Glenn Beck

About

Glenn Beck is an American conservative television and radio host. Like political commentator Ann Coulter, Beck is often described as resembling an Internet troll due to his perceived attempts at intentionally generating public outrage.

History

In 1983, Beck began his career in radio at the station KZFM in Corpus Christi, Texas. In 1985, Beck moved to Louisville, Kentucky to be the lead DJ of the morning-drive radio show "Captain Beck and the A-Team" on the station WRKA. From 1987 to 1989, Beck hosted a "morning zoo" program in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was criticized for mocking a rival radio show host's miscarriage live on the air. In 1995, Beck's radio station WKCI was forced to apologize for a racist segment in which Beck mocked a Chinese-American caller by performing a mock Chinese accent and playing gong sounds. In 2000, Beck launched the Glenn Beck Program on the WFLA station in Tampa, Florida. In 2006, Beck began hosting the nightly news-commentary show Headline Prime on CNN (shown below, left). In 2009, Beck left CNN to host the show Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel.

Online Presence

Beck's website GlennBeck.com^[1] features content from his podcast, his television news network TheBlaze, videos, merchandise and a clothing store. On November 23rd, 2008, Beck launched an official Facebook^[2] page. That same month, Beck created the @glennbeck^[3] Twitter feed. In the next seven years, the Facebook page generated over 3.2 million likes and the Twitter feed garnered upwards of 933,000 followers.

Blenn Beck Rape & Murder Hoax

Did Glenn Beck Rape And Murder A Young Girl In 1990 is an Internet hoax and grassroots smear campaign which began as the satirical website GlennBeckRapedAndMurderedAYoungGirlIn1990.com in September of 2009. The hoax began as a parody of public perception of Glenn Beck's over-the-top interview antics on his self-titled television show Glenn Beck, wherein he frequently asks his guests to disprove highly speculative and often outrageous assertions.

"Restoring Honor" Rally

On August 28th, 2010, Beck promoted the "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to promote religious faith and patriotism. In response, satirical news hosts John Stewart and Stephen Colbert launched the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" held on October 30th (shown below, right).

Boston Bombing Statements

Following the Boston Marathon bombing that occurred on April 15th, 2013, Beck identified Saudi national Abdulrahman Alharbi as a participant in the attacks and claimed the United States government was engaging in a cover-up. On March 28th, 2014, Alharbi filed a defamation suit against Beck for the claims.

Woke Glenn Beck

Prior to the 2016 United States Presidential Election surprised many Americans by coming out and saying President Obama "made him a better man," calling Donald Trump "dangerously unhinged," praising the Black Lives Matter, and calling on Americans to stop treating everything like "a game show." To some, this signaled Glenn Beck had become woke. On November 16h, 2016, a photograph of Glenn Beck in what some considered hipster garb appeared on Twitter.

The photograph inspired dozens of jokes on Twitter as users mocked Beck's appearance. The spread of the jokes was covered by Beck himself on his very own website^[5] and Mediaite^[6] that day. The following day, the spread of "Woke Glenn Beck" jokes made Twitter Moments.^[7]

Reputation

Beck has earned a reputation for being an outspoken critic of the Obama administration and progressive politics, for defending traditional American values and for promoting conspiracy theories. Critics have accused Beck of using incendiary rhetoric to increase ratings and for being culturally insensitive to minority groups.

Search Interest

External References