While on vacation I saw that the New York Times had stopped focusing on the unimportant Charlie Sheen contract and moved to the really unimportant Glenn Beck contract. In case you missed it, let me summarize. Glenn Beck is crazy. He’s dangerous. And nobody‘s watching because he’s crazy and dangerous. And now he‘s so crazy and dangerous that even Fox that’s crazy and dangerous can’t even have him or his crazy and the dangerous fans around. If I understand this line of thinking right, those who are bitter, angry and clinging to God and guns, dubbed by the president and the media, are now done with me because I’m bitter and angry and clinging to God and guns? I don’t follow that logic. But then they also point out that I talk too much about God and am constantly preaching against violence, neither of which I really believe in. Oh, man. But the fan who they dub an illiterate zombie somehow knows that I‘m just faking it even though they’re a zombie and only following because they‘re too stupid to figure out that I’m just faking it. And they are now rejecting my view of a nonviolent God. At first I had hope reading the New York Times because at first I thought, wow, the New York Times and the media may be in the beginning stages of admitting that there are some people like radical Islamists that believe in a violent God that says kill people for his purposes. But then I realized, no. No, no, no, no, no. They just found a story that could bash Glenn Beck or Fox. So I really didn’t have anything deeper than that.
Once again crazy, dangerous and, of course, now the new evergreen and perennial favorite in ratings decline. By the time the New York Times arrived to the in ratings decline conclusion, it was strange because I was only a CBS News estimate of the 8/28 crowd of 87,000 people, away from the actual audience size that the Times themselves used to declare that I was a ratings phenomena just two years before. Isn’t that weird? And that was the time before, you know, Time magazine put me on their cover declaring, of course, that I was a crazy madman. Oh, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I’ve decided that the media and the American left have become nothing more than a shampoo label and should be disregarded as we disregard most shampoo labels because they all say the same thing: Lather, rinse, repeat and that’s all they do. And that’s why in the end they will fail. And that’s not my truth. I’m‑‑ my truth’s not going to be their undoing. Their lack of understanding the truth will be their undoing. Currently the media in the political chorus is singing the praises of revolution in the Middle East and declaring from their pulpits of the past that I again am dangerous and must be stopped. Oh, Luke Skywalker, you want this.
The predictions that I have made that the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt would spread around the Middle East and then to Europe was incendiary, that’s crazy talk. In addition to the accusation of being crazy, they now label me as, in the New York Times, apocalyptic and too much of a downer to watch. Well, I guess if you’re used to looking at the surface and not reading your own newspapers, you could put me in the downer to watch box. Yeah. Yeah. But that would only be because the very things that I’ve warned against that, you know, you called conspiracies or far out theories and, quote, out‑and‑out crazy talk, end quote, that make it, quote, only right to have him committed, end quote, or at least, quote, find something in the Constitution to limit Glenn Beck’s free speech, end quote, are now all beginning to be headlines in your very newspaper! Isn’t that weird? You should read your paper from time to time.
For those who may, and I think there may be‑‑ I don’t even think my wife is in this category, that may find themselves with an idle moment or two to wonder what the future holds for me, let me answer: Yes, my contract is up at the end of the year. Contracts do that. Fox and I have had a great relationship and the current contract does come to an end in December. My admiration for the people that work at Fox and the people that have built Fox cannot be overstated. In short, Roger Ailes has built not only the most powerful name in news in America but he has built the most powerful name in news on planet Earth. And much to the left’s amazement and chagrin, he’s done it all without bashing America. Isn’t that weird? Now the same cannot be said for the new media darling Al‑Jazeera, the fawning over the mouthpiece of Al‑Qaeda and the defender of radical Islam should not be surprising to the average American. After all, progressives are all about progress and the next logical step from MSNBC could only be the network to which Bin Laden sends his actual terrorist tapes.
The press has come to the conclusion that what the press is reporting is all about my desire to make more money and Fox’s desire to retain me cheaper. Oh, had they only listened or watched any of the thousands of hours of broadcast time. Or if it was they instead of my four million readers that they claim don’t actually read my books that had actually read my books instead of living in self‑imposed ignorance, they would know that I didn’t negotiate my first contract with Fox. It was a deal that was done with a handshake, you know, the way cowboys that still exist in America still make a deal, with a handshake.
What my average listener or you understands is the same thing that the media couldn’t grasp at 8/28. That there are actually people that still believe in something and when the chips are down, they will stand where they believe they are being told to stand.
