Meet Angelo Carusone. The Guy Who Took Away Glenn Beck's Pied Pipe.

With economic woes and natural disasters, the nation has been hungry for legends and fairytales. Movie audiences continue to clamor for larger than life heroes that can leap tall buildings with a single bound or vanquish villains with a POW! and a BAM!  The fairytale wedding of an English prince to a "regular girl" and the death of the world's most hated boogey man had Americans glued to their collective television sets.  


Here in the United States, we had another bedtime story.  Once upon a time a young man noticed  millions of enamored Americans being misled by a television pundit.  He would dare to point out that the emperor had no clothes.  He would take the pipe from the pied piper.  He would help bring down Glenn Beck.  And he's a recent law grad to boot.

Mild mannered Angelo Carusone proved to be Glenn Beck's greatest nemesis. He would take away the chalk from Lex Luthor's hand.  Heck, Angelo proved to be Scooby Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang all rolled into one.  Old man Beck would have gotten away with it too if not for that meddling kid at StopBeck.com (Too much? OK, maybe I read too many comic books as a kid).   


Like Peter Parker, Angelo Carusone was a native New Yorker.  He began noticing some outlandish claims being made on the Glenn Beck show.  A former competitive debate champion, Carusone was well versed in the importance of presenting the facts.  After watching  Beck's show, he noticed that the show was devoid of them. Nevertheless, millions of Glenn Beck's fans were mesmerized by his words.   Beck had the secret formula.  He played into people's deep seeded fears and prejudices.  He would mix in a little truth with a little lie.  He would then hit repeat.  Beck's television show was on several times a day.  He was on the radio.  He was on the internet.  He was writing books, holding rallies and touring the country.  His followers were beginning to believe some pretty ridiculous things. It was dividing the country.  After all, it's hard to doubt a man sitting in front of the American flag and cutouts of our founding fathers.  George Washington never told a lie.  Plus he wrote on a chalkboard and wore glasses.
Your teacher wouldn't lie to you either.

Carusone was fed up.  He contacted Fox News with a request that they start being more responsible with their reporting. When they turned a blind eye to him, Angelo turned to twitter via the moniker @stopbeck.  It was the worst thing that could happen to Glenn Beck.  Not only was Carusone a former debate champion, he would enhance his skills at the University of Wisconsin's School of Law.  He had facts, common sense and over 23,000 like minded twitter followers on his side.  (Heck, Hall & Oates only has around 1700.  Ronald Reagan's son Michael has a little over 4000).  

Carusone started contacting Beck's sponsors to point out the vitriol and outlandish lies coming out of the Glenn Beck camp.  In August of 2009, Kraft Foods became the first company to listen. Hundreds would follow suit.  The show completely lacked sponsors in Britain.  Media Matters took notice of Angelo's efforts and hired him in their efforts to hold Fox News accountable.  Glenn's ratings dropped as an estimated third of his audience left.  He was left with fringe sponsors that appealed to the doom and gloom crowd. They included a company that sold $150 super seeds to help you prepare for Armageddon.  Yes, Glenn Beck fans were being sold "magic beans."  Which brings us back to Jack...errr  Angelo, the giant killer.

  

I began following Angelo Carusone on Twitter.  I was amazed at the threatening language and vulgar insults publicly hurled at Mr. Carusone for his efforts.  I can only imagine the private emails he received.  I applaud him for sticking with it. I like when the good guy triumphs in fairy tales.  It's even better when it happens in real life.  Fox has announced the cancellation of the Glenn Beck show.   Maybe we can all now live happily ever after.