Two years after his controversial peak, an ambitious rally in Dallas — and a careful relaunch. Beck 2.0 is the conