Author Alexander Zaitchik sits down with Keith Olbermann to discuss his new book, “Common Nonsense, Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance“. Zaitchik tells Olbermann that we shouldn’t misinterpret Beck’s recent dip in ratings to mean that he is losing popularity. According to Zaitchik, Beck has consciously built a multi-platform empire that can withstand occasional dips in his television ratings.

Olbermann and Zaitchik discuss Glenn Beck’s assertions that Roger Ailes was a civil rights leader and that the Jews killed Jesus adding that Beck relies on consultants from the conservative think tank “Americans for Prosperity” and “Freedomworks” as well as some fringe religious groups to tell him what his audience wants to hear.

In discussing the “Restoring Honor 8-28-10” event that Beck has been promoting, Olbermann referred to it as a “defilement of Martin Luther King’s anniversary”. It was on this day in 1963 that Dr. King delivered his historical, “I Have a Dream” speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the culmination of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” which was organized in support of civil and economic rights for African-Americans who, after hundreds of years in this country, were living under an apartheid system.

On August 28, 2010 the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and others are asking their followers to, “join us in our pledge to restore honor at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC”. Beck will be speaking at that event where it is reported that he will urge Americans to restore honor to America.

Zaitchik cautions people about reading too much into the 2010 Glenn Beck ratings dip. Says Zaitchik of Beck’s projects, “people are mobilizing across this country”. There are a series of events geared toward mobilizing the right to “take back” this country.

The question is – Take it back to what?