts coming over the horizon.

i don't know if the Manatee was a prophet, or someone forcing square, digital pegs through round, analogue holes, but this key word hijacking/semantic priming thing is going to be with us for a very long time, if this Beck nonsense is any indication.

[RocketMan]

It's almost funny that Beck is the quintessential Overton Window operator these days, yet he's the one who is denying the very thing he does. He instead accuses "the left" of using it. And now, to cover his tracks, and so that people won't ever actually find the real definition, he's titling his book The Overton Window in a classic SEO fashion.

EXACTLY... thought it could also be argued that it's a part of a larger psychopathology within the Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity/Glenn Beck right in America. All they do is project when they perceive themselves out of power: Rush Limbaugh harps about Obama's "Permanent Campaign", Obama's a big "man child" (echoes of Dubya, anyone?), not to mention Viagra Rush obsessing about other people's sexual hangups... etc...

[thatsmystory]

TOW goes hand in hand with defining deviancy down. Originally intended to describe public acceptance of deviance, IMO it is a concept that readily applies to government corruption. For example, there was so much corruption during the Bush years that the public became numb to it. So numb that Obama came into office and put forth the absurd idea that the country should move on. Only a population desensitized to government corruption would accept this sort of bullshit. And another key factor is government secrecy. The public has been conditioned to accept the lock down on information. Instead we are told to have faith in our leaders. And if we don't demonstrate this faith we are accused of being unpatriotic or conspiracy theorists. For some reason (relentless propaganda comes to mind) we are supposed to believe that corrupt officials are adhering to the letter of the national security classification laws.

A good example of the combined approach is indefinite detention. Holding people without charges. WTF is that? That is considered (in the two party delusional system) a sound, responsible, freedom oriented (hey it's THEIR propaganda) approach to counterterrorism.

The people who are selling this sick policy are advocates of torture, permanent war, warrantless surveillance, etc. Yet because they are "leaders" who are supposedly doing this in the name of fighting terrorism, we are supposed to applaud their tough on terror policies. The secrecy ensures that the public remains ignorant to the corruption and the true nature of the terrorist threat.

[IanEye]

.

'So we worshipped the Gods of the Market who promised these beautiful things.'
.

[thatsmystory]

The opening lines of Glenn Beck's yet-to-be-released novel, The Overton Window, read as follows: "Most people think about age and experience in terms of years, but it's really only moments that define us."

In a quirk of convenience, this line also describes the best way to deconstruct The Overton Window, a copy of which Media Matters obtained and read -- nay, devoured -- with great relish. As we slogged through its many plot holes, ridiculous narrative devices, and long-winded limited-government sermonizing passed off as dialogue, we singled out ten moments that define The Overton Window as the truly and remarkably awful novel that it is.

"Don't tease the panther": An exclusive look at Glenn Beck's The Overton Window

[barracuda]

Here's the awesome "trailer". I heard it described as a cross between The Cat in the Hat and Left Behind.

[DrVolin]

The classic example is the Bush White House campaign to make torture a valid subject for debate. I remember the first time I heard it discussed on CNN as something remotely possible. Before that moment, it would have been considered impossible. Just by introducing it into the conversation, they started down the road to making it policy. I was absolutely stunned at the way that happened.