Sighting: Glenn Beck

From our good friend Leslie Russell, this report:

("Glenn Beck)...is a conservative radio/television commentator who is a huge 'skine fan. I routinely spot him with the little black book on television and have wondered if it was a 'skine or some knock off. But today on his radio show he suggested his listeners get a moleskine and keep a diary. I am including a screen shot and a link to video of him with his 'skine.

Show link

Note: Blog posts of products in use do not constitute endorsement by the personalities but appear only as a matter of record.

Comments

[Harry Dean]

Great...I am sure there are lots of uh....people who use moleskines alot.

[Peggy]

Glenn Beck is a racist who is encouraging people to harm liberals. The fact that he likes moleskines is shocking to me. They are associated with liberal minded, intellectuals. Not the people he appeals to. This makes me almost want to thow away all my moleskines and never use them again.

[Natalie]

This is really not a good endorsement of the product.

[Kenneth Ballard]

Peggy,

I always thought that notebooks and notebooking were associated with liberated-minded individuals as opposed to liberal-minded individuals -- freedom of thought, freedom to have thoughts, and the freedom of speech to voice those thoughts, either aloud or by writing them down, regardless of what those thoughts happen to be. Would you be happier if he chose to use Piccadilly notebooks instead, or perhaps Mead spiral notebooks?

And what evidence have you that Glenn Beck is a racist? What evidence have you that he is "encouraging people to harm liberals", and of what "harm" are you referring? If you have none, then keep your libelous statements to yourself.

The fact that Glenn Beck uses Moleskine notebooks to record his thoughts and outline his thought processes is immaterial. Plenty of individuals use Moleskine notebooks. I use one, and I'm a centrist libertarian (Beck is a conservative libertarian). I'm certainly not a racist, either.

If you decide to stop using Moleskine notebooks because one person with whose opinion you happen to disagree also uses them, then you will only fuel a stereotype that Moleskine journals are for elitists. Moleskine notebooks, or any notebook or journal for that matter, are for the recording of thoughts, any thoughts, by any individual, regardless of who they are or what their political or religious persuasion happens to be.

That Glenn Beck uses Moleskine notebooks shows that they're not just for liberal-minded individuals, they are for all individuals who wish to use them as a medium for recording their thoughts and observations.

[Lani Teshima]

Over the years, Glenn Beck has become more and more extreme with his shows. I was never a huge fan when he was with CNN, but in recent years, his show on Fox News has just gone off in a direction I don't favor. That said, I think what I am most disturbed with these days is not that he views that polarize the country, but that he has taken a very activist stance on his show. He is one of the organizers of the current movement to purposefully disrupt town hall meetings, and to me, that's just not constructive. There are very important things we as a country need to discuss and hash out; his viewers who think they are doing something noble by standing up and yelling at politicians is going about it the wrong way. Such disruptors are as out of touch as the looney lefties who would disrupt David Horowitz's talks on university campuses and thinking that shouting down right-wing speech is also somehow constructive--NOT. Beck is a commentator more than a journalist, but hasn't he crossed that line by becoming involved in organizing these things?

[chris]

Hey, I might not like the guy either, but this is a good sign his powers of reasoning aren't totally out of whack.

[Matthew]

Eeeww, I REALLY don't want to associate Glenn Beck with Moleskines.

[Harry Dean]

Glenn Beck uses a moleskine. So what? Anne Coulter probably uses one also. Moleskines are simply tools to some and modes of artistic expression to others. I may not agree with Glenn Beck's views, but I defend the right for him to express them no matter how ridiculous they are.

[Zoe]

I noted your disclaimer, but with the amount of notoriety this man has had recently, and the call for pulling his advertising, you might reconsider including this post.

I would!

[Nate]

Glenn Beck just talks common sense. Read his book and you'll see. Just because he's not the mainstream media that just spews the same drivel, he's some sort of a nut?

He called Obama a racist. He's right! How come Beck can't use our first amendment right to say so? Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don't seem to mind using the word.

Beck goes after both parties, and just wants an America that is free and based on our constitution. Unfortunately our elected officials in DC (both sides) have lost their way.

[Kenneth Ballard]

The campaign of which Zoe speaks to pull advertising during Glenn Beck's show is led by the left-wing activist group Color for Change, of which one of its founding members, Van Jones, is one of Obama's czars. That campaign is nothing more than a ploy to silence criticism by going after the advertisers in a hope of pressuring Fox News to either tell him he needs to tone things down or pull his show entirely. The Free Market Project published an article yesterday on the effort exposing the Van Jones connection.

http://www.freemarketproject.org/articles/2009/20090812165152.aspx

[allen weaver]

Lighten up weirdos. Some guy you disagree with likes Moleskines. Move on...

[L. S. Russell]

This poor guy can't catch a break.

[Harry Dean]

Nate, on what grouds is President Obama a racist? Because he nominated Sotomayer for the Supreme Court which she was recently confirmed for? Do you feel threatened that minorities are in positions of influence in the government? If anyone is a racist it's Beck with his "common nonsense".

[Sophie Brown]

You all do sound pretty creepy arguing over this in conjunction with Moleskine, and on this blog we enjoy freedom of speech as well. The reason it's good for someone like this to be on television is that he's just enough to spark the debate and get people talking which hopefully furthers society.

