Bernie Goldberg on Media Silence
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This is a rush transcript from "Glenn Beck," February 27, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GLENN BECK, HOST: In Miami, Bernie Goldberg is here, FOX News contributor and author of the best titled book of all time, "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True and Pathetic Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media."
Bernie, these — I'm looking at the papers today, and I can't believe the stories that they're running and the stories that they're not running.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BERNARD GOLDBERG, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR: Here's another one you won't see on page one of the newspapers or the network evening newscasts, if Barack Obama raised the taxes of everybody in this country making over $500,000, not from 35 percent to 40 percent, but from 35 percent to 100 percent. In other words, he confiscated every penny that they're making, he still wouldn't have nearly enough money to pay for all of his social programs.
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BECK: Oh, no. Yes.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOLDBERG: You're not going to see that.
BECK: No, it's...
GOLDBERG: And the reason you're not going to see that, Glenn, the reason is, because journalists treat people they like one way, and they treat people they don't like another way.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: You know, look...
GOLDBERG: They will deny this, but I was at CBS News for 28 years, and it's true.
BECK: OK. Look, here is the thing. America, you don't — unless you listen to my radio program, you don't know who I am. I've been railing against the spending in Washington and George W. Bush and everything else for a long time now. I mean, I make up my own mind.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I don't — I'm hated, as you'll find out later in the show — I'm hated by the Republicans now, and that's fine. Bring it on, Jack. But you know what? All you have to do is be honest, just actually believe in something.
Listen to this, Bernie. This is from today's New York Times editorial, some honesty about taxes. Some honesty about taxes — finally!
GOLDBERG: Right.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: "President Obama's first budget recognizes what most of Washington has been too scared or ideologically blind to admit, to recover from George W. Bush's reckless economic policies." What the hell do you call — do you know we just bought Citibank today?
GOLDBERG: Everything that goes wrong is going to be blamed on George W. Bush and the Republicans, and everything that goes right will be credited to Barack Obama. And there's a reason for this. There's a reason for this.
We live in the United States of entertainment, and in that country, being "celebrity-in-chief" is way more important than being commander-in-chief. Barack Obama — whether you like him or not, Glenn — is cool, he's hip. And cool and hip in the United States of entertainment is going to get you through a lot of jams, and it's going to get you a lot of editorials like the one you just read.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: But, Bernie, how can — I mean this sincerely. I'm not trying to be — I'm not trying to be cute. How do people sleep at night when they were — when they were railing — do they not believe in anything
— when they were railing about corporate welfare?
My gosh! What is it we're doing with the banks? What is it we're doing now? I was with you on the corporate welfare thing. What are we doing?
GOLDBERG: I love you most, Glenn, when you're naive and innocent.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}(LAUGHTER)
BECK: Thank you.
GOLDBERG: They're not going to play fair. They're not going to play fair. They've had — if you'll excuse the expression — a slobbering love affair with Barack Obama from the moment he came on the scene and it's going to continue. It's a similar situation to what happened...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: No, but, Bernie, the question is — the question is — the question is: Do people just not believe in anything? I do. I think my friends do.
GOLDBERG: No.
BECK: They just don't?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOLDBERG: No. People who watch this program aren't the same as the American people at large. And you're not going to like this, Glenn, but people do believe in something. They believe in Barack Obama.
BECK: Does it look like I'm wearing lipstick?
(CROSSTALK)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry, I just noticed — I mean, you just made a — you just made a sexy comment to me, and then I look up and it looks like I'm wearing —does it look like I'm wearing lipstick? Is that why Bernie is coming on to me?
GOLDBERG: I'm in the middle of making — I'm in the middle of making a brilliant point.
(CROSSTALK)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: I'm sorry, I'm just riddled ADD. Yes, go ahead.
GOLDBERG: I forget what it was, actually.
(LAUGHTER)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOLDBERG: No, he is, like, FDR — did you know that FDR was elected to a third term even though unemployment never went below 10 percent during his first two terms and for almost two years never went below 20 percent? Why do you think that is? Because, he mesmerized the nation. And Barack Obama is mesmerizing the nation. And he's got a compliant press to boot.
