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The Man Who Beat Glenn Beck
M. Caulfield / WireImage.com
The controversial cable titan was so angry over a Web site parodying his show that he sued—and lost. The site's owner talks to The Daily Beast about how much he enjoyed the battle.
Few hosts go after their targets harder than Glenn Beck, but apparently he throws punches a lot better than he takes them.
This week, Beck lost a legal battle to take down a parody site devoted to mocking the talk-show host’s use of innuendo and rumor in going after his political enemies. The domain name that provoked his ire was GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com, whose main page pledged to “examine the vicious rumor” alluded to in the site's title.
“If he hadn’t gone after us, it probably would have quickly died out,” Eiland-Hall said.
The site's owner, Isaac Eiland-Hall, a 34-year-old computer-science student in Panama City, Florida, told The Daily Beast that the name was derived from a running joke on news site Fark.com's messageboards, which compared Beck's style to a routine by comedian Gilbert Gottfried at a Friar’s Club Roast in which he repeatedly denounced the nonexistent rumors that Bob Saget "raped and killed a girl in 1990." In repeating the rumor, of course, Gottfried succeeded in spreading it—thus roasting his fellow comic.
“I've long felt that Beck uses tactics like I satirized on the site,” Eiland-Hall told The Daily Beast in an email interview. He says he found “particularly egregious” an incident during Beck's CNN career in which he told Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim, that he longed to challenge the congressman by saying: “Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
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• Lloyd Grove: Shep Smith, Fox News' Man of Reason The site, which launched at the beginning of September, took off quickly, with 120,000 hits in its first 24 hours, Eiland-Hall said. It was a joke lost on Beck, however, whose lawyers filed a formal complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization within days of the site's opening, insisting it be taken down as a trademark violation.
Beck’s legal complaint pushed the story into the news and caused the site’s traffic to spike, Eiland-Hall said.
“If he hadn't gone after us, it probably would have quickly died out,” he said.
Eiland-Hall joined the battle, hiring First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza to help argue his case.
Citing the landmark free-speech case Hustler Magazine v. Falwell, Randazza argued that the site was a clear parody and that it was “absurd to imagine a user who would be confused about whether or not Beck is an owner, author, sponsor, or endorser of the site.” Beck’s lawyers argued that the site was registered in “bad faith” and that by using his name in the domain, users could be confused whether the site was operated by Beck himself. (A spokesman for Beck declined to comment for this article).
Eiland-Hall told The Daily Beast he found a certain delicious irony in Beck’s challenge to his site. WIPO is, after all, a part of the United Nations and governed by international law, and railing against a “one-world government” conspiracy among international organizations to undermine the U.S. Constitution is a major part of Beck's show.
“When I received the news of the domain dispute, I was a little surprised that Beck, of all people—after making such a big deal about how international bodies should never be able to trump the U.S. Constitution—would take this to an international organization,” he said. “But as I felt confident I would win, I wasn't too worried about it.”
On October 29, the WIPO denied Beck's complaint, thus handing a previously unknown aspiring meteorologist a legal victory over one of the most popular media figures in the country. But in a final twist, Eiland-Hall voluntarily handed over the domain name to Beck himself about a week after the decision, explaining in an open letter that his only intention in fighting back against the TV host's legal complaint was “to help preserve the First Amendment.” The domain name was quickly taken down after being transferred to Beck, but the original site can still be viewed at an alternate address, gb1990.com .
Eiland-Hall told The Daily Beast that he had already wanted to scrap the wordy domain name for some time, but was afraid that doing so under legal pressure “would have contributed to a chilling effect on free political expression.” He added he already planned to give the site name to Beck if he won the case as early as September.
Having briefly become a viral sensation, Eiland-Hall said he plans on keeping the pressure on what he calls “extremists on both sides of the liberal/conservative spectrum” with more Internet projects in the future.
“Of course there's always been political struggle and disagreements, but it's getting to the point where I fear that actual violence may erupt if we cannot change the direction this is heading in,” he said. “So I will definitely be looking at other targets—liberal and conservative—who are using unethical techniques and spreading misinformation.”
