Mercury Confidential: Which GBTV staffer owned a sandwich shop before becoming a producer?

Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes at Mercury Radio Arts? Just how do all of Glenn’s crazy ideas get done? Does anyone ever get a chance to sleep? Well, over the next few months we are going to take you inside MRA, giving you the inside scoop on everything from publishing to special events, 1791 to Markdown to GBTV. We will be interviewing members of our New York, Columbus, and Dallas staff, bringing you all the info, so you can know what it’s really like to work for Glenn. Part 1 (Kevin Balfe – Publishing)Part 2 (Liz Julis – GBTV/Special Events), Part 3 (Joel Cheatwood: CCO & President of TheBlaze)

What does deli ownership and television operations have in common? A lot – at least according to Eric Pearce, Vice President of Television Operations at TheBlaze.

“When I was 21, my father and I bought a deli together, and we ended up owning it for three and a half years,” Pearce explained.

“I know you can’t compare a television show to egg sandwiches, but the theory behind it, you can,” he promised. “When someone comes into a restaurant to buy breakfast, they want to know what they are getting every day. And they come back – repeat business is what makes it work because you are delivering a quality product. It’s the same on television. If you deliver a quality product night in and night out, you are going to be successful. While it is a very tough comparison, some of the groundwork there makes sense.”

Business experience aside, one thing Pearce does not miss about owning a deli: the lifestyle. “You’re up at five in the morning, and you don’t get home until seven o’clock at night. You have just enough time to eat dinner, take a shower, and then you are exhausted because you have been on your feet all day long running around. You smell like bacon and onions every day.”

While this certainly sounds like a long day, anyone who knows Pearce knows that his life as of late hasn’t been any less hectic. Remember when GBTV broadcasted the Restoring Courage events live from Israel? Pearce was responsible for making sure that actually happened. How about when GBTV officially launched just two weeks after that? Pearce had a pretty big role in that too. And what about when Glenn decided to relocate his entire broadcast to Dallas, Texas? You guessed it, Pearce oversaw that also, which meant working straight through Christmas and New Years to get the studio up and running in time. The timeline for that particular project: 45 days.

Pearce, who first met Glenn at CNN, took his time to get to where he is now. “Right after high school I went to local college,” he said. “I thought I wanted to be a stock broker, but I ended up failing my Series 7 test. Thank God because if I ever ended up like one of those financial people I would have killed myself. Eventually when we sold the deli, I went back to school to get my degree, and then too many years after that I did get my degree. It only took eight and a half years to finish college, which is a long time, but I did it.”

Pearce graduated college and took a job as a freelancer at CNN, where he worked for five and a half years. It was his work ethic that ultimately set him apart from his peers. “I took any job. I volunteered for everything. The worst shifts – I always worked the Sunday night and then the Monday morning. I did whatever it took because I wanted to learn, and I knew I was behind,” Pearce said.

Pearce paid his dues on the news desk for a few months. “I started on the news desk, where I kind of gained my chops in the industry,” he explained. “I got there at five in the morning handing out newspapers to reporters, taking staples of paper, shuffling things, printing things, escorting guests. So I did all of the kind of grunt work there.”

He was later offered a staff position at CNN’s Showbiz Tonight, where he worked for a year, before getting a call that would ultimately prove career changing. “I don’t know exactly when, but I got a call from a producer I had worked with, and he said, ‘Hey, I think I have a producing job for you.’ And I thought that’s great, I could use a change.”

Turns out the producing job was for a brand new daily show that would be hosted by a radio personality named Glenn Beck. “So my first question was: who is Glenn Beck? I had no idea who he was,” Pearce said. “I was shown the pilot of their show, and it was like wow, this guy is funny. His approach was so much different – something you have never seen before.”

He stayed with Glenn’s show for the next two years, but when Glenn left for Fox News, Pearce, unfortunately, couldn’t follow. “I stayed behind at CNN. I was contracted, so I couldn’t leave. I stayed and launched two other shows for the network after that. But after the two years I had with Glenn, it just wasn’t the same.”

