Why Glenn Beck’s Media Empire Is Burning Down
Lloyd Grove
02.03.16 12:00 AM ET
Glenn Beck was thanked by Ted Cruz in his Iowa victory speech, but for all his ‘mad genius,’ the right-wing media firebrand’s media company has become an abyss of backbiting and paranoia.
Glenn Beck is beset by apocalyptic visions, sinister conspiracy theories, mind-blowing prophecies, mysterious illnesses, miraculous cures, and, yes, copious waterworks.
But of all of the hobgoblins fluttering through his mind, consistency isn’t one of them.
Beck regularly contradicts himself in word and deed—a trait that his less charitable associates call hypocrisy.
For instance, mere months after announcing, with typically messianic zeal, that he was heartily sick of politics and leaving the Republican Party, he spent the past two weekends barnstorming Iowa with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the winner of Monday night’s GOP caucuses, and trading insults with also-ran Donald Trump, who calls Beck “a whack job.”
In his victory speech, Cruz thanked Beck specifically: “I am so grateful to national leaders, people like Dr. James Dobson, and Tony Perkins, and Phil Robertson, and Governor Rick Perry, and Glenn Beck—leaders who have stood and led, bringing together conservatives here in Iowa and across the country.”
Beck celebrated the victory on his Facebook page—“It is a great night for the constitution America and Ted Cruz. We re one step closer to restoring our principles”—and promised not to gloat about Trump falling short. “One of those principles is to never revel in another man’s defeat.”
Indulging a weakness for grandiosity, the radio, television, and Internet firebrand has been broadcasting the simulcast of his popular Glenn Beck Radio Program this week from a full-scale mockup of the presidential sanctum, because, as he explained, “since we’re going for the most powerful job in the world, the place to cover that election might be from the Oval Office.”
Colleagues and underlings interviewed by The Daily Beast—on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution—describe Beck’s irresistible personal magnetism and undeniable brilliance that one called “mad genius,” mixed with a colossal streak of narcissism, neediness and, above all, capriciousness that have left them feeling whipsawed and, in many cases, betrayed.
Beck, who turns 52 next week, was not available for an interview.
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Poster Comment:
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