Book Review: Chasing Glenn Beck by Michael Charney

Part social media experiment, part journey through modern-day politics, Chasing Glenn Beck: A Personal Experiment in Reclaiming Our Hijacked Political Conversation by Michael Charney is engaging and funny.

Charney begins a journey through the Twittersphere to prove that Glenn Beck is nothing more than an entertainer--a liberal in a conservative suit. Setting up his Twitter account "BeckIsALib," he begins tweeting to see who will become his followers and what their responses will be. As he becomes more obsessed with his Klout, he finds himself engaging tweeters on both sides of the political spectrum, discussing his point of view and learning things along the way.

As I mentioned in my First Chapter Review of this book, I feel it's important to start off with the Introduction, because one might be a bit lost otherwise. Though the first chapter speaks mostly about Twitter--how to use it, popular terms, etc., the book moves swiftly from that to Charney's experiment. If I had the chance to speak directly with the author, I might ask why he chose to save some of the funniest quips for his footnotes. People--myself included--are notoriously bad about reading them. I soon realized, however, I might miss good stuff if I didn't continue reading them throughout the book.

Honestly, until I got to the last few chapters I wasn't sure what my review would look like. For a while, I felt the author simply dropped Glenn Beck's name in there as a selling point, because references to Beck became fewer as the book continued. I don't want to reveal why that happened, but it is explained and Charney does a nice job of tying everything together.

From page 206 on, I found myself circling page numbers and underlining portions of text. The author makes several excellent points about society and politics. Chasing Glenn Beck by Michael Charney is definitely worth reading if you want to delve into the role social media plays in politics for the average person and how one man's experiment can evolve into something even he never expected.


Title: Chasing Glenn Beck: A Personal Experiment in Reclaiming Our Hijacked Political Conversation
Author: Michael Charney
Paperback: 260 pages
Publisher: Riddle Brook Publishing LLC (December 16, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0984792708
ISBN-13: 978-0984792702
SRP:  $14.95
Also available in a Kindle edition.

I received a free paperback copy of this book directly from the author in conjunction with his Pump Up Your Book virtual book tour. I received no monetary compensation of any kind to provide this review.
 
This is the tenth book I've read for the following challenge:
 

First Chapter Review: Chasing Glenn Beck by Michael Charney

While I hadn't planned to do this, I am doing it. What is that you might ask? I am writing a First Chapter Review on a book I know I plan to review next month. Why? Well, mostly because I love politics. For the most part I stay away from it on my blogs, at Facebook and Twitter because as an author I can't afford to tick people off because of my political views. Does that make me a wimp?

This is a book I am reviewing for a Pump Up Your Book tour, but I am not the coordinator promoting this particular book. It has been calling me since it arrived and my curiosity couldn't be tamed until I at least read the opening to see what it's all about.

TITLE:Chasing Glenn Beck: A Personal Experiment in Reclaiming Our Hijacked Political Conversation

AUTHOR:Michael Charney

BLURB: Is Glenn Beck a liberal?

Perhaps not, but when Michael Charney decides to plant that idea out in the “Twitterverse,” some interesting conversations begin. People shout at him (MORON!), block him (SCUMSUCKER!), and belittle him (WAKE UP, IDIOT!). Eventually, though, some people start to listen…

Today’s political dialogue has been stolen, hijacked from us by those with the loudest voices. Until we begin to take that conversation back for ourselves, we remain at the mercy of those with the most radical agendas, the most extreme visions for our country. The risk is great: a country run by a vociferous minority that just happens to scream louder than the rest of us is NOT what democracy is supposed to be about…

With discussions about politics, schools, national security, manifestos, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Flag Code–and the Senate’s Candy Desk–Charney cuts a wide swath through the issues facing our country, a country he claims has a serious case of “Electile Dysfunction.”

COVER: While the design is something a reader might expect from a book covering modern-day politics, I don't care for it. The sullen man with his arms crossed makes me bristle. I feel like I'm five years old again getting stared down by father who is angry over something I've done wrong.

FIRST CHAPTER: In a book of this nature, I felt it important to start with the Introduction. I'm glad I did, because I'm not certain I would have understood the scope of the book without it. One thing about the Introduction caught my eye. While one of the author's rules is that he won't invent quotes and attribute them to Beck, he did say he might, "twist a few of his quotes to suit my purpose..." This is being done in the interest of fun.

The first chapter is more a lesson in Twitter than anything else. It opens with the author's experiment in its first week and having gained his first follower. Now, he doesn't know if the user has automatically set up her account to follow anyone with the #GlennBeck hash tag in their post, but since she hasn't tweeted anything in a while, he figures it's likely.

Charney goes through explaining a bit how followers work, the importance of hashtags, the 140 character limit, and things like that, and how he went about setting up his own Twitter account to perform his experiment. Again, one thing stood out in this chapter--his bio, "Preserving conservatism by exposing the hypocrisy of the conservative media."

KEEP READING: Yes, and not only because I am supposed to review this book. The first chapter, while a bit dry because of the Twitter explanation, captured me with the Twitter bio. I immediately want to know what he means, and how he sees things. That doesn't mean I'll agree. I may end thinking he's totally off base. And though I didn't learn anything new about Twitter--since I use it every day--Charney adds some humor into it, like when he discovers his one follower (a Glenn Beck fan) unfollows him after he sends her a message of thanks for following him.


Look for my full review coming on February 24th.

I received a free copy of this book from the author through Pump Up Your Book in exchange for my honest opinions. I did not receive any monetary compensation for this first chapter review or the review that will follow.