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
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Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
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Where is the story about votes not being counted in NY23 and the illegal swearing in of a candidate not certified the winner by the state. This is an Acorn corrupt site.
Those stories aren't on this site because they aren't real. If you want fiction, read the Bible.
Where was this thread cross-posted? With any luck, whackjob wes will forget he was ever on TDB.
Oh Wes14451? Your candidate conceded the race. There was no illegal swearing in because your candidate was a dolt, only further evidenced by his concession before it was certified. He should never have been in that race to begin with.
You are so far off topic I think you need a compass or a map to get back on course. Perhaps you should seek medical care for Attention Deficit Disorder, clearly you can't stay on track.
Congradulations to Eiland-Hall.
Beck is a vampire who deserves to be slapped down.
That's an outrageous accusation. We don't even know for sure if he raped and murdered a young girl in 1990, let alone whether he drank her blood.
I sincerely hope you're kidding....surely you read the article before you commented.... if you are joking, I get it..and love your style.lol.
Yogi,
that was perfect.
It wasn't rape, it was sodomy. Unless of course you count the fact that she was only 17 and she was a he.
The site is down now and moved to GB1990.COM
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
i find him too arrogant to be truthful. ... Beck ran crying to big brother and we now know he is a coward who can't fight his own battles. You Mr. Hall have shed a light on his agenda we might have never seen . Thank you. Donna
I don't like Beck, his on-air persona anyway, but he has the best team of investigative journalists assembled
Now that's funny!! :)
Methinks thou art a teeny tiny bit confused, my son. You can't be confusing Glenn Beck's staff with Rachel Maddow's now, can you? LOL
LOL!!! Beck has a "team of investigative journalists"!?!? Ha ha.
Journalists do journalism. They research. They interview. They put together stories. They document. They have sources. They can prove the accuracy of what they say.
Beck's people invent things. They're gossip mongers. They're obtuse, obsessed ideologues. They're conspiracy theorists who start with what they want to believe and then work backwards to justify it.
Beck isn't anything like a journalist. Nor are the people who work for him. It's nonsense to think otherwise.
BWAAAHHHHH!!!!
Cesspool - if you mean he has the best fictional creative writers, I'd agree, but actual "investigative journalists"? Do you even know the meaning of the term, or are you just amazingly short of live brain cells?
If by "investigative journalists" you mean "extremely creative conspiracy theorists who are perhaps the greatest team of story tellers assembled in modern times," then I must agree with you wholeheartedly.
Don't you know, Beck doesn't pay investigative journalists. He makes this stuff up.
Damn.
I took the headline literally.
Eiland-Hall is my hero!
Does Beck cry alone at home, or only on TV?
Only on TV.
Beck was wrong to go after this guy, but two wrongs (perceived or real) don't make a right. If Eiland-Hall murdered someone and got away with it (prove to me that he didn't!), me murdering his sister to make a statement or prove a point wouldn't help anything, would it? Beck says some ridiculous stuff, but usually he lambasts people who say ridiculous stuff, like Van Jones and Anita Dunn.
The article mentions this out-of-context Beck thought crime:
He says he found "particularly egregious" an incident during Beck's CNN career in which he told Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a Muslim, that he longed to challenge the congressman by saying: "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."
On GB199.com, the 1st video clearly gives the context: "let me be politically incorrect ... I FEEL LIKE SAYING IS: Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. AND I KNOW YOURE NOT, I'M NOT ACCUSING YOU OF BEING AN ENEMY" as Ellison is smiling all along.
But detractors ignore context in their attacks. Eiland-Hall isn't a hero. He would be a hero if he equally attacked blowhards on the Left: Olbermann, Sharpton, Shultz, etc. But he has an agenda: to discredit a media personality based on a few snippets of absurdity, while that personality is only trying to get us to see the hugely consequential, life and death absurdity of our government.
Media only has the power to tear the country apart for people into politics. Most likely they were apart to begin with so you don't need to sensationalize the "problem". Government, on the other hand, has the power to tear entire nations, economies, institutions, classes, races, religions, sexes and AGES all apart.
