Glenn Beck

Philadelphia-based radio and television host Glenn Beck's career began after he won a radio station contest at 13. After working for several years as a disc jockey, Beck got his own daily talk radio show, The Glenn Beck Program, in 2001 and is currently syndicated by Premiere Radio Networks to nearly 250 stations nationwide as well as XM Satellite Radio. In 2006, Beck made the jump to television, hosting the prime-time program Glenn Beck on CNN Headline News. Beck joined ABC's Good Morning America as a regular contributor in January 2007.

Beck is famous for spouting controversial and inflammatory comments against Democrats, Muslims, Arabs, Mexicans, and female guests on his radio and television programs. Beck has called President Jimmy Carter a "waste of skin," Mexican immigrants "dirt bags" and "lawbreakers," Katrina victims "scumbags," Cindy Sheehan a "prostitute," and suggested using nuclear weapons against parts of the Middle East and Venezuela.

During a November 14, 2006, interview with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), the first Muslim elected to Congress, Beck said to the congressman: "What I feel like saying is, 'Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." (Beck later apologized for what he said was a "poorly worded question.") On his shows, Beck repeatedly belittles the Muslim faith by mocking Muslim names and through actions such as "mark[ing] the death" of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi with a "Zarqawi bacon cake."

Media Matters for America has documented Beck's smear campaigns against former Vice President Al Gore and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Beck has likened both Gore and his Academy Award-winning movie, An Inconvenient Truth, to Nazi propaganda. He frequently criticizes Clinton, calling her the "Antichrist" and a "stereotypical bitch," and comparing her health care plan to Hitler's "decree permitting euthanasia." Beck also helped advance the claim, originally made on the website InsightMag.com, that Clinton's presidential campaign discovered (and disclosed) that Sen. Barack Obama spent several years at madrassa while living in Indonesia. The accusation about Clinton was unsubstantiated, and the underlying claim that Obama attended a madrassa was debunked.

Beck has said that after he began his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, he was baptized as a Mormon in 2000 and launched his talk show, which started on Tampa, Florida's, WFLA-AM in 2001. Premiere Radio picked up the show in 2002.

Beck does not identify himself as a Republican, but he vocally supports the Bush administration. He also supports the Iraq war (he held a series of rallies in 2003 to support the invasion of Iraq), opposes abortion rights, and opposes raising the minimum wage. He has been critical of the entertainment industry, especially television shows that feature gay characters.

Beck is the author of The Real America: Messages from the Heart and Heartland (Pocket Books, 2003) and publishes Fusion magazine, which Beck's website says includes "the latest perspective on what is happening in our world, coupled with my personal thoughts as a 'work in progress' as well as cutting edge comedy and satire."

On blaming victims, especially vocal ones

"I find this guy [Michael Berg, father of slain journalist Nick Berg] despicable. Everything in me says that. The want to be a better person today than I was yesterday says he's a dad, he's grieving, but I don't buy that. I'm sorry, I don't buy it. I think he is grieving, but I think he's a scumbag as well. I don't like this guy at all." [5/14/04]

"But the second thought I had when I saw these people [Hurricane Katrina survivors], and they had to shut down the Astrodome and lock it down, I thought: I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9-11 victims." [9/9/05]

On killing filmmaker Michael Moore

"I'm thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I'm wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?" [5/17/05]

On anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan as a prostitute

"Who's a bigger prostitute? [Hollywood madam] Heidi Fleiss or [Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver] Terrell Owens? Who's the person out there -- who's the bigger prostitute: Heidi Fleiss or [Democratic National Committee chairman] Howard Dean? No, not even Howard Dean. [Sen.] John Kerry [D-MA]. Who's the bigger prostitute? Who'll do anything for power or money? I mean, at least Heidi Fleiss -- this is saying something -- at least Heidi Fleiss will admit to being a prostitute. You know what I mean? At least she'll say, 'Hey, I'm doing it for cash.' ... Cindy Sheehan. That's a pretty big prostitute there, you know what I mean?" [1/10/06]

On supporting torture

"[I]f I'm an interrogator, and they say, [imitates Arabic accent] 'I read in your papers that you cannot torture me,' I'll say, 'Yeah, you know, you saw another thing in the papers, you saw pictures of people being tortured. And I just want you to look around, little, uh, Habib, here, I want you to look around the room. Notice one thing is missing, and that's called a camera.' " [6/23/04]