Pearce called Chris Balfe, Chief Operating Officer of Mercury Radio Arts, to see if there was a job opening. “I called Chris and said, ‘I have to leave CNN. I have to make a move. It’s just not the same. What do you have for me?’” he recalled.

Pearce joined Mercury in January 2010.The problem was, at the time, Mercury didn’t have too much of a need in the way of production, so Pearce found himself with a job, but not a whole lot to do. “When I first got here, they really had no job title or job description for me. They were just like ‘Come here and figure it out.’”

Like most people at Mercury, what he was hired to do and what he is doing now is considerably different. “Our company has grown tremendously since then, but I remember those first three days. I started on a Wednesday, and that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday I was surfing the internet, I was on Facebook, and I was doing all this stuff because there was no work for me to do,” Pearce said laughing.

“I would give anything just to have one of those days back because I remember that next week – I don’t know what it was – but somebody had an idea and that was when it just started this whole thing. I have not had a slow day in the office since those first three days. It’s amazing how things change so fast.”

It really is incredible how quickly things change because Pearce now finds himself at the helm of television operations for one of the most successful online streaming networks in the world. While it seems like the launch of GBTV went from zero to sixty virtually overnight, the groundwork was laid long before Glenn ever decided to break out on his own.

“Shortly after I started we decided we wanted to give Glenn’s Insiders, some of his closest fans, more access to Glenn so they could see what happens behind the scenes,” Pearce explained. “We set up Insider Extreme where we started broadcasting his radio show every morning, and then we went on to add the Fourth Hour with Pat and Stu.”

That addition alone upgraded Insider Extreme from a single webcam broadcast to a six camera, four hour show that began to pave the way for what is now GBTV. “Figuring all of that out was new to me, but we figured it out as we went along, and it all worked,” he said. “At some point it just became this big operation, and it just seemed natural that Insider Extreme had to switch over from four hours of streaming live video to a streaming network. Insider Extreme really did lay the groundwork for GBVT.”

When Glenn decided to leave network television and start his own network, Pearce was 100 percent on board. “We spend all of this time producing this show for someone else. Why don’t we just produce it for ourselves? And having full control over our programming cuts out the red tape,” he said. “We can control the quality. We can control the budgets. We can do whatever we want. And it just seemed to make sense. We just knew we were supposed to grow into this network.”

Transitioning from a six camera webcast to an online streaming network was no easy task. From an operations perspective, Pearce needed to find a studio to rent, equipment to use, and a staff efficient enough to deal with all of these moving pieces. And he didn’t have much time to do it. As is customary, Glenn couldn’t help but add one more piece to the puzzle – he wanted to broadcast his Restoring Courage events in Israel on GBTV, just two weeks before the official launch of the network.

For Pearce, this meant transplanting a large portion of staff to Israel for a several weeks, and putting everything he had been working toward all summer to the ultimate test. Oh, and did I mention Pearce was dealing with all this and planning a wedding at the same time?

“It is true I got married around the launch date of GBTV,” Pearce said with a laugh. “When Glenn picked the launch date and they said September 12, 9/12, that’s the day, it seemed like the right fit. What wasn’t perfect for me was I was getting married two weeks later. I am running operations for this brand new network and then week three I am going to disappear get married and then disappear on my honeymoon for two weeks.”

Between the GBTV launch and the events in Israel, Pearce didn’t spend much time at home that summer. “I had these two projects coming up and a wedding to plan the whole time. You can imagine what it was like when I had to tell my then finance, ‘Oh yeah, I have to go to Israel this summer.’ Didn’t go over that well at first, but in the end she understood. She knows that I am passionate about what I do, so she puts up with a lot. I am so grateful to Marlaina for that.”

After getting GBTV up and running, Glenn threw yet another wrench into the plans when he decided to move his broadcast to Dallas, Texas. Beyond the logistical problems involved with managing staffs in two different states, Pearce had to virtually start over and build this new studio from the ground up.

“I was more surprised when Glenn said he wanted to move to Texas than I was when he said he wanted to start a video network,” Pearce said. After finding a property and having the deal fall through, Pearce found himself with just over a month to get something built that would allow Glenn to broadcast live from Dallas on January 2, 2012.