You're blind if you cannot see that.
way Way too many words in your post. tsk.
Eiland-Hall isn't a hero - he is a comedian. That's his agenda.
If you want to go after someone you should go for it. I'm guessing it won't be funny.
All Mr. Beck has to do is publicly deny that the story is true. He has so far refused to do so. What are we supposed to think?
Yeah well I'm still waiting for Beck to prove he was born here and not in Andorra. I saw a sheep from there crying on tv and saying how much he loved his wool but feared for it and there was this amazing similarity after the sheering.
Not a big deal
Translation of remarks made above by "aBigDeal":
"Hey you guys, I like Beck. He's my hero. And it hurts my feelings when people make fun of him! I might cry, just like Beck if you keep this up."
Lose the crush on Beck, my son. You're only looking like a groupie.
Oh, I love all the remarks from the peanut gallery.
People who objectively give their opinion on this story = Glenn Beck worshippers
Yeah... So much wisdom on this site.
See, the problem with your opinion is that it's dumb. Fallacious, and irrelevant too. And everyone can see that.
@aBigDeal
"On GB199.com, the 1st video clearly gives the context: "let me be politically incorrect ... I FEEL LIKE SAYING IS: Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. AND I KNOW YOURE NOT, I'M NOT ACCUSING YOU OF BEING AN ENEMY" as Ellison is smiling all along."
LOL!!!!
Eiland-Hall has clearly stated that Beck didn't really do any of the things the site claims. They just want him to call them to confirm that none of those things actually happened.
...See how that works?
What Glen Beck did is called talking on both sides of your mouth. Making an extremely egregious statement, while at the same time, creating plausible deniability.
And clearly, to idiots like you, it works.
"based on a few snippets of absurdity". Now that's funny!
Beck lovers are almost as scary as Beck.
Bravo! Eiland-Hall is a genius!
So are you saying that it isn't true that Glen Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990? What proof do you have?
I won't believe it until I hear him say it himself.
Personally I think that he wants to be caught - that is why he brought the lawsuit.
*chuckle*
Just proves how big a media organization like FOX is that Beck can get away with raping and murdering a young girl and not even have to experience a trial. Notice that Murdoch newspapers are not covering this story.
What is Glenn Beck hiding? If he did not rape and kill that poor young girl, why doesn't he have her on his show? Or is Fox News preventing her appearance in a crass attempt to gain more audience share for Mr. Beck's show?
What is more important; Fox's ratings, or Mr. Beck's reputation?
America wants to know!
Chuck18, I could not agree with you more, and frankly, I'm beginning to believe that it could be possible that not only did Beck rape and kill that young girl, but he might also be behind several other such incidents.
He hasn't said he wasn't, and as a good American, I believe that we need to know the truth that the liberal media is obviously hiding from us about this.
AND, you know he never denied having anything to do with the Sharon Tate murders. What are you hiding, Mr. Beck, if that is your real name? Why won't you admit that you had nothing to do with these heinous acts? Are you a communist Mr. uzBECKistan? The American people have a right to know! Why won't you come clean, sir?!
We are JUST asking a question!
Bigpat, wow, uzBECKistan, that's a keeper !!
The website has setup a dedicated phone line for Glen Beck to call in and simply refute the rumor, and guess what...he HASN'T CALLED YET.
What could this mean? Could it mean that's it's true?
Hey, I'm just asking questions.
Good one !
We love comedy and parody in America (at least Americans with a sense of humor). A sense of humor would be good for Glen Beck.
Oh he's got a sense of humor alright - he's laughing at his viewers and their unwavering gullibility every day.
The Rush Limbaugh racist "quotes".... Rathergate..... this......
Yes, it's quite a wonder that things like this are considered, even by a champion of free speech such Beck, as potentially beyond the limits.
Obviously it's a joke, but you only know that if you're aware of the background. Perhaps it's time for a BarackObamaRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1991.com to be launched. I'm sure there'd be consternation about that.
