Review: Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance
After all, Zaitchik — a consummate muckraker — once traveled to remote northwest Ireland to profile political prisoners for The Nation. But his mission is warranted in that Common Nonsense effectively and in detail confirms what thinking folks already knew but may have had difficulty explaining to relatives: Beck, equal parts Mormon and moron, is a towering ignoramus and a shameless bigot.
The early chapters, in which Zaitchik traces Beck’s morning-zoo career, play out like the Howard Stern autobiography (and complementary film) Private Parts. In these sections, even the author can hardly contain his admiration for his subject’s lasting determination through failure after failure. This same note of awe appears to creep into the voices of past friends and foes, who shared stories about Beck gluing shut a competing station’s front door during sweeps week, verbally abusing overweight jocks on competing frequencies, and one time vandalizing all the cars outside an adversary music director’s wedding ceremony