“I remember the day, it was November 15, 2011, and Glenn said to me, ‘Well, what are we going to do?’ And I said, ‘Well, we are going to have to find a new place to build the studio, and it is going to take a little bit longer.’ I said, ‘How do you feel about staying in NY the first two weeks of next year, so we can get your broadcast on, while we are building something down in TX?’ And he turned to me slowly, looked me dead in the eyes and said, ‘I am doing television from TX on January 2.’ And at that point, he turned around and walked away,” Pearce recalled.

In New York, studios are built on every street corner, but Dallas, Texas is a very different situation. “This was a little bit of a challenge to find a place that was going to fill Glenn’s needs and desires,” Pearce said. “We found a place that could house Glenn’s vision. We found a production company that was going to help us deliver and build Glenn’s vision, which was key. And we had roughly 45 days to build it. What we pulled off in that short period of time was nothing short of a miracle.”

Pearce and his team worked through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years to get it done in time. “We needed to build an HD control room. We needed to build a studio. We needed to build a radio studio, all at once, at the end of the year, over vacation. I am proud to say we did it. I mean we had some improvements to make after that to make things more permanent, but we are very proud of what we were able to pull off in that short period of time.”

Pearce sees the upcoming merger of GBTV and TheBlaze as the perfect opportunity for both divisions to capitalize on their great resources. “I do think the re-brand is a very good idea. I think it will allow us to grow and expand our reach, but maintain the same quality and the same mission that Glenn wants to see on the network.”

Despite all of the things he has dealt with over the last couple of years, Pearce’s favorite moment came not too long after he first started at Mercury, during Restoring Honor in Washington D.C.

“It was the night before Divine Destiny at the Kennedy Center, and Glenn wanted to go meet-and-greet all the people waiting on line to get tickets,” he explained. “I showed up there with a camera, and I am filming him talking to people, meeting people. It was just this amazing moment of Glenn interacting with his fans.”

After the meet-and-greet, Glenn decided he wanted to go back to the Lincoln Memorial – for what was probably the fiftieth time that week. “We are getting in the cars to leave, and Glenn turns around and says, ‘I want to go to the Lincoln Memorial.’ Meanwhile, it is ten or eleven o’clock at night, pitch black, but he wanted to go to the Lincoln Memorial.”

At this point a crowd had gathered at the Memorial in hopes of securing a front row view of the event, and when they saw Glenn arrive, the crowd went wild. “Glenn noticed them, and they noticed Glenn, and he goes over and is talking to them. There was cheering and he thanked everyone for showing up. All of a sudden, the crowd starts to sing God Bless America.”

It was a beautiful moment, and Pearce was glad to be there getting it all on tape. At some point, Glenn got pulled away from the group. When Pearce looked down at his camera, his heart sank – the audio had not been recording.

“I guess about three quarters of the way through the crowd singing I realized that the audio wasn’t recording on the camera that I had. And I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ Glenn was here watching this happen. He sees me with the camera, and I am going to come back with a video of them singing the song without audio?! I am dead.”

It seemed like a lost cause at that point, but Pearce had a plan. “I went back to the crowd, and I said, ‘Hey guys, you know, that was so good. Could we do that again? I want to get a different angle.’ And they were all like, ‘Sure! No problem!’”

“I made sure the audio was working, and they did it again. So the crowd had no idea I had a camera problem. Glenn had no idea I had a camera problem because he would have been disappointed. So I am glad that all worked out,” Pearce said with a laugh.

Problem solving at its finest – something Pearce has proven time and time again he is very good at. It probably has something to do with why he keeps getting these mammoth projects thrown his way. At least he doesn’t smell like bacon and onions anymore.

Does France's latest move PROVE lawfare is on the rise?

Sam Tarling / Stringer | Getty Images

An all-too-familiar story unfolded in France this week: the is law being weaponized against a "far-right" candidate. Does that ring a bell?

Glenn was taken aback earlier this week when he learned that Marine Le Pen, a popular French conservative, had been banned from the 2027 election following a controversial conviction. The ruling shocked French conservatives and foreign politicians alike, many of whom saw Le Pen as France’s best conservative hope. President Trump called it a "very big deal," a view shared by French commentators who fear this marks the end of Le Pen’s political career.