Last year I outlined the direction of my company for my partners here at Mercury in New York. It is by far the most ambitious undertaking we have ever done, and we’ve tried some pretty big and incredible and crazy things.
My business partner Chris pointed out after the end of my outlining where I thought the company needed to go, he said, Glenn, nobody’s ever done that. I pointed out to him, oh, yes. One man has. Where this goal eventually takes us and who joins us on this journey is anybody’s guess. The media, of course, will say, “Oh, it’s crazy, it’s dangerous. Oh, it’s only about money, fame or, “It’s too much God.” But I bet that you will just do what you’re currently doing. Keep minding your life and working hard and being independent.
What so many in New York or Washington to longer believe, I do. And I’ll bet you do, too. That God lives and God is not neutral in our lives or in our actions. I also believe I have this crazy notion that God is actively involved in preserving man’s freedom. And this is what compels me to do what I do. In the end I will be counted. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said to not stand is to stand. To not speak is to speak. We are facing issues that will be written about for generations to come and if not God, history will at least hold us accountable. So there are no negotiation tactics, New York Times. No PR move, no ratings ploy because in the end there is only the truth, and the truth has no agenda. If I feel in the end that I’m to build a ballpark out in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a cornfield, oh, believe me, I will do it. Because I trust the only one that really knows how this story ends.
So what does this mean for you and me? Well, one of the many, many, many reasons why I don’t freak out about, you know, the Earth has a temperature, global floods, fires, food riots, you know, the movie that Al Gore made, the reason why, you know, the New York Times will tell you that one’s just the truth, that’s not apocalyptic, the reason why I don’t worry about that apocalyptic movie is because I know the only thing in life that is constant is change. And so while things, and I don’t know which, will change, all things do, but I know that we’ll continue to find each other whether on the radio, the Internet, on stage, in movie theatres, in the pages of books that the New York elite will never read or on Fox that the New York elite will never watch.
In the same week the New York Times carried the story about how I was too gloomy to watch and apocalyptic, they carried the news that the Japanese earthquake killed tens of thousands, that it was one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded, that the tidal wave which had wiped whole towns off the map had traveled from Japan to Golden Gate bridge faster than you could fly that distance in a jetliner. In the same paper, in the same paper that reported, oh, Glennie is so gloomy, they reported that the entire island of Japan had been moved by about eight feet. That the Earth’s rotation had been altered. The planet’s axis had been shifted. Oh, apocalyptic Glenn. Not to mention the stories of the power plants that were exploding, the food shortages, the deaths in Japan were on Page 1 while Page 2 and 3 were about how radicals are gaining power in the Middle East and anti‑Americanism is growing in Libya because of our failure to actually stand with people. They missed the story, however, of North Korea developing an EMP. Oh, yeah, look it up. PIMCO, the world’s largest private holder of U.S. Treasuries announcing that they are going to begin selling all of them or the fact that Suze Orman now says the American dream is officially dead. But I’m apocalyptic.
The New York Times and others saw no irony in their Mr. Gloomy pants critique while at the same time they would run these stories and provide no real insight or answers to these major catastrophic and, dare I say, has anyone noticed that they’re more and more familiar events?
I have noticed, I think you have noticed, millions all around the world have noticed and that’s why I will continue to tell the story. I will continue to tell not only the story but what I believe it means and what we can do about it. And I will continue to do so all the way down to my very last ratings point or very last book that could possibly be sold in the discount shelf or my very last dollar, if need be. Because the truth is obvious. Tough times are coming. Things are changing. And believe me, it has very little to do, if anything, with that big, fat, gas‑guzzling SUV.
We need to be who we promised ourselves and our children we would be on 9/12/01, our best and highest self that wasn’t PC or political, that valued family over money and each other over stuff and fame. People that were imperfect and made mistakes but then would admit them and move on. A growing number of Americans are finally seeing that the problems are found in Washington and not the solutions. But they are now also coming to the truth that there is only one way to change our country. And it’s not to change some governmental regulation but to truly change ourselves. This is why you will find millions of Americans standing where they believe God is asking them to stand. Knowing that they will be mocked, bullied, or even in some cases lose everything. We do it not for guts or glory but because we still believe in something. Americans have always done the hard work. When the times require it, we do it. We have also instinctively known that no more how dark things may seem, when Americans pull together, while remaining strong and independent, we survive. And that is the truth. That is the crossroads of the American dream and the American story. And so whether it be in our dreams or occasional nightmares, it is there that you will find me simply reminding whomever will listen that the most important part of our exceptional history are to be found in the last few letters of that word: Story.
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