Glenn Lee Beck (born February 10, 1964) is an American radio and television host, author, conservative political commentator, and entrepreneur. He is the host of The Glenn Beck Program, a nationally-syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Premiere Radio Networks.Beck is also the host of a self-titled cable-news show on Fox News Channel. As an author, Beck has gained success with five #1 New York Times-bestselling books.He has become a well-known public figure, whose provocative views have afforded him media recognition and popularity, along with controversy and criticism.
Glenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington, on February 10, 1964, to William and Mary Beck. His parents lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington at the time of Beck's birth and sometime later moved their family to Mount Vernon, Washington where they owned and operated City Bakery in the downtown area.Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended private Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon.
Beck says of his political views, "I consider myself a libertarian. I'm a conservative, but every day that goes by I'm fighting for individual rights."Among his core values Beck lists personal responsibility, private charity, the right to life, freedom of religion, low debt, limited government, and family as the cornerstone of society
According to Joanna Brooks, a scholar of American religion, one pre-eminent influence on Beck's political ideology has been W. Cleon Skousen (1913–2006).Skousen was an anti-communist, a supporter (though not a member) of the John Birch Society, and limited-government conservative whose works involve a wide range of subjects (including the Six-Day War, Mormon eschatology, New World Order conspiracies, and even parenting). Beck praises Skousen's "words of wisdom" as "divinely inspired", referencing Skousen's The Naked Communist and especially The 5,000 Year Leap (originally published in 1981), which Beck said in 2007 had "changed his life".
According to Skousen's nephew, financial and political commentator Mark Skousen, Leap reflects Skousen's "passion for the United States Constitution," which he "felt was inspired by God and the reason behind America’s success as a nation."The book is touted by Beck as "required reading" to understand the current American political landscape and become a "September twelfth person".Beck authored a foreword for the 2008 edition of Leap and Beck's on-air recommendations in 2009 propelled the book to number one in the government category on Amazon for several months.
A group of protesters hold signs reading we ♥ glenn beck at the Taxpayer March on Washington.
Glenn Beck, an early-evening host on the Fox News Channel, is suddenly one of the most powerful media voices for the nation's conservative populist anger. Barely two months into his job at Fox, his program is a phenomenon: it typically draws about 2.3 million viewers, more than any other cable news host except Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity, despite being on at 5 p.m., a slow shift for cable news.
Main article: 9-12 Project
Beck put together a campaign, the 9-12 Project, that is named for nine principles and twelve values which he says embody the spirit of the American people on the day after the September 11 attacks.[33] Beck has supported the tea party protests from their inception and held a broadcast from one of the April 2009 rallies in San Antonio
In September 2009, the conservative political activism group FreedomWorks organized the Taxpayer March on Washington, to rally against President Obama's policies.The event was inspired by Beck's 9/12 project.
Media career and income
Tapping into fear about the future, Mr. Beck also lingers over doomsday situations; in a series called "The War Room" in February he talked to experts about the possibility of global financial panic and widespread outbreaks of violence. He challenged viewers to "think the unthinkable" so that they would be prepared in case of emergency.
To answer his critics, Mr. Beck delivered a 17-minute commentary in late March, answering criticisms, including one from Bill Maher that he was producing "the same kind of talking" that led Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. "Let me be clear," Mr. Beck said. "If someone tries to harm another person in the name of the Constitution or the 'truth' behind 9/11 or anything else, they are just as dangerous and crazy as those we don't seem to recognize anymore, who kill in the name of Allah."
Born in Mount Vernon, Wash., in 1964, Mr. Beck has long been a performer. His roots are in comedy -- he spent years as a morning radio disc jockey -- and he continues to perform comedy on stages across the country.
In addition to broadcasting, Beck has written three New York Times-bestselling books, and is the publisher of Fusion Magazine. He also stars in a one-man stage show that tours the US twice a year.
In June 2009, estimators at Forbes magazine calculated Beck's earnings over the previous 12 months at $23 million, with 2009–2010 revenues on track to be higher. Although the majority of his revenue results from his radio show and books, his website's 5 million unique visitors per month also provides at least $3 million annually, while his salary at Fox News is estimated at $2 million per year. Additionally, Beck's online magazine Fusion sells an array of Beck-themed merchandise.
Radio historian Marc Fisher has posited that Beck is "first and foremost an entertainer, who happens to have stumbled into a position of political prominence."Beck began his radio career in 1977, at age 13, when he won a local radio contest on station KBRC in Mount Vernon, Washington, to be a disc jockey for an hour. It was then that Beck and his school classmates produced old-time radio with live scripts and sound effects for radio station, KGMI, in Bellingham. In his junior year of high school, he began working part-time at Seattle station KUBE 93 (FM) having to take a Greyhound Bus from Bellingham to Seattle in order to get there. After hosting a show midnight to dawn on Fridays and Saturdays, Beck would sleep in the station's conference room following his show.In January 2006, CNN's Headline News announced that Beck would host a nightly news-commentary show in their new prime-time block Headline Prime.
The show, simply called Glenn Beck, aired weeknights at 7:00 p.m., repeating at 9:00 p.m. and midnight (all times Eastern) from May 8, 2006 to October 16, 2008.
Glenn Beck has become a popular and best-selling author, releasing seven books since 2003. He has hit #1 on the New York Times New York Times Bestseller List in four separate categories: Hardcover Non-Fiction (Arguing with Idiots and An Inconvenient Book, Paperback Non-Fiction (Common Sense), Hardcover Fiction (The Christmas Sweater), and Children's Picture Books (The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book).
The Glenn Beck show is one of the highest rated news commentary programs on cable TV.
Beck has referred to himself as an entertainer,a commentator rather than a reporter, a rodeo clown,and identified with Howard Beale "When he came out of the rain and he was like, none of this makes any sense. I am that guy."For a Barbara Walters ABC special, Beck was selected as one of America’s "Top 10 Most Fascinating People" of 2009.
Time Magazine describes Beck as "[t]he new populist superstar of Fox News" saying it is easier to see a set of attitudes rather than a specific ideology, noting his criticism of Wall Street, yet defending bonuses to AIG, as well as denouncing conspiracies against FEMA but warning against indoctrination of children by the AmeriCorps program.[99] What seems to unite Beck's disparate themes they note, is a sense of siege.[99] Time further describes Beck as "a gifted storyteller with a knack for stitching seemingly unrelated data points into possible conspiracies", proclaiming that he has "emerged as a virtuoso on the strings" of Conservative's discontent ... mining the timeless theme of the corrupt Them thwarting a virtuous Us.