But this isn’t just about France—it’s a symptom of a larger threat looming over the West.

A double standard?

Fmr. President Sarkozy (left) and Fmr. Prime Minister Fillon (right)

BERTRAND GUAY / Contributor, Chesnot / Contributor | Getty Images

As of Sunday, March 30, 2025, Marine Le Pen led the polls with a commanding edge over her rivals, offering French conservatives their strongest shot at the presidency in years. Hours later, that hope crumbled. Found guilty of embezzling EU funds, Le Pen was sentenced to two years of house arrest, fined €100,000 ($108,200), and banned from public office for five years, effective immediately.

Glenn quickly highlighted an apparent double standard. Former President Nicolas Sarkozy and former Prime Minister François Fillon faced similar—or worse—corruption charges, yet neither was barred from office during their political runs. So why Le Pen, and why now? Similar to Trump’s "hush money" trial, legal troubles this late in the election cycle reek of interference. The decision should belong to voters—France’s largest jury—not a courtroom. This appears to be a grave injustice to the French electorate and another crack in democracy’s foundation.

This is NOT about France

Andrei Pungovschi / Stringer | Getty Images

This pattern stretches far beyond France; it’s a tactic we’ve seen before.

In early 2025, Bucharest’s streets erupted in protest after Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the first round of its presidential election. Călin Georgescu, a rising conservative, had clinched an unexpected victory, only to have it stripped away amid baseless claims of Russian interference. His supporters raged against the decision, seeing it as a theft of their voice.

Both Georgescu and Le Pen echo the legal barrage President Trump endured before his 2024 win. The Left hurled every weapon imaginable at him, unleashing unprecedented lawfare. In America, the Constitution held, and the people’s will prevailed.

Now, with Tesla vandalism targeting Elon Musk’s free-speech stance, a coordinated pushback against freedom is clear—spanning France, Romania, the U.S., and beyond.

The war on free will

Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

Trump’s 2024 victory doesn’t mean lawfare is dead; Europe shows it’s thriving.

France and Romania prove its effectiveness, sidelining candidates through courts rather than ballots. Glenn warned us about this years ago—when the powerful can’t win at the polls, they turn to the gavel. It’s a chilling trend of stripping voters of their choice and silencing dissent, all the while pawning it off as justice. The playbook is polished and ready, and America’s turn could come sooner than we think.

How Melania Trump is inspiring the next generation of fashion

Aaron P. Bernstein / Stringer | Getty Images

First Lady Melania Trump’s impeccable style has long captivated admirers across the globe, but for one young woman, it sparked a creative revolution.

Lorelai, a young Glenn Beck fan who requested a degree of anonymity, first met Glenn while attending America Fest 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona with her grandmother. An aspiring fashion designer and illustrator, Lorelai shared with Glenn some of her sketches of characters from Glenn’s latest book, Chasing Embers. She also explained how Melania Trump became the cornerstone of her artistic journey, inspiring her to craft modest yet beautiful clothing that redefines modern fashion.

Melania Trump’s elegance—stunning, powerful, and undeniably feminine—first captured Lorelai’s attention during the First Lady’s time in the White House. Unlike the casual, often immodest trends dominating her peers’ wardrobes, Melania’s wardrobe exuded grace and sophistication. From tailored coats to flowing gowns, her choices were a masterclass in balancing boldness with dignity, a philosophy that resonated deeply with Lorelai. This admiration grew into inspiration as Lorelai began designing apparel specifically with Melania in mind, aspiring to design pieces that could match the First Lady’s grace. She strove to reflect Melania’s breathtaking style in her sketches in an effort to demonstrate how modesty can be beautiful.

The First Lady’s poised and graceful presence has redefined modesty for the modern era. To Lorelai, the First Lady’s style proves that more fabric offers boundless room for imagination, allowing personality to shine without sacrificing dignity. Melania embodies this perfectly—her fashion commands attention with stunning, memorable elegance. Inspired by this, Lorelai’s mission is to craft clothing for her generation that mirrors Melania’s influence, blending contemporary flair with classic beauty.

