It's all part of the traditional media's willingness to play dumb about Beck and his radical rhetoric. The latest comes courtesy of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review [emphasis added]:

“His success is pretty simple,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University. “He puts on a consistently good show that is a great mix of culture and entertainment, with painstaking research to back it up. Plus, Beck's show is personality-driven. People genuinely like him.”

A) That Thompson, who makes a living giving quotes to the media about the media, is so uninformed about Beck's professional mendacity and irresponsible programming is just embarrassing, both to Thompson and to Syracuse. And B), that the Tribune-Review's piece on Beck does not contain a single reference to any of Beck controversial (i.e. fictional) comments in recent weeks in months, or quote one critic of Beck, is equally lame.

UPDATE: Right on cue, in an article about Beck, here's how the AP, in its entirety, describes the controversial talker:

He's become a favorite target for Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert to lampoon, and been criticized by liberals for over-the-top criticisms of President Barack Obama.

That's it. No on-air Beck quotes and no context (i.e. Beck falsely claims Obama wants to take away people's guns.) Instead, the AP just plays dumb.