Anyone seen Glenn Beck's addiction interview promo?

[Akoto]

This morning, on CNN, I saw a promo for an interview with Glenn Beck. He was tearfully confessing that he'd once been an alcoholic and drug addict, and that he's been sober for twelve years. CNN is really making a big deal of this interview, particularly on Headline News.

Just curious as to whether this might explain a few things about him. I'm hardly one to talk down about anyone who has suffered through (and defeated) these issues, but I found myself shamefully without sympathy for Beck. As he sat there at the desk, weeping throughout his confession, this exchange infuriated me the most:

ANCHOR: "What do you regret the most?"

BECK: "The way I treated people."

The way he treatED people. Past tense, as though he's now some angel. This guy has made a career out of encouraging hatred, propagating fear, and generally shilling for the government. He does this with the sort of unabashed openness that makes Bill O'Reilly look discrete.

Just recently, Beck's crowning achievement was to call Hillary Clinton (a current presidential candidate) a "bitch" while on the air. What the hell? Why is this guy even still on television, much less receiving an interview that attempts to cast him in a sympathetic light?

[daveskilt]

1. nothing worse than addicts who "get religion"

they get to be some of the most intolerant freakshows around. This guy makes me cringe every time I hear he is the same religion as me.

[deutsey]

2. Q. Why is this guy even still on television?

A. From "Network" (adapted):

Arthur Jensen: The world is a business, Mr. Beck; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. Our children will live, Mr. Beck, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality - one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock - all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beck, to preach this evangel.

Glenn Beck: Why me?

Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Glenn Beck: I have seen the face of God.

Arthur Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beck.

[IWantAChange]

3. When it looks - smells - acts like dung - it's dung.

[Poiuyt]

4. I caught that too

I missed the beginning, so I didn't know what time frame he was referring to. When he said he regretted the way he treated people, I just assumes that he had his revelation last night.

CNN must have been receiving a lot of complaints about him. This is all being done by them to make Glen Beck seem like less of a racist bigot than he really is.

[Akoto]

5. I agree entirely.

The first time around, I missed the beginning. I thought that he might finally have confessed the reason for his bitter and hateful attitude. Then I realized he was referring to something from a decade ago.

[ComerPerro]

6. no shit, he must have been a massive asshole when he was on drugs