After her meeting with Glenn at America Fest, Lorelai’s passion and resolve have only deepened. Through fashion and art, Lorelai hopes to inspire others with the same grace that Melania Trump exemplifies. Below are some of Lorelai's sketches she was eager to share with Glenn.

Melania Trump: First Lady

I really adore First Lady Melania Trump’s grace and timeless beauty. She is extremely intelligent and brave but also strong and poised. Her fashion style displays these traits. I was inspired to create these outfits for our First Lady in hopes that she would see these drawings. -Lorelai

Melania Trump: Lady Liberty

We, as a country, will be celebrating next year our 250th anniversary of independence. The designs that inspired this patriotic gown came from Lady Liberty and Lady Columbia art. I also love our American flag, and this design is a combination of all three. -Lorelai

Chasing Embers Character Art (Ember)

I chose to draw the characters Sky, Azaz and Ember from Glenn Beck and Mikayla G. Hedrick’s Chasing Embers series. -Lorelai

Chasing Embers Concept Art (Ember)

I was inspired to draw a younger and teen version for Sky and Ember. -Lorelai

Chasing Embers Character Art (Sky)

Chasing Embers Concept Art (Azaz)

I also gave multiple outfits designs for Sky and Azaz. I loved that their personalities and character development meant in my mind a wardrobe development too. -Lorelai

Glenn: Government workers bought luxury cars with YOUR tax dollars

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

The deep state isn’t a conspiracy theory — it’s a reality. And the corrupt, free-spending Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service is just one example of how Washington insiders enrich themselves.

A little-known agency in Washington perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with our bloated, corrupt government: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. It should be the poster child of everything that Elon Musk is exposing.

The agency was established in 1947 under the Labor Management Relations Act to serve as an independent agency mediating disputes between unions and businesses — a noble mission, perhaps. But like so many government institutions, it has rotted into something far removed from its original purpose.

The FMCS goes beyond mismanagement into blatant corruption and theft.

What was once a mechanism for labor stability has morphed into an unchecked slush fund — an exclusive playground for bureaucrats living high on taxpayer dollars.

The FMCS is a textbook case of government waste, an agency that no one was watching, where employees didn’t even bother showing up for work — some hadn’t for years. And yet they still collected paychecks and spent government money — our money — on their personal luxuries.

Luxury cars and cell phone bills

The Department of Government Efficiency discovered how FMCS employees used government credit cards — intended for official business — to lease luxury cars, cover personal cell phone bills, and even subscribe to USA Today. The agency’s information technology director, James Donnan, apparently billed taxpayers his wife’s cell phone bill, cable TV subscriptions in multiple homes, and personal subscriptions.

FMCS officials commissioned portraits of themselves and hung them in their offices, and you footed the bill. They took exotic vacations and hired their friends and relatives to keep the gravy train rolling.

The FMCS goes beyond mismanagement into blatant corruption and theft — and it went on for decades, unnoticed and unchallenged.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to abolish the FMCS — a necessary and long-overdue move. But the FMCS is just one of many agencies within the federal government burning through billions of taxpayer dollars. How many more slush funds exist in the shadows, funneling money into the pockets of bureaucrats who produce nothing? How many government-funded NGOs operate in direct opposition to American interests?

Perhaps the most disturbing question is why Americans tolerate such corruption. Why do so many Americans tolerate this? Why is the left — supposedly the party of the people — defending the very institutions that rob working-class Americans blind?

Corruption beyond bureaucracy

The recent rallies led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and their socialist acolytes claim to be a grassroots uprising against corruption and greed. But GPS data from these rallies tells a different story. The majority of attendees aren’t ordinary citizens fed up with the status quo. They’re professional activists — serial agitators who bounce from protest to protest.

Roughly 84% of devices tracked at these rallies were present at multiple Kamala Harris events. A staggering 31% appeared at over 20 separate demonstrations, tied to Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and pro-Palestinian causes.

Many of these organizations receive federal grant money — our tax dollars — and they’re using those funds to protest the very policies that threaten to cut off their financial lifeline.

This isn’t democracy in action. This is political theater — astroturfing perfected. And the American taxpayer is funding it.