What I wonder about all of this discussion of the "death panels": Do these people somehow believe that health care is not rationed already? This has been going on for quite a long time and if we sort it out there are going to be some bumps. First and foremost among them that Americans do not trust the government to wisely spend their money. You're going to have to shovel over quite a bit more of it for national healthcare. If that makes you uncomfortable, welcome to being fiscally conservative. The only way to handle this is to raise your taxes maybe 15 or 20 percent. You'll be on a mission to ferret out social programs that don't work (and some don't). You'll find that some Republicans want everyone to be able to go the doctor also, and this gap will close. IF WE TALK ABOUT IT. IF PEOPLE STAY INFORMED. These aren't czars: They're at our mercy. All of them. So listen to people you don't agree with and have the discussion and VOTE. It's apathy you have to fight. There's no need to worry about Glenn Beck. Who seems sincere. He and Sarah Palin really do have disabled children. The thing there is that that fact would inform whatever viewpoint they might have. If they were Democrats they would be moved to tears about some other issue surrounding disabled children...

[Curt]

Oh Peggy . . . . only liberals use Moleskines? . . . . oh puhleez . . . . how narrow-minded.

[Charlie]

Because I'm a crazy conservative with guns and a bible who is living in the middle of cornfields and pastures full of cows spewing tons of CO2 the atmosphere in Ohio I'd never heard of Moleskine until Glenn Beck mentioned them on his radio show the other day....I've never seen them at my local feedstore. Heck, I'd always used toilet paper to record my thoughts, because that was conveniently placed where I typically have my deepest thoughts. However, Mr Beck mentioning recording thoughts in a better way to last years and to pass on to future generations seemed like a better way to me than the TP method. You can look in my septic tank and see that the TP method does not hold up to the tests of time. So what did I do? I went out and sold a cow for hamburger so I could afford to buy a couple of Moleskines (TP is a LOT cheaper)... they should be arriving Monday!

Just another way us conservative nutjobs who are truly the heart that beats America are trying to take everything away from the liberals... steal your notebooks too. In fact, my first thought to jot down in my brand new, fancy, paid for by cow meat Moleskine will be this: make a line of notebooks, that will essentially be the same as Moleskines, but twice the price and call them Notebooks for Liberals. I'll make millions, since Mr Beck has discouraged all the libs out there from using Moleskines anymore, simply because he does. Who says capitalism does not work? :)

[vanderleun]

Ah yes.... the jerks of the knees come out. "not a good endorsement..." "racist" ... There is, it would seem, exactly no subject under the sun that can't be reduced in the racialist mind to racism in a nano-second. Even the choice of notebooks!

This sort of thing is not the example of an enlightened mind, but a shuttered, closed, and fully colonized brain.

Is the endorsement good for Moleskine? Of course it is. It exposes millions of people who otherwise (because they don't frequent PC tools and fools pages) would never have heard of it. Like it or not, Beck just sold over a million of these notebooks over the coming months.

And that's neither right nor left, that's just the fact, Jack.

[Charlie]

vaderleun is correct... just checked Amazon and when I ordered my "large, ruled Moleskine" 2 days ago it was in stock and shipped immediately. They are now shipping 1-3 weeks late... good ol' Glenn!

[Sophie Brown]

The strange thing (and I'm attached to my notebooks too) is that the brand aficionado starts to look like a half step from high school clicks and people who relating to one band. I've used Moleskine for my journals, now I'm also using Rhodia for my fiction and I really am going through some trippy mental headcase thing. But these feelings for a product would seem pretty extreme to an outsider.

Charlie, at least your cows have an excuse. They ARE cows. The human herd can be a little bit embarassing to associate yourself with. There's a Far Side cartoon where a sheep stands up and says, "Listen, we don't have to just be sheep!"

[Drai]

The only reason Moleskines are enjoyed and loved by so many is because they are good notebooks. They don't fall apart, they have great quality paper, etc... Even complete nut jobs, weirdos, racists and jerks deserve to write in a good notebook. Maybe they don't deserve national TV shows, but that's another story.

[Renee]

I *gasp* bought a moleskine knockoff at *oh noes* WALMART and it hasn't fallen apart the way the Moleskine did during nursing school. I just laugh when I read folks getting all irritated that their fav 'uberliberal' carrying card (moleskines, ibooks, iphones,etc.) get used by someone with views different than their own. Guess that 'voice of dissent' thing only works one way. Meanwhile, try not to take yourselves too seriously trendy demigods and laugh a little at this opinion:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2009/02/24/122-moleskine-notebooks/

[Sophie Brown]

I thought "stuff white people like" was a funny article. I'd seen it before. I think people would like it so check up on the post above this one.

[Johnny]

I don't know. I'm probably pretty far to the left, but I think demonstrations should be encouraged, even if I disagree with their message.

If Mr. Obama "mobilized" a lot of folks on the left during the election, opposition to him is being mobilized on the right. While this COULD lead to a lot of yelling (like it had been lately), it could also lead to more engagement from both sides and something positive if we all calm down. (But I guess the calming down part is hard on both sides, Re: healthcare.)

[Fredna Johnson]

It's a NOTEBOOK, not a mad design of political domination. Gee willywonkers, what's wrong with you people?