A peek inside the mind of Glenn Beck

New York Times Washington bureau reporter Mark Liebovich has written an 8,100 word piece on Glenn Beck for the New York Times Magazine.

But as one journalist friend of mine likes to say, "When writing about scumbags, you can pretty much get your point across with 1,500 words."

How much more do we really need to know about a guy who has a long history making personal attacks, including making fun of a woman who had a miscarriage?

Or a guy who sees secret "communist and fascist art buried into the exterior design of Rockefeller Center." (see video below)

Given that, why is Beck - who's an admitted pothead and alcoholic - any different than a deranged homeless guy screaming obscenities and gibberish at the top of his lungs on a downtown street corner?

Well, there's one small difference.

The Times article quotes Forbes Magazine as saying that Beck "earned $35 million between June 2009 and June 2010."

So, he's really just another version of a thieving tel-evangelist milking gullible followers charging "$147 for a ticket to see him and Bill O’Reilly perform together at a theater in the round in Westbury, N.Y., on Long Island — part of Beck and O’Reilly’s “Bold and Fresh” tour." Insert quote about no one ever going broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people in this space.

If you don't have time to read all 8,100 words, here are a few paragraphs from the article that sum up Beck perfectly...in his own words:

“I said to someone the other day,” Beck told me, “I am as close today to a complete and total collapse as I was on the first day of recovery.” He calls himself a “recovering dirtbag.” There were many days, he said, when he would avoid the bathroom mirror so he would not have to face himself. He was in therapy with “Dr. Jack Daniels.” He smoked marijuana every day for about 15 years. He fired an underling for bringing him the wrong pen. And, according to a Salon.com report, he once called the wife of a radio rival to ridicule her — on the air — about her recent miscarriage.

“You get to a place where you disgust yourself,” Beck told me. “Where you realize what a weak, pathetic and despicable person you have become.”

And as I write this, there are over 400 comments reacting to the story on the Times' website including these:

Glenn Beck is a classic example of the freedom of hate speech that is reserved for white males. Imagine a woman commentator with such a wide berth to improvise racially charged rhetoric against the President of the United States. It is no coincidence that Beck was empowered to spit whatever he felt like on January 20, 2009.

I look forward to the day when a media network hires an African American male for $2.7 million to incite violence, and then change his mind a few days later to say that he was only kidding.

And this from a conservative in Florida:

Rowe Farms, Paxton, FL September 29th, 2010, 11:04 am I'm an anti-Obama conservative and favor the Republican side of politics. Yet, whenever Glenn Beck shows up on my television, I can't change the channel fast enough. His religious fervor and his animated overly dramatic way of making mountains from mole-hills are more than I can endure. He, even more than Prosaic Palin (AKA Insipid Sarah), has turned me away from the so-called Tea Party. Is there anyone of substance out there who can serve as spokesperson for the majority of "non-flakes" in this country?