BECK: Is there any way...
GOLDBERG: Let me tell you something, every dream he has is going to become reality, and we're not going to like it, but get ready. It's going to be a bumpy ride.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: Is there any way around this? Is there — is there any way to wake people up? I said the other day, you've got to listen, not hear, listen, and not hear.
GOLDBERG: Right.
BECK: Is there any way to do this?
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOLDBERG: There's one — there's one possibility. If things — and I don't want this to happen — but if things go south in a bad way, regular folks in middle America, even regular folks who voted for Barack Obama may very well turn on him. At that point, the only people he'll have left are his base, the media.
BECK: Bernie, can I tell you something?
GOLDBERG: The people will turn on him, and...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: I sense a...
GOLDBERG: Go ahead, Glenn.
BECK: I sense a paradigm shift in America. I'm going to talk about this a little later, I think. There's something different in America.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}I think the people who have been playing politics this whole time -
- I mean, this is the way the system works. You know, you're left, you're right, you're Republican, you're Democrat, and then you get on and you get on the left box, right box and they yell at each other. I think that is so — that was done a few years ago, but I think it's actually going to be violently done soon.
I think anybody who just doesn't say, you know what? This Republican is good, but these guys are bad; this Democrat is bad, but these guys are good. Anybody who isn't playing and really mean something, and I think Obama is going to play into this. I think it's going to get nasty bad for those people.
GOLDBERG: It's going to get nasty bad for those people who listen to you, and who listen to some other people who are making sense, but I have this uncomfortable feeling that a lot of Americans, a majority of Americans, actually, are going to stick with him, and blame Republicans if things don't go right, and he's going to have a willing press to help him.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But I think we are looking at a politician who we have not seen in our lifetime. This isn't Reagan. This isn't even Kennedy. This is FDR, someone who was able to get people to believe what he said, and elect him to a third term with employment never dropping below 10 percent during the first two terms.
BECK: OK, Bernie, let me...
GOLDBERG: I think we're seeing it again. I really do.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}BECK: Let me show you this. How much — Gresh, what did the dividend at G.E. go down to today? They just...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They dropped it down to 10 cents a share from I believe 34 cents a share.
BECK: OK. Here's Jeff Immelt, which — I mean, he runs G.E, mainly been running it into the ground for a quite while...
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GOLDBERG: Oh, yes.
BECK: The reason I bring this up is because he's creating — he's creating a one-world government right in — I mean, he is — here's the biggest lobbying firm, here is the energy provider, the power grid, smart grid can come from him, maybe too smart for my liking. You've got the media arm of this, and they're all in bed with Obama.
Here is this guy, and he is doing all the wrong things, and yet they're not firing him. Can you bring up the clock? Where is the Jeffrey Immelt firing clock? There it is. We're just going to countdown on how long it takes before people fire him and throw his ass out.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But this, Bernie, is to me frightening, because G.E. is a prime example of what is coming. Here is a gigantic global corporation that is putting propaganda out for NBC with green energy and everything else, and they've got the NBC News, they got MSNBC, they're doing all of these things, taking a hard stand. He's on the president's financial advisory board.
GOLDBERG: Right.
BECK: And he makes all of this stuff for green energy. I mean, this is — you want to talk about fascism, you don't have to go much further than Obama and G.E.
GOLDBERG: There's no question that Jeff Immelt is a pinata in certain circles around FOX News, but, you know, when he joined the president's advisory team, the first thing I thought of is, when I watch NBC News, am I going to be getting the real story about the economy or are they going to be worried about...
BECK: Oh, yes...
GOLDBERG: ... the fact that their boss is...
BECK: That was...
GOLDBERG: I'm not going to think that about MSNBC, though, not MSNBC. They are so far...
(LAUGHTER)
BECK: Yes, I know.
GOLDBERG: You know where I'm going with this. I don't even have to say it.
BECK: I know, I know. Thank you, Bernie. I appreciate it.
By the way, you read more about this from Bernie Goldberg in his latest article — this is my magazine, Fusion. It's kind of a comedy and smart magazine as well. Oh, that's the latest one, "Springtime for Bailouts" and Federal Reserve.
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