"Obviously it's a joke, but you only know that if you're aware of the background. Perhaps it's time for a BarackObamaRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1991.com to be launched. I'm sure there'd be consternation about that."
Here's the big difference with that. When liberals see the BeckRaped website, they laugh at the satire, and recognize it as a parody of the BS that Beck spouts. But, if there was an ObamaRaped website, many more people on the right would take it up as truth (see "Birthers").
Just another David Letterman ploy. These things seem to be working for some people. Expect to see more of them.
And that's the issue - part of the satire is that Beck was accusing President Obama with these techniques of not being an American citizen. It wouldn't make sense to accuse the President because he has never engaged in such rhetorical misuse.
Google Glenn Beck, and you will find out that in his days in Texas that he was taunting and outright cruel to his co-workers' wife who had recently lost a baby- he taunted the woman- on the phone- by saying her husband couldn't even make a baby- saying this, to a woman who had just miscarried a child. Fast forward to present, he is allowed to insult decent Americans again with his divisive words-we MUST hold him accountable!
I think you miss the point that they were not parodying Glenn Beck, but were instead making a parody of the logical fallacies his rhetorical style is based upon.
We don't need BarackObamaRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1991.com, since Hotair.com, Freerepublic.com, and a host of other blogs serve the same purpose (without the satire).
This has nothing to do with what side of the partisan divide Beck is on and everything to do with his methods. Using rumor, hearsay and insisting that someone prove their actions and intentions are methods that Beck has often employed, in the face of basic journalistic principles. He's just getting a taste of his own medicine now and, as evidenced by his failed attempts at litigation, apparently that medicine is tasting pretty bitter.
On the top left of the site page: "This website is 100% parody."
So no, you don't have to be aware of any background,
You just have to be able to read.
Johnnyapplecd- Thank you for stating the obvious. Beck is just like Medusa-he does NOT want the mirror turned on HIM. Google his days at a Texas radio station and how he was CRUEL to a co-worker whose wife had miscarried- that this creep insults good Americans DAILY is the biggest betrayal of all!
A big shout out to Larry Flynt!! His dedication to freedom made this possible!
In Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell, 485 U.S. 46 (1988), the United States Supreme Court held, in a unanimous 8-0 decision that the First Amendment's free-speech guarantee prohibits awarding damages to public figures to compensate for emotional distress intentionally inflicted upon them.
Larry Flynt has a true understanding to the First Amendment, I admire him.
And my right bicep is bigger.
That's cool; good for him for fighting the good fight.
In other web news, a Daily Beast proofreader was, for some reason, NOT fired for letting this grammatical error through:
"He added he already planned to give the site name to Beck if he won the case as early as September."
Note to B. Sarlin--
Try using the past perfect once in a while; maybe someday you'll get a job at a real newspaper.
:-/
Maybe someday "overdue" will read a "real newspaper" instead of TDB and disappear the fuck off of these comment boards, instead of posting stupid sanctimonious prescriptivist grammar bullshit that has nothing to do with the topic discussed in the column.
johnny,
don't be such a grad student/wanker. in the real world, we have norms for what constitutes acceptable writing. the copy editor should have caught and fixed the crappy sentence.
Someone missed his coffee this morning.
I am shocked so many Americans put this rapist/murderer on a pedestal.
Has anybody seen this mans birth certificate ?
He takes time off pretending it is a medical emergency so he can travel America on killing sprees.
Is Trinity off Dexter based on him?
LOL! Ah, this page just gets better and better!
Beck has to be guilty, Why else would he hide behind the pseudo name Glen Beck ?? His real name is Harald Hill, You don't see Limbaugh, Hannity or O'Reilly hiding behind pseudos, It can only mean that Glen Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990
This story reminds me to renew my ACLU membership. God bless freedom of speech.
http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=4608536&IDComment=54042337#c5 4042337
Glenn Beck is a douchbag.
The Daily Beast loves Glenn Beck.
And so does Stewart and Colbert!!!
Where else could they get such wonderful material?
