Glenn Beck - The Overton Window

In Chapter 12 the meeting at the bar is disrupted by someone referred to as a newer member of the organization. This, of course, is inspired by those who have publicly stated their goal to infiltrate the Tea Party, the 9/12 Project and other like-minded organizations and stage violent acts or hate speech. According to one anti-Tea Party group, their mission is to “act on behalf of the Tea Party in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities.”

One other important note on this scene: While Noah initially thinks that the instigators were New York City policemen, he is quickly proven wrong. If there is one thing that virtually every group fighting for our rights and freedoms agrees on, it’s that those entrusted with the public safety, from local cops to federal agents, are on the side of the good guys.

Agents provocateurs inside Tea Party events: Valerie Bauman, “Foes of tea party movement to infiltrate rallies,” The Associated Press, April 10, 2010, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/12/AR2010041203358.html

See also: Brian Montopoli, “Tea Party Foes Target Movement ‘Morons,’” CBSNews.com, April 13, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002377-503544.html

These next two statistics are related in a pretty amazing way: While Congress’s approval rating continues to be abysmal, historically more than 90 percent of incumbents are still reelected. People always want to know how they can help change the course of America. This is it! While the answers are undoubtedly more complicated than they used to be, the easiest solution is still the best: Turn your back on those who’ve turned their backs on you by voting them out. Actions speak louder than words, and right now our actions are showing that we tacitly approve of the lies and corruption.

Congress’s Approval Rating: Gallup.com, http://www.gallup.com/poll/127343/Congress-Job-Approval-Rating-Improves-Low.aspx

Congressional reelection rates: “Reelection Rates Over the Years,” http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/reelect.php

In Chapter 14 Noah and Molly have a conversation in the limousine. Several things cited during this talk are factual, or based on real events.

U.S. Senator out west about to be involved in an ethics scandal: Eric Lichtblau and Eric Lipton, “Senator’s Aid After Affair Raises Flags Over Ethics,” The New York Times, October 1, 2009, http:// www.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/us/politics/02ensign.html

The Rev. Al Sharpton (fried chicken and waffles) at Amy Ruth’s: Amy Ruth’s Menu, http://www.amyruthsharlem.com/dinnermenu/waffles/wafflemenu01.html

Edward Bernays served as one of the inspirations for Arthur Gardner. Several sources below reference Bernays, but if you really want to understand the reach and power of public relations (and why Joseph Goebbels found Bernays to be so instructive) then be sure to read Bernays’ own book Propaganda, which includes this assertion right on the cover:

“As civilization has become more complex, and as the need for invisible government has been increasingly demonstrated, the technical means have been invented and developed by which opinion may be regimented. Democracy is administered by the intelligent minority who know how to regiment and guide the masses.”

Edward Bernays, Woodrow Wilson and United Fruit: Larry Tye, The father of spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of Public Relations (New York, NY: Crown Publishers, 1998), http://books.google.com/books?id=Dk0SPKpYCsQC

If you’re interested in reading more about a real-life example of a modern force in public relations, take a look at John Rendon. His company is a leader in “perception management” and, according to Rolling Stone, “fills a need that few people even know exists.”

PR push behind the Iraq War/Rendon Group: James Bam-ford, “The Man Who Sold the War,” Rolling Stone, November 17, 2005, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/8798997/the_man_who_sold_the_war

Guatemalan Coup: Central Intelligence Agency Freedom of Information Act document archive, http://www.foia.cia.gov/guatemala.asp

80 million gun owners: Wayne LaPierre, “Sotomayor’s Bias,” CBSNews.com, July 15, 2009, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/15/opinion/main5162054.shtml

Bernays’ book: Edward Bernays, Propaganda, (New York, NY: Ig Publishing, 1928), http://books.google.com/books?id=JlcPgPt17KcC

Bernays’ book on Goebbels’ shelf: Larry Tye, “The Father of Spin: Edward L. Bernays & The Birth of PR,” PR Watch, Second Quarter 1999, Volume 6, No. 2, http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/1999Q2/bernays.html

In Chapter 15: This may not exactly be the most critical fact in the book, but Eliot Spitzer’s father really is a real estate mogul, and at one time Spitzer really could have run into Noah and Molly in that elevator car on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Eliot Spitzer lives in his father’s building: Douglas Feiden, “Empire of the Son. How Dad’s Real Estate Fortune Pays Spitzer Benefits,” NY Daily News, October 29, 2006, http://www.ny dailynews.com/archives/news/2006/10/29/2006-10-29_empire_of_the_son_how_dad_s.html

In Chapter 17: Tom Clancy’s book Debt of Honor included a sequence where a plane loaded with fuel is hijacked and flown into the U.S. Capitol. Some conspiracy theorists might say that this means Clancy was involved in planning 9/11, but the rest of us realize that this shows just how outside-of-the-box thriller writers think. Clancy himself has talked about meeting with an Air Force officer during the writing of that book and asking the officer about the planes-as-weapons scenario he was spinning. The officer replied, “Mr. Clancy, if we had a plan to deal with this, it would be secret, I wouldn’t be able to talk to you about it. But to the best of my knowledge we’ve never looked at this possibility before.”

Clancy writes about crashing planes into buildings: Steve Bradshaw, “A Warning from Hollywood,” BBC, March 24, 2002, http:// news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_24_03_02.txt

In Chapter 18: Rudyard Kipling was fifty-three when he wrote the poem I excerpted in the book. As Noah explains, Kipling had lost his son in World War I and his daughter prior to that, and he was in a dark place in his life. The “Copybook Headings” he refers to are the headings from the handwriting-practice notebooks that used to be distributed. In these, a famous quotation or commonsense adage would be printed at the top and the student would practice their penmanship by rewriting that sentence over and over, all the way down the page. This would accomplish two things: handwriting practice (obviously), and a subtler reinforcement of practical knowledge and life lessons from history. As Noah says, the entire poem is well worth a read.

Rudyard Kipling’s poem: Rudyard Kipling, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” See the full text here: http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_copybook.htm

Kipling’s biography: Harry Ricketts, Rudyard Kipling: A Life (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2001), http://books.google.com/books?id=x4sTAiRqhKMC

In Chapter 19, we see the term “COINTELPRO” included in the agenda that Noah and Molly discover. This term seems to have now been adopted by conspiracy theorists, but before you write it off it’s worth looking at what this real government program was originally intended to accomplish.

COINTELPRO: Ed Gordon, “COINTELPRO and the History of Domestic Spying,” National Public Radio, January 18, 2006, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5161811

See also: Michelle Goldberg, “Outlawing Dissent: Spying on Peace Meetings, Cracking Down on Protesters, Keeping Secret Files on Innocent People-How Bush’s War on Terror Has Become a War on Freedom,” Salon.com, February 11, 2004, http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/02/11/cointelpro/print.html