The Blaze is an obvious metaphor for Glenn Beck. Obviously, the blaze from last weekend’s big rally was huge, and Beck wants the blaze of the aftermath to change America. But the rally, his TV and radio shows, and the buzz he gets from his various remarks, can’t do it alone. As such, Beck felt the need to use one more outlet for the conservative/anti-progressive agenda. Therefore, he has launched The Blaze as a new news website to combat the likes of the Huffington Post.
Yesterday, The Blaze made its debut on the Internet, to capitalize on the momentum from the 8/28 rally. According to the site, it is a “news, information and opinion site brought to you by Glenn Beck” and a team of writers and video producers.
The stated mission of The Blaze is to analyze stories for topics like politics, culture, faith and family. Of course, the methods that are used for that are in line with Beck’s rallies and shows, to the delight and disgust on many.
The front page of the site offers an idea of what is being highlighted. On top, a headline reads “Explicit Poetry GPS Phones Help Illegals” to start off. In the stories section, there are many headlines about the 8/28 rally and Al Sharpton’s counter rally, with one headline accusing Sharpton’s rally of “shocking racism” The New York city mosque controversy is also highlighted, with a few articles on “Ground Zero Inman” Feisal Abdul Rauf.
To introduce The Blaze, Beck also posted “A Message From Glenn” as he promises to report on stories the mainstream media won’t touch. To that end, he hired a team of journalists and put the site together in just two months. He did this because “there comes a time when you have to stop complaining and do something.”
Beck just ended a very busy week in which he did something, but he is not resting on the 8/28 rally. The Blaze isn’t the first conservative website to dissect the news in a different way, of course. Newsbusters always pokes holes in media reports, while Andrew Breitbart takes on the culture wars with Big Hollywood, and Matt Drudge has the Drudge Report.
Yet since The Blaze has the Glenn Beck bump and official sponsorship, it may become even bigger in the months ahead. It will likely face frequent comparisons to the Huffington Post, the leading liberal-friendly news blog. But Beck has managed to get higher ratings on TV than liberal news shows, so getting more hits than liberal blogs seems to be his next goal.
Sources
The Blaze
Huffington Post- “Glenn Beck Launches The Blaze, News and Opinion Website”