Is it possible that through really strong humor we can ostracize right wing morons from society?
Even if we could, couldn't it be really dangerous?
I mean, isn't it possible that if Glenn Beck lost his success as a cable host he might express his delusional schizophrenia by committing rapes and murders of young girls?
Perhaps its best for all of us that he remains a perverse clown successfully amusing imbecilic/paranoid Fox viewers and enraging all rational adults.
Soulstation: Absolutely perfect!! Perhaps the MOST brilliant comment regarding the Beck murder spree.
A Little off topic....but, did anyone watch the The Daily Show last night......was so good. Hannity is on his way to Beck's Douchbag Equility. Jon Stewart is a feaking genuis.
I also love how he made fun of Lou Dobbs.
Your the people Chris Buckley rubs elbows with these days? It's hard to imagine.
Congradulations to Eiland-Hall.
ANYTHING that slaps Beck is a good thing. It's a parasite.
Oh the irony! The nutters never appreciate the intense irony of their own hypocrisy.
But on a more serious note, why doesn't Glenn Beck just come out once and for all and address the issue? Why not just take 30 seconds on his show and say "I, Glenn Beck, did NOT rape and murder a young girl in 1990; these rumors are vile and vicious, and I'll never make baseless accusations again"?
Hmm ?? Interesting use of words !! " Didn't rape and murder " So he doesn't deny that he did one of the two , He just says he didn't do both, So which is it Harald ( Glen ) did you rape a young girl in 1990 or did you murder a young girl in 1990 ??
There's a rumor he drank her blood too, just ask Desertpenguin and YogiBarrister from this site... they're just not 100% sure, cause Beck's never said he didn't.
Because Glenn Beck knows that without baseless accusations his show would only be thirty seconds long?
Chris Buckley is funny, so people don't find him loathsome, the way people find Glenn Beck Loathsome and Hannity and old cranky granny Bill O'Reilly loathsome.
But Glenn Beck is really the bottom of the bucket, because not only is he not funny, he looks (tubby, sexless, dough-faced) and acts so third-rate -- the classic unpopular nerd who got a bit of power and swaggers around until he gets slapped down by his betters. And now he's branded a loser. Couldn't be the first time.
Glenn Beck, please crawl back to tubby-town and dry your tears. Your dimwit fans are bound to see through you, just as the rest of us already have. Hugs 'n' kisses from a secret admonisher.
Mr Beck, prove to me you did not rape and murder a young girl in 1990.
So now we know why Heir Beck has been so mysteriously absent for the last week or so. Come on Glenny, let us all hear your side.
Glenn Beck may be waiting to introduce medical evidence that states that Mr Beck has not had an erection since 1985.
The fact that women have been charged with raping other women & the female rapists have been convicted is giving Mr Beck pause. Beck will have to deal with rumors that he has had an erection set since 1983.
Mr Beck does not to be tried for rape. He is a bit confused for he thinks that statutary(sic?) rape means that one has had sex with a consenting but cold adult.
He's also concerned because he fears being charged with involuntary homocide because members of his audience have died laughing when he goes into Vicks salve induced fits of tears. Mr Beck has many problems,
Glen Beck DID NOT rape and murder that young girl in 1990, that's an outrageous lie, besides she wasn't that young and she was a total slut.
YogiBarrister, I've heard that she was VERY young. And I heard that she was a virgin planning to enter the nunnery when she graduated from her Catholic high school. Since he hasn't said one word to deny it, and has had every opportunity to do so, I have to assume that there is some truth to this story.
I'm sure that Mr. Beck could, if he only would, tell all of us "Real" Americans the truth, it would certainly prove that he works for an organization that really believed in the fair and balanced reporting they claim.
It's great to konw that those who make a living by employing mockery masquerading as information get a taste of their own medicine. If they see their mission as an educational one, they could give cogent argument. But that wouldn't be entertaining enough to get sponsors. Any one know how much Beck gets for his "Entertainment career?" Where are the William Buckleys of the world didn't need the crutch of sensationalism to make their case?
Kraash
Thank you.
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