Glenn Beck: the opposite of Plato's noble liar

THREE CHEERS FOR today's Plain Dealer for reporting another of Glenn Beck's reckless lies, this one to the throng of lemmings at the Lincoln Memorial. Rising to his task of... uh, restoring honor to America, Beck shrieked: "The government is trying now to close the Lincoln Memorial for any kind of large gatherings. This may be the last large gathering ever to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial. Historic. Historic."

With that symbolic clanging of the Liberty Bell, Beck would be assured of having his audience safely in tow for any other outrages that spewed from his platform. (No evidence that he also wet his diaper.) .

But wait! According to the PD's PolitiFact report, there are absolutely no plans to close the Lincoln Memorial to public gatherings. It noted that the Los Angeles Times had contacted the National Park Service, which called Beck's statements "baseless and wrong." Beck's propaganda team did not respond to requests to clarify his remarks. Surprise.

OK. With that settled, can we move on?. Not really. My hunch is that Beck's Svengali-like hold on his worshipers is so complete that any fan who heard this whopper will continue to spread the word that it's true. He knows that. So he continues to destroy reality. It's made him rich.

There are two ways to deal with Beck. You can ignore him and hope that he will go away. He won't. In fact, he will widen the playing field. You can also give him all of the exposure that he is seeking to nourish his mad ego and hope that somehow it will bring a lot of ordinary Americans to the front lines to challenge him and his ilk. So far, however, his style is winning with many of the Republicans campaigning for the November elections. It won't be pretty.