"The trajectory was set, in my view, at least four years ago by bad business planning, by elevating Barton, and by departing from his very interesting historical pieces. When you pile the Trump hate on top of that, it spells C-R-A-Z-Y."
For those new to this topic, I’ll rehash my experience with Glenn: in 2010 I was invited on his show when he was at the peak of his popularity. I gave him a copy of “A Patriot’s History of the United States,” which he hadn’t seen before (despite the fact it was published six years earlier and was well reviewed in National Review, Claremont Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, etc). He read it and was enthralled by it, holding it up nightly many, many times and touting its virtues. No question, he made it into a #1 bestseller.
He started having me on the show for history segments, a lot. I was getting 2-3 calls a week from his producers regarding various other segments. Later that year my “Seven Events that Made America” came out and he filmed a full one-hour show about the book with me, but when it was slated to run, “hard news” (something in Iraq) intervened and the book never did get out in full our form.
Shortly thereafter, he moved to Texas to start his media empire. I flew down a couple of times to be on the show, always at that time filmed and almost always with David Barton. By then, I started to see that Barton had really captured Beck’s ear. Beck’s commentary was sounding more and more like Barton’s. About three years ago, I was on for the last time, in which a Barton segment tried to have me draw similarities between the collapsing Weimar Germany, and Hitler, to the US. I refused. All my commentary said just the opposite, that the structure of Germany at the time was vastly different than the US, and that the Republicans in Congress needed to fight more, and harder, not reach across the aisle for kumba ya.
That didn’t sit well. I never saw the segment, but friends said that it was badly edited to twist what I said to in some way remotely support Beck’s position.
Not long after that, all Beck’s top staff was fired. They called it “resignations,” but they were fired. Barton stepped into the position held by Joe Kerry, Beck’s aide, as head of the charities-—a very, very powerful position.
We all know that for the last 10 years Beck has had some terrible health problems. I don’t know what part that has played in his collapse, but it can’t help but have an effect. Then there was the poorly designed business model. Even at its peak, the Blaze was 100,000 or more away from minimal revenue subscriptions. But the outlays in Texas were outrageous-—a full, movie film set (actually two) with dozens of dressing rooms, support, etc. This could not be sustained, and I knew when I was down there the last time that he was really burning through capital, especially since his product was almost exclusively a “ditto cam” type of show. That ain’t entertainment.
The trajectory was set, in my view, at least four years ago by bad business planning, by elevating Barton, and by departing from his very interesting historical pieces. When you pile the Trump hate on top of that, it spells C-R-A-Z-Y.
"The trajectory was set, in my view, at least four years ago by bad business planning, by elevating Barton, and by departing from his very interesting historical pieces. When you pile the Trump hate on top of that, it spells C-R-A-Z-Y."
Thanks LS for the insight.
After Beck was dropped from Fox News, and from BOR’s live show tour (replaced by Dennis Miller); I lost interest in Beck.
Just like I am losing interest in BOR now.
Thanks.
Both Barton and Beck are obsessed with the US being the same as Germany in the thirties. They are as bad as Jones and his false flags
Thank you for posting you insight into the downward slide of Glenn Beck.
Barton has made a lot of money pushing that false narrative about the fates of the signers of the Declaration. A lot of people have been tarnished by that thing, from Rush claiming his father wrote it, to Jeff Jacoby getting suspended for plagiarism over it. Because Barton put it out in a slick video format, it has taught a false history to a lot of people who will probably never accept the truth.
Good post.........
Thanks for this info, it’s good to get a first-hand report. We were big GB fans when he was on TV and bought several of his books. His support for illegal aliens drove us away.
I listen to him occasionally on AM when in the car. He has seemed to tone down some of his never-Trumpism, but is still hard to listen to.
I feel sorry for him.