Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America by Dana Milbank Page A
Book: Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America by Dana Milbank
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Authors: Dana Milbank
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, Biography & Autobiography, Political, Authors, American, Entertainment & Performing Arts, Biography, Language Arts & Disciplines, Political Science, Performing Arts, Political Ideologies, Television Personalities - United States, Beck, Conservatism & Liberalism, History & Criticism, Television, Popular Culture, Conservatism, Ignorance (Theory of knowledge) - Political aspects - United States, Glenn - Influence, Glenn - Political and social views, Popular culture - United States, Political culture, Radio personalities, Radio personalities - United States, Political culture - United States, Conservatism - United States, Journalism
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store. “I’m a small businessman,” he explains. “I do radio, I do television and Internet. I write books. I print a news and humor magazine. And I built it all from scratch with the help of an amazing group of people.”
His is a rags-to-nicer-rags tale. Or perhaps he would use the Yiddish word for rags, schmattas . “In 1999, only in America—in 1999, I couldn’t afford my rent of $695 a month,” he says. “Things have changed, and as of right now, my business is doing pretty well. But just like you, I’m concerned about tomorrow.”
But not that concerned. His business empire, according to Forbes , is worth $32 million a year: $13 million in publishing from his books (he has a profit-sharing deal with Simon & Schuster) and his Fusion magazine; $10 million for radio (actually $45 million over five years); $4 million from his Web site; $3 million from tours and speaking (he does comedy shows in addition to the Bold & Fresh Tour with Bill O’Reilly); and a mere $2 million from Fox News to round out the portfolio.
Beck does not let the schlubs and schmoes in his audience know about such riches, but he was happy to boast about them to the elites. He allowed a Forbes reporter to follow him around for “several days” to report a story on his empire. The reporter found such regular-guy staples in Beck’s life as the cockatoo he rented for $750 a night as a prop for his stage performance.
Beck, the magazine reported, has thirty-four full-time staffers (that apparently doesn’t include the staff of similar size provided for him by Fox). He has a publicist separate from Fox and travels everywhere with bodyguards. His media empire (it has changed its name from Mercury Radio Arts to Glenn Beck Inc.) nearly rivals Oprah’s in its clout. In May 2010, Beck boasted that five of the titles in the Amazon top twenty-five bestseller list were books he had promoted on air: George Washington’s Sacred Fire (number 1), The Real George Washington (8), Samuel Adams: A Life (15), Beck’s yet-to-be-published The Overton Window (16), and The 5,000 Year Leap (22).
When Beck does describe his huge income, he does so with a “spread the wealth” philosophy that sounds a lot like the Barack Obama view that Joe the Plumber condemned. “I think it’s obscene to have that kind of earning potential and not spread the wealth with the people who help you to get there,” Beck writes. He also says he tithes 10 percent of his earnings. “Once you commit to giving away your 10 percent, you will get so much more,” he said.
Of course, when you make what Beck does, it is probably less painful to give away 10 percent than it is for the typical working schlub with whom Beck identifies. Beck’s own prescriptions for America would cause his millions to be taxed much less while increasing taxes on the schmoes and schlubs. He proposes a federal flat tax on income and mentions no exemption for the poor or middle class: “Reduce the size of government in half,” he proposed on his Fox show in 2010. “Flat tax of 12 to 15 percent.” Because most of Beck’s income should be in the 35 percent tax bracket, this would reduce his own payments by nearly two-thirds. The nearly half of all Americans who pay no federal income taxes—the schlubs and schmoes, as Beck might say—would see their tax obligations rise sharply.
Beck originally named his business after Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre radio series. He writes in his 2003 book, The Real America , that he admires the way Welles figured out that he could be more efficient if he had an ambulance take him from job to job. He wasn’t sick, but it saved time: “Welles hired an ambulance to pick him up from the Broadway show, turn the sirens on, and take him to CBS, where he played a role on the radio,” Beck writes. “Then they would pack him back in the ambulance, turn the sirens on again and go back to the Broadway theater to do the second show.”
Some might regard this as fraud; Beck
His is a rags-to-nicer-rags tale. Or perhaps he would use the Yiddish word for rags, schmattas . “In 1999, only in America—in 1999, I couldn’t afford my rent of $695 a month,” he says. “Things have changed, and as of right now, my business is doing pretty well. But just like you, I’m concerned about tomorrow.”
But not that concerned. His business empire, according to Forbes , is worth $32 million a year: $13 million in publishing from his books (he has a profit-sharing deal with Simon & Schuster) and his Fusion magazine; $10 million for radio (actually $45 million over five years); $4 million from his Web site; $3 million from tours and speaking (he does comedy shows in addition to the Bold & Fresh Tour with Bill O’Reilly); and a mere $2 million from Fox News to round out the portfolio.
Beck does not let the schlubs and schmoes in his audience know about such riches, but he was happy to boast about them to the elites. He allowed a Forbes reporter to follow him around for “several days” to report a story on his empire. The reporter found such regular-guy staples in Beck’s life as the cockatoo he rented for $750 a night as a prop for his stage performance.
Beck, the magazine reported, has thirty-four full-time staffers (that apparently doesn’t include the staff of similar size provided for him by Fox). He has a publicist separate from Fox and travels everywhere with bodyguards. His media empire (it has changed its name from Mercury Radio Arts to Glenn Beck Inc.) nearly rivals Oprah’s in its clout. In May 2010, Beck boasted that five of the titles in the Amazon top twenty-five bestseller list were books he had promoted on air: George Washington’s Sacred Fire (number 1), The Real George Washington (8), Samuel Adams: A Life (15), Beck’s yet-to-be-published The Overton Window (16), and The 5,000 Year Leap (22).
When Beck does describe his huge income, he does so with a “spread the wealth” philosophy that sounds a lot like the Barack Obama view that Joe the Plumber condemned. “I think it’s obscene to have that kind of earning potential and not spread the wealth with the people who help you to get there,” Beck writes. He also says he tithes 10 percent of his earnings. “Once you commit to giving away your 10 percent, you will get so much more,” he said.
Of course, when you make what Beck does, it is probably less painful to give away 10 percent than it is for the typical working schlub with whom Beck identifies. Beck’s own prescriptions for America would cause his millions to be taxed much less while increasing taxes on the schmoes and schlubs. He proposes a federal flat tax on income and mentions no exemption for the poor or middle class: “Reduce the size of government in half,” he proposed on his Fox show in 2010. “Flat tax of 12 to 15 percent.” Because most of Beck’s income should be in the 35 percent tax bracket, this would reduce his own payments by nearly two-thirds. The nearly half of all Americans who pay no federal income taxes—the schlubs and schmoes, as Beck might say—would see their tax obligations rise sharply.
Beck originally named his business after Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre radio series. He writes in his 2003 book, The Real America , that he admires the way Welles figured out that he could be more efficient if he had an ambulance take him from job to job. He wasn’t sick, but it saved time: “Welles hired an ambulance to pick him up from the Broadway show, turn the sirens on, and take him to CBS, where he played a role on the radio,” Beck writes. “Then they would pack him back in the ambulance, turn the sirens on again and go back to the Broadway theater to do the second show.”
Some might regard this as fraud; Beck
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