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Glenn wins award, talks disruptive innovation at TreBeCa Film Festival

April 26, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Friday afternoon, Glenn traveled to downtown Manhattan where he was presented with the TriBeCa Disruptive Innovation Award. After receiving his award, the Charles Darwin Prize, Glenn sat down with Aryeh Bourkoff to talk about how his company is changing the media.

To those less familiar with Glenn Beck and TheBlaze, what Glenn is building may simply seem like a new news and information platform. For those curious enough to take a closer look, what's going on at TheBlaze is much bigger. Like the award says, TheBlaze is disrupting the system with something it's never seen before — something that is taking the power away from the giant bureaucracy that "news" has become, and putting it right back in the hand of the consumer. The engagement of TheBlaze subscribers themselves are a large part of the innovative disruption that is TheBlaze.

"News is like sausage...you might like to eat it, but you never want to see it made," Glenn told the Disruptive Innovation audience.

Glenn learned this early on in his cable news career.

While at CNN, Glenn was waiting in a green room watching Ahmadinejad address the U.N. What Glenn heard the Iranian leader say was beyond anti-Semitic rhetoric, it was insanely dangerous and needed to be reported and explained to the American people who would, and should, be outraged at his open-armed welcome into our country for this speech. Let's just say what Glenn saw the so-called "experts" report on this speech wasn't what the American people needed to hear. They needed to hear the hard truth and they weren't getting it. Anyone watching the speech would know they weren't being given the full story, but the media is desperately trying to train it's viewers to ignore their own eyes and ears and to trust what they're telling them.

"The system needs you to believe that you can't do it on your own," Glenn explained.

But the truth is, you can. You don't have to do it their way…or any certain way. "That's why YouTube is so great…there is no filter between them [the networks] and you," Glenn pointed out. From the ground-level footage of the Boston Marathon bombing to Justin Beiber singing songs that would lead him to his eventual career, you control your own content.

Along with the bureaucracy roadblocks, the world of television refuses to offer you a better product. While televisions keep getting more and more advanced, the content hasn't improved in decades. If you've ever watched Glenn's show you know Friday's are just about the only day Glenn stays in the same area of the set for much of the show. The rest of the week he is walking across a 16,000 sq. ft. set, from screen to screen, animated and passionate about the information he's sharing with his viewers.

Have you ever seen any other television host do that?

When Glenn was at Fox, they were having a hard time keeping up with him. The set was too small and they cameras couldn't keep track of him when he would hop up and walk to any one of his given chalkboards without notice. How was it possible that in 2009 moving freely around a set was too advanced? Traditional cable is still using what Glenn called a "Desi shoot," created in the 1950s by Desi Arnaz. Basically, a multi camera set up for multiple stations, without the ability to shoot around an entire set.

What was Glenn's solution at the time? "Get me a sport's director, please. Just tell them I'm carrying the ball."

But Glenn wanted more that just the freedom to move around a set. He wanted the freedom to try new things. In hindsight, walking away from cable news has allowed Glenn to do a myriad of new things, but at the time it wasn't as easy of a decision. In fact, when he made the decision he was told he wouldn't go through with it. "No one leaves," they told him.

Well, he did.

Glenn was able to walk away because, as he put it, "I hadn't been in it very long, I still knew who I was."

But there was more to it…Glenn had bigger ideas. A staunch believer in freedom and liberty, the giant cable companies weren't representative of his fundamental beliefs. He wanted to eliminate the negatives of TV by building something new. Something different.

"Independece and freedom built up first, then transferred over to the network."

When Glenn says, "TheBlaze is a network YOU are building," he means it.

The belief that man can do it on their own is key to Glenn's vision of TheBlaze — something many of the big networks don't want you to believe. But Glenn knows, with faith and integrity, man CAN do it on their own.

And with that in mind, he wants to empower his audience to be more than just a viewer. His focus is on entertainment, education, integrity, and providing access to information, all of the other rules can be broken.

TheBlaze is just getting started. Television, despite it's problems, is an important platform — something Glenn believes TheBlaze can help evolve. And while TheBlaze continues is efforts to be added to more TV providers across the country, it's just one of the platforms Glenn is building right now. The American Dream labs, an entire division devoted to innovation and story telling, is a big part of Glenn's future, along with radio, books, and stage shows — which are getting more and more creative every year. (Seriously, this summer's includes giant robots.)

Orson Wells and Walt Disney have had a notable influence on Glenn and his career. Through them Glenn learned to never give up, always think out of the box, humility, and to focus on the story. Those principles, along with a great team of smart business people, innovative thinkers, and hard working, honest employees Glenn is beginning to change the media.

"If you are in the book business you should be worried. If you are in the storytelling business you have a bright future."

Here's an inside look at a few photos and tweets from the event:

Yes…yes you did.

…wait what?

Yes, that's Psy (the Gangnum Style guy) with our very own Mr. Glenn Beck.

Trump's education secretary has BIG plans for the DoE

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

Our education system is broken, and the Department of Education is a massive failure. But that all ends now.

It's no secret that America's school system is seriously lacking in many ways. President Trump pointed out that despite our massive spending per pupil, we are behind most of the developed world in most metrics. Our scores continue to plummet while our student debt and spending skyrocket—it's utterly unacceptable performance and America's students deserve better.

That's where Linda McMahon, Trump's pick for Secretary of Education comes in.

The former WWE CEO and leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration during Trump's first term, McMahon laid out her harsh criticisms of the DoE during a confirmation hearing on the 13th and revealed her promising plans to turn things around. McMahon described the public education system as "in decline" and promised that under her authority, the DoE would be reoriented towards student success.

Here are the top three changes to the Department of Education:

1. Dismantling the Department of Education

SAUL LOEB / Contributor | Getty Images

From the beginning Trump's orders for McMahon were clear: oversee the end of the Department of Education.

During her Thursday hearing, McMahon clarified what dismantling the DoE would entail. As Democrats have repeatedly pointed out, Trump does not have the authority to destroy the DoE without Congressional consent, as an act of Congress created it. That is why Trump and McMahon's plan is to start by shutting down programs that can be stopped by executive action, then approach Congress with a plan to dismantle the Department for good. The executive orders have already begun to take effect, and once McMahon is confirmed she will author a plan for Congress to close the Department.

McMahon also promised that the end of the Department of Education does not mean an end to all the programs currently undertaken by the doomed department. Programs that are deemed beneficial will be transferred (along with their funding) to departments that are more suited to the task. The example given by McMahon was IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding, which instead of being cut would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.

2. School Choice

Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc / Contributor | Getty Images

In a huge win for parents across the country, McMahon pledged her support for School Choice. School Choice is the idea of allowing parents to enroll their student in any school of their choice, including religious schools and private schools. It would also mean that part or all of the funding that would have gone to a relocated child would follow them and continue to pay for their education.

This gives parents the ability to remove their children from failing schools and seek a better education for them elsewhere. A growing body of evidence suggests that the way we run our schools isn't working, and it is time to try something new. School Choice opens up education to the free market and will allow for competition.

Our children deserve better than what we can currently offer them.

3. COVID and DEI

SAVO PRELEVIC / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump's government-wide crackdown on DEI will ironically serve to increase inclusion in many American schools.

McMahon said as much during her Senate hearing: “It was put in place ostensibly for more diversity, for equity and inclusion. And I think what we’re seeing is, it is having an opposite effect. We are getting back to more segregating of our schools instead of having more inclusion in our schools.” She also spoke in support of Title IX, and the push to remove biological males from women's and girl's sports. In the same vein, McMahon pledged to push back against the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, which many Universities have failed to adequately address.

On Friday, February 14th, President Trump signed an executive order barring any school or university with COVID-19 vaccine mandates from receiving federal money. This only applies to the COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine mandates are still standing.

POLL: What DARK government secrets will Trump uncover?

Mark Wilson / Staff | Getty Images

Will the dark secrets of the Deep State finally see the light of day? Or will they slip back into darkness, as they have many times before?

The Trump administration is gearing up to fulfill one of Trump's most anticipated campaign promises: to make the contents of the JFK files, along with other Deep State secrets, available to the public. Kash Patel, who has promised to publicize the highly anticipated files, is expected to be confirmed next week as Trump's director of the FBI. Moreover, the House Oversight Committee created a new task force headed by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna called "Task Force on Declassification of Federal Secrets," which is tasked with investigating and declassifying information on the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations, UFOs, the Epstein list, COVID's origins, and 9/11. This all comes after the FBI found 2,400 "new" records relating to the assassination of President Kennedy following Trump's executive order to release the files.

Glenn discussed this topic with the cast of the Patrick Bet David podcast. Glenn expressed his confidence in Trump's radical transparency—on the condition that Kash Patel is confirmed. The cast was not as optimistic, expressing some doubt about whether Trump will actually unveil all that he has promised. But what do you think? What files are likely to see the light of day? And what files will continue to linger in the dark? Let us know in the poll below

Do you think the JFK, RFK, and MLK files will be unveiled?

Do you think the 9/11 files will be unveiled?

Do you think the COVID files will be unveiled?

Do you think the UFO files will be unveiled?

Do you think the Epstein list will be unveiled?

Transgender opera in Colombia? 10 SHOCKING ways USAID spent your tax dollars.

MANDEL NGAN / Contributor | Getty Images

The government has been doing what with our tax money!?

Under the determined eye of Elon Musk, DOGE has rooted out the corruption that permeates USAID, and it turns out that it's worse than we thought. Glenn recently read a list of atrocious causes that were funded by USAID, and the list was as long as it was shocking.

Since the January consumer index report was published today, one thing is clear: eggs are bearing the brunt of inflation. That's why we illustrated the extent of USAID's wasteful spending of YOUR taxpayer dollars by comparing it to the price of eggs. How many eggs could the American people have bought with their tax dollars that were given to a "transgender opera" in Colombia or indoctrinating Sri Lankans with woke gender ideology? The truth will shock you:

1. A “transgender opera” in Colombia

USAID spent $47,000 on a transgender opera in Colombia. That's over 135,000 eggs.

2. Sex changes and "LGBT activism" in Guatemala

$2 million was spent funding sex changes along with whatever "LGBT activism" means. That equates to over 5.7 million eggs!

3. Teaching Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid binary-gendered language

USAID forked over $7.9 million to combat the "gender binary" in Sri Lankan journalism. That could have bought nearly 23 million eggs.

4. Tourism in Egypt

$6 million (or just over 17 million eggs) was spent to fund tourism in Egypt. If only someone had thought to build some impressive landmarks...

5. A new "Sesame Street" show in Iraq

USAID spent $20 million to create a new Sesame Street show in Iraq. That's just short of 58 million eggs...

6. Helping the BBC value the diversity of Libyan society

$2.1 million was sent to the BBC (the British Broadcasting Corporation) to help them value the diversity of Libyan society (whatever that means). That could have bought over 6 million eggs.

7. Meals for a terrorist group linked to Al-Qaeda

$10 million worth of USAID-funded meals went to an Al-Qaeda linked terrorist group. That comes up to be just shy of 29 million eggs.

8. Promoting inclusion in Vietnam 

A combined $19.3 million was sent to two separate inclusion groups in Vietnam inclusion groups in Vietnam (why where they separated? Not very inclusive of them). That's over 55 million eggs.

9. Promoting DEI in Serbia's workplaces

USAID sent $1.5 million (4.3 million eggs) to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities.”

10. Funding EcoHealth Alliance, tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology's "bat research"

EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs that funded the Wuhan lab's bat virus research, received $5 million from USAID, which is equivalent to 14.5 million eggs.

The bottom line...

So, how much damage was done?

In total, approximately $73.8 million was wasted on the items on this list. That comes out to be 213 million eggs. Keep in mind that these are just the items on this list, there are many, many more that DOGE has uncovered and will uncover in the coming days. Case in point: that's a lot of eggs.

POLL: Should Trump stop producing pennies?

SAUL LOEB / Contributor, Chip Somodevilla / Staff | Getty Images

On Sunday, February 9th, President Trump ordered the U.S. Mint to halt the production of pennies. It costs the mint three cents to produce every penny, which Trump deemed wasteful. However, critics argue that axing the pennies will be compensated by ramping up nickel production, which costs 13 cents per coin.

In other news, President Trump promised on Truth Social that he would be reversing a Biden-era policy that mandated the use of paper straws throughout the federal government. From potentially slashing entire agencies to saying farewell to pennies and paper straws, Trump is hounding after wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

But what do you think? Was Trump right to put an end to pennies? And should plastic straws make a comeback? Let us know in the poll below:

Should Trump stop the production of pennies? 

Do you agree with Trump's reversal of the plastic straw ban?