How Glenn Beck Re-Invented Himself as a Crying Conservative

Every July 4, Glenn Beck emcees the Stadium of Fire celebration in Provo, Utah. The patriotic extravaganza is the most elaborate Independence Day celebration in the country, drawing more than fifty thousand people annually to Brigham Young University’s LaVell Edwards Stadium for a program of family music, star-spangled speeches, military displays, and a magnificent array of fireworks. Sponsored by the conservative Mormon group Freedom Festival, the Stadium of Fire is the closest thing in the country to an institutionalized Rally for America, Beck’s controversial 2003 traveling pro-war roadshow. It is not surprising, then, that this is among the high points of Beck’s calendar year. “There’s nothing like Utah on the Fourth of July,” he likes to say.

The Jonas Brothers were the biggest commercial act on the 2009 Stadium of Fire program, but the chaste Disney boy band didn’t headline. That honor went to an enormous American flag, 155 feet by 90 feet, which was ritually burned during the show’s climax. It was Beck’s job as emcee to narrate the rite as it was carried out according to an elaborate official protocol. When a cauldronlike container at the center of the field was set afire, an emotional Beck declared, “If our American flag could speak, oh, the stories she would tell.”

With those words, the Stadium of Fire became a Coliseum of Crying. “Many people teared up,” reported the Deseret News, “including event emcee Glenn Beck, who emphasized to the audience what a special ceremony they were witnessing.”

Except that it wasn’t. A few days later, Provo’s fire chief admitted that the nylon flag had not, in fact, been burned, as the crowd was led to believe. Because of safety concerns, a less volatile material had been quietly substituted for the flag in the giant cauldron. Like the emcee’s famous tears, Provo’s patriotic inferno was not what it seemed.

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If people know one thing about Glenn Beck, it is that he cries. He is the Crying Conservative. Alone among cable news and talk-radio personalities, he frequently chokes up, his lips quiver, he wipes his eye, and he holds tortured misty pauses until he can hold them no more. For more than a decade, Beck has been crying on the radio, on television, on stage, in interviews, and even in scripted commercials. Sometimes the tears are implied; at other times, such as during a 2009 stage performance, he gets into a fetal position on the floor and bawls. But whatever the gradation, he owns the scale. It defines him like nothing else.

This is not an accident. As they were always intended to do, Beck’s tears have become a distinctive corporate-brand handle. They mark him clearly from everyone else in the broadcasting industry. When Beck began his career in conservative commentary, the field was thick with tough-guy know-it-alls—from the lace-curtain boor O’Reilly to the cigar-chomping blowhard Limbaugh.

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Wow I didn't know this happened at the stadium of fire. However, regardless of the burning ritual I think glen beck is using the tears for dramatic enhancement especially if he is capable of calling on them whenever necessary. Some of the best in what they do are ones that can act...

He's been crying at nothing since at least 2001. It's not new.

What's new is that he used to be really funny but in the past 2 years or so he's gone off some religious zealot deep-end ranting about "forces of darkness" and other Tolkien-esque magical enemies.

Lately his radio show is nothing but god and devil nonsense.

It's why I had to stop listening.

He went from funny to funny-crazy to just plain crazy.

I dont know much about his TV show. Only ever watched one episode back on HLN.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


I wonder whats up with him. I can't help but wonder if it is a personal choice or something perhaps more sinister for methods of collecting followers.

Edit: Or maybe he just lost it? lol

[edit on 6-5-2010 by Crossfate]

reply to post by Crossfate


I doubt it's anything so sinister. At least its origins arent.

He's an AA guy. They are emotional wrecks. They started using and got addicted in the first place because they're unstable people.

For years it was a big joke. Callers would call up just to make fun of him for his "over sensitivity" and he was on board with making fun of himself.

Maybe now that his topics are all Armageddon and Jesus him or his handlers may see the crying thing as some sort of shortcut to credibility.

All I know is he isnt funny anymore.

I miss Jeop-retardy and Moron Trivia.

[edit on 6-5-2010 by thisguyrighthere]

I asked this question before but never got an answer.

Was Beck like this when he was on CNN?

I never caught his show while he was there but have seen a few of his shows since moving to Fox.

I find him entertaining and all but I wouldn't expect his stuff to be big for CNN.

Has he changed his stripes to fit his demographic better or was he always like that?

reply to post by GAOTU789


He was always like this. Not so extreme but these wee always his views.

When he got the pitch from CNN for his first TV show it was a big joke on his radio show for months. About why would CNN want him and how CNN was attempting to grab a piece of the conservative radio/TV demo or how his enemies just wanted him closer.

He stood out a lot on CNN.

Glenn Beck is outstanding. The series on the Founding Fathers of America is especially interesting. I am learning many new things about the history of the founding of our nation. Each friday a new founding father will be discussed. This Friday will be George Washington.

Any American confused by the politicians, banksters, corporate fat cats, and union thugs who seek to turn our country into a socialist nightmare similar to Greece, will find Glenn Beck immensely interesting.

The commies, socialists, marxists, fascists hate Glenn because he is the only one who finally exposing the epic scams and treasonous acts being visited upon our country by these clearly anti-American domestic enemies.

And the bit about the "gilled residents" of the Gulf of Mexico was hysterical.


[edit on 6-5-2010 by mike_trivisonno]

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Thank you.

You're the first person to explain it to me.

I would imagine Beck would have stood out like a sore thumb on CNN.

He's just like the rest of them, with an opinion provided to him by some political party. It's easier to sell books that way. He's got a built-in audience that throws money at him for agreeing with them. Or maybe you thought he was crying because he cared? America must love crybabies. We sure do have a lot of them.

reply to post by Def Youth


I have a tendency to agree with you but every so often logic sways me towards the idea that some people in media or politics actually mean what they say and believe the same. It's hard to tell these days, there all so good at lying...

Stephen King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother.

LMAO

Originally posted by Grey Magic

Stephen King was quoted as calling conservative commentator Glenn Beck "Satan's mentally challenged younger brother.

LMAO

Can't wait for the book!

Stephen King....great author, but his politics stink. Didn't he once call servicemembers illiterate?

Well,I think is so great that in this country a person can re-invent himself as he matures.

Hell,if it wasn't for that Biden would still be the idiot he was when he first was elected to the Senate,instead of one heartbeat from being the leader of the free world.

Obama would still be a Kenyan named Barack Obama,who became a Indonesian named Barry Sotello,who became a American exchange student named Barry Sotello and then a American politician named Barack Obama.

There are documents to prove all that about Obama.

It seems anyone can change their past to create a new reality.

Such is the American way.

Beck has never denied his past.

He writes about it in his book.



[edit on 6-5-2010 by Oneolddude]