Rooting out corruption

Trump was a battering ram against this corrupt system. Elon Musk is a surgeon, meticulously exposing the infection that has festered for decades — and that’s why the leftists hate him even more than they hate Trump. Musk threatens to dismantle the financial web that sustains their entire operation.

When we allow the government to grow unchecked and our leaders to prioritize their own wealth and power over the good of the nation, figures like Trump and Musk are necessary. Rome didn’t fall because of an external invasion but rather due to internal decay that looked an awful lot like what we see today.

We must demand better. We must refuse to tolerate this corruption any longer. The FMCS may be gone, but the fight to root out this deep-seated corruption is far from over.

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on TheBlaze.com.

Did the CIA hide the real truth behind JFK's assassination?

Bettmann / Contributor, NurPhoto / Contributor | Getty Images

Many were disappointed by the recent release of the JFK files, frustrated by the apparent lack of answers to decades-old questions. The problem? They’re asking the wrong question.

Everyone wants a "who"—a smoking gun, someone to blame. It’s understandable; Americans crave justice for a slain president, to hold the culprits of one of the 20th century’s greatest crimes accountable. But the real answer isn’t a "who"—it’s a "what." That "what" is the CIA and proof of their nefarious dealings since the 1960s.

In his most recent TV special, Glenn delves into the JFK files, where he found the crucial information that everyone else seemed to miss. Be sure to watch the TV special here.

The CIA's Dirty Fingerprints

While the recent JFK files don’t explicitly pin the assassination on the CIA, the evidence between the lines is compelling.

If you follow Glenn on X, you’ve seen his newest artifact: an exact replica of Lee Harvey Oswald’s rifle. Glenn tested it at the range, attempting to replicate the notoriously difficult shot Oswald allegedly made that fateful day in Dallas. While Glenn shares more takeaways in his TV special, one thing stood out immediately: the rifle’s abysmal quality, its shoddy scope, and the odd caliber of ammunition it uses.

Oswald’s rifle, a Mannlicher-Carcano, is chambered in 6.5mm—an unusual caliber. Much like today, the average gun store in the ‘60s didn’t stock 6.5mm rounds. The largest known supply was owned by the CIA, who had shipped the ammo from Greece after World War II. Suspiciously, there’s no record of where Oswald got his ammunition, but the JFK files confirm that the gun store where he bought the Mannlicher-Carcano had CIA connections.

It’s well-known that Oswald defected to the USSR and lived there before returning to the U.S. The JFK files reveal that from the moment he touched down stateside, the CIA tracked him like a hawk. They followed him across the country and even to Mexico City—but, conveniently, seemed to lose him in Dallas just as President Kennedy arrived. What a coincidence.

Whether by design or gross incompetence, the CIA greased Oswald’s path, letting him slip unhindered into that sixth-floor Book Depository window.

The Cover-Up

SAUL LOEB / Staff | Getty Images

If the JFK files aren’t the smoking gun many hoped for, why did the CIA fight so hard to keep them buried?

The answer is trust. Hard as it may be to imagine today, Americans in the ‘60s trusted their government—at least more than they do now. This cover-up preserved that trust longer than it might have lasted, allowing the CIA to pull off more scandals before the public caught on. From Benghaziand 9/11 to COVID-19 and January 6, the same dirty marks found in the JFK files stain these events. It’s about saving face. The files make the CIA look incompetent at best, complicit at worst.

This might feel like common knowledge today—especially to Glenn’s audience—but 40 or 50 years ago, saying such things could land you in the loony bin. It’s taken 60 years of growing suspicion to reach this point. Imagine if the JFK files had been available back then. Could we have stopped six decades of CIA shenanigans in their tracks?

The thought is chilling.

What Now?

Fotosearch / Stringer | Getty Images

The files don’t name a mastermind or explicitly confirm the darkest JFK assassination conspiracies that have swirled for decades—but they’re far from empty. They expose a disturbing truth: the CIA’s unchecked power in the ‘60s echoes into today.

In one of his most exciting TV specials yet, Glenn delves deep into the files, proving why we can’t ignore these revelations. Stop chasing a "who" and start demanding accountability for the "what." Only by confronting this can we hope to rein in the agency that’s dodged scrutiny for too long.