If you want to get to know Glenn, you can tune into a his radio and TV shows every day and get a pretty clear idea where his head is at. Now, sometimes he does interviews with the press, but not too often. A lot of times, the media already has their story written before they walk in the front door. But he does make exceptions, and a new profile in 'D Magazine' reveals some of the craziness that goes on at Mercury Studios, but questions the authenticity of Glenn's new direction.
"It's as fair as you can possibly expect from a magazine like that," Pat said, referring to D Magazine's liberal slant. "You go into a store and you ask for a steak and you get a Tofurkey instead. Is that the best I could expect? Yep."
Glenn said most of the article was very fair, except for instances from several years ago and how quickly the article concludes quickly.
But some parts described the craziness of Mercury Studios:
There are three soundstages, and behind them it looks like a magician’s workshop. There are big safes and strange-colored couches and what looks like the remnants from the set of a western.Beck has meticulously placed a lot of the items around the studio. He has a taxidermied polar bear in a corner and wooden octopuses hanging from the ceiling. He has a lot of old-fashioned cameras and movie reels and the kind of radio microphones used to record soap operas more than half a century ago. He has a 10-foot-tall portrait of Abraham Lincoln made from 150,000 roofing nails and two gigantic audio-animatronic robots he plans to take with him on a tour of the nation someday. He’s waiting to take delivery of a statue of Vladimir Lenin, a gift from real estate mogul Harlan Crow.
"It comes off as you're a little bit more of a three-dimensional character than you've been painted. And that I did like about it," Stu said.
But Glenn also thought the author was a little unfair at the end, which implied that Glenn's "new direction" is just a calculation.
The author continues:
It’s possible that Beck has changed because our country has changed. Things aren’t like they were only a few years ago. The economy is better. More people are working. Fewer people live with the same fears they had in 2010. It’s possible he got tired of being outraged the way he so often seemed to be, that he’s taken the temperature of his audiences, and they just aren’t as hot as they once were. And, of course, it’s easier to preach kindness when you’re rich.It’s also possible that he’s pandering, trying to expand his audience. The Tea Party has slipped in popularity, and Beck is a savvy populist. Of course his favorite part of Texas history is the Alamo. Of course it was seeing a wealthy, white suburb that sealed his decision about moving.
But even if you think he is pandering to a lowest common denominator, you can’t argue with his sentiments. We have become too divided, too tribal, too ready to attack, to mock one another.
"I really liked this article up until that point," Glenn said.
Stu did say that Glenn has gotten tired of doing stories that bring him to the point of outrage, but anyone who has worked with him knows that he isn't changing the content of the show in order to please the audience. In fact, many fans have been upset with Glenn's focus on culture over politics, as well as his efforts to find common ground with strange bedfellows.
"Everything that I have done has gone against the audience and what they felt at the moment," Glenn said.
Ultimately, Glenn did think it was a (mostly) fair profile. Read the full piece HERE.
