During an appearance on Fox News’ The Kelly File last month, Glenn candidly explained that he wished he could have broken through the noise and focused more on the “uniting principles” while he was on the network. In a new article, Huffington Post blogger Wayne Baker has taken it upon himself to offer Glenn some insight into the uniting principles he “should have talked about.”
“So The Huffington Post wrote, I think, an amazing article called, ‘The uniting principles Glenn Beck should have talked about,’” Glenn said on radio this morning.
Incivility can be fun. It was for Glenn Beck, he recently admitted in a Fox News interview. Looking back on his career at Fox, he apologized for the divisiveness he promoted, wishing that he "could have talked about the uniting principles a little more." Rather than a conservative warrior in the culture wars, he revealed himself to be a culture war profiteer who enriched himself by supplying the conflict. And he's not the only one.
“I think I should have said [to Megyn Kelly was], ‘I wish people noticed we were talking about uniting principles, and I wish I could have found a way to cut through all of the noise with those,’” Glenn explained. “I mean I do happen to remember on the set faith, hope, and charity paintings.”
“And there's the 9/12 Project,” Stu added. “And if you had any meaning behind those numbers, perhaps, you know, the nine principles and 12 values, something like that...”
Baker lays out 10 values he has come up with based on newly released research he conducted at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. These values, he claims, are strongly and widely held across demographic, religious, and political lines.
Glenn read through the 10 values and took a look at how he stacks up:
1. Respect for others
“I talked about Bonheoffer and Gandhi,” Glenn said. “Remember me on TV saying: Let's respect people who are different than us.’ Let's respect the Muslims who are different from us. And let's respect the Jews. But let's not have respect per se for people who say let's kill another.”
2. Equal opportunity
“I think I was talking about equal opportunity all the time,” Glenn said.
“We just don't talk about equal outcome,” Pat added. “That's all.”
3. Freedom
“Huff-Po is lecturing me that I should talk about the founding of the United States,” Glenn asked exasperatedly.
4. Security
“So maybe I should spend a little more time talking about the lack of surveillance or how we should not surveil our people,” Glenn asked. “That's one of the things that I should talk about?”
5. Self-reliance and individualism
“I'm the one who says ‘Hey, you should be self-reliant – have some gold, have some food on hand,’” Glenn said. “No, I'm not self-reliant. I'm a prepper. I should be made fun of. We should be mocked. You should be ridiculed. No, no, that's not self-reliance. That's just crazy.”
6. Justice and fairness
“Did you miss every show I've ever done,” Glenn asked. “Yes, not social justice. And social justice is in direct opposition to justice. Social justice is not blind. Justice is blind. Social justice has big magnifying glasses on.”
7. Pursuit of happiness
“Glenn Beck have talk about the pursuit of happiness,” Glenn quipped.
The final three values are “getting ahead,” “symbolic patriotism,” and “critical patriotism,” but Glenn had had enough.
“I can't take it. I can't take it. I can't take it. But thank you for the lecture on the values that I should have been talking about,” Glenn said. “Let me re-write your headline: These are the 10 values that the Huffington Post and others like the Huffington Post should open their ears and eyes to.”
“Check out the 9-12 Project – the values and the principles. Just check that one out because that's all in there. That's all we talked about. You didn't listen because that didn't fit your agenda. But now that you see the tide is turning...” he continued. “God give me strength to be lectured by these people because it is just sometimes more than I can handle.”