glenn beck

"What has translated into a change in price for oil and gas has simply been a result of the greed of the oil industry," says author and GRITtv oil correspondent, Antonia Juhasz of rising oil prices and pain at the pump. Antonia is the director of the Energy Program at Global Exchange, and author of the newly released book, Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill. With prices two times higher than they were when President Obama took office, and up 37% just this year, Americans are feeling an additional squeeze at the pumps. The White House's plan to reduce fuel costs may be a step in the right direction, says Antonia. However, as we continue to navigate issues like speculative trading and a lack of regulation in the Intercontinental Oil Exchange, true progress may be difficult. Is there a responsible way forward? And, more importantly, is the Obama administration ready to set us on that path? "People actually want to believe in heroes, so they'll believe in Glenn Beck, they'll believe in Barack Obama, they choose individuals to believe in but won't believe in politics itself," says Walter Mosley, author and activist. Obama may have been pressured into releasing his "long form" birth certificate this week, but that won't heal the hurt in our politics, Mosley says, until Americans stop trusting heroes and experts and start trusting each other. Mosley joins us for part one of a two-part conversation on his vision for a truly people-powered America. Finally, the media is more obsessed with the British royal wedding than the US people actually are, but why should we bother with British royals at all when we have our own royals right here? They're called corporations. Distributed by Tubemogul.

"Poor people thought that they could only enter politics through different sorts of tactics. They had to be noisy, they had to get people's attention, they had to make trouble. I've come to the conclusion that they're right, that lots of people only have real power when they make trouble," says Frances Fox Piven, the most dangerous woman in America according to Glenn Beck. Frances and renowned public intellectual Cornel West held a "Fight Back Teach-in" this week that was streamed online to the public and to over 200 college campuses around the country. Their aim was to provide more information to counter the lies about the need for "austerity" for working people, and to help sustain the growing movement around the country fighting back for working people. Laura sat down with Frances and Cornel after the teach-in to talk austerity, Obama, poor people's movements, and why it's time for progressives to make some trouble. Then, activists in San Francisco tell Twitter and other big corporations to pay their fair share when they move into a community.

Progressives cheered when it was announced Wednesday that Glenn Beck would be "transitioning" off his Fox News show. Beck's not gone for good, of course, but his daily screeds against the likes of Van Jones and Frances Fox Piven will be somewhat more limited -- perhaps to radio. That news aside, though, it's been a rough year in media. NPR and PBS are under attack, newspapers and magazines are still struggling to make ends meet, and with a new war, hundreds of anti-woman, anti-union, anti-immigrant bills popping up around the country, the progressive independent media is stretched thin as a pancake. Distributed by Tubemogul.

We speak with Tucson shooting survivor Eric Fuller. A 63-year-old disabled veteran, Fuller had campaigned for Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in her reelection campaign and was at the supermarket in Tucson on Saturday to meet with her. He was shot in the knee and also wounded in the back. "It looks like Palin, Beck, Sharron Angle and the rest got their first target," Fuller says. "Their wish for Second Amendment activism has been fulfilled." For more than a year, Fox News host Glenn Beck has been increasingly targeting Frances Fox Piven, a 78-year-old distinguished professor of political science and sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Beck has repeatedly accused her of advocating violence and of hatching a plan in 1966 to overthrow the system. Piven joins us in our studio. We speak with Daniel Hernandez, the 20-year-old intern for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who has been credited with likely saving Giffords’ life immediately after the shooting. "I think a lot of people are realizing the political discourse has, for years, become completely destructive and more about tearing the other people apart instead of trying to work together to build up a nation and the state," Hernandez says. Democracy Now!, a daily independent newshour.