In today's edition of the “Founders' Fridays” series on Glenn Beck's Fox News show, viewers were subjected to an hour of Beck insisting that progressives have somehow hidden the true history of early America, a history in which African-Americans played a prominent role in the founding of the country. (Sample: Beck suggested that Americans had been misled into thinking that “in the 1790s, blacks and whites hated each other, it was slavery.”)

Beck took questions and comments from audience members, one of whom was a man named Robert Broadus:

The graphic that appeared as Broadus spoke identified him as a “computer programmer”:

That may be true, but it's not the whole story. Broadus is running for Congress in Maryland's 4th District this year as a Republican.

According to a list of candidates on Maryland's State Board of Elections site, Broadus filed to run in September 2009:

The State Board of Elections site shows that Broadus also placed third in the 4th District's Republican primary in 2008:

The front page of Broadus' campaign site features descriptions of his two previous appearances on Beck's show. The first was on November 13, 2009:

And the second was on January 14:

Broadus' work with computers may make “computer programmer” an accurate label, but most people would probably agree that running for Congress in two consecutive elections also makes him a “politician.” It should be pretty obvious that Beck's viewers are entitled to know this.

Beck has bragged that he has “some of the biggest minds in America” doing research for his shows. If his research team is incapable of discovering that a guest who has appeared on his show twice before -- and features those appearances on his campaign website -- is a politician, then that's a sad commentary on what Beck considers to be “the biggest minds in America.”