I tune Beck out the moment I hear his voice . There's just something about the guy that I find irritating , not the least of which is the fact that he's a Johnny-come-lately know-it-all regarding government and American history .
I used to listen to his radio show quite frequently before he got onto the CNNHN channel. He was upbeat and damned funny.
I never saw him on CNN (I just will not watch CNN products) and have only seen a few moments of his FNC show. That is mainly due to its time of day slot, though, not because I have a big problem with him.
That said, I don't find him as enjoyable to listen to since the doom and gloom stuff started up. He has always had a teaching angle to his radio show as far as I could tell. I remember him doing a multi part expose of scientology that was both informative and funny. It was around that time that I learned he was a mormon and I did think that was a bit hypocritical going after the very obvious cult stuff in scientology and ignoring the very real and similar problems in the LDS church.
I guess I am saying that I have had mixed feelings (hate that expression) since he broke away from radio only and started all of the television, book, live performance stuff. He has been spread thin and it has, IMO, taken away from what I originally found appealing about his radio presence. I have come to the point where I avoid listening to him on the radio.
At the same time I have grown to appreciate Mark Levin who makes no secret of his dislike of Beck. He also gives his reasons for not liking Beck and it has much to do with the subject matter of this thread. Levin has always been pissed off at other hosts who use the Levin show as show prep and Beck seems to be the one who does it the most.
I like Levin's unabashed anger at the left and the media. Beck doesn't seem to want to get angry. He gets all sad and weepy. There have been other things about Beck that have been weird...his medical issues are strange and sometimes seem invented (for publicity?).
I don't know...
But I have never liked people who cheat, defraud, con, lie and steal to advance themselves. To advance themselves on the backs of others. Levin has been accusing Beck of this for some time and the Daily Caller article seems to do a fairly good job of documenting this. So that's what gets me about all of this.
Beck is on the right side, obviously, but he needs to be ethically pure. If he is unwilling to do this and if he does not take this issue seriously as his editor in chief seemed to indicate, then I have a problem with that. An apology, a promise to clean up his act and the follow through on that promise is all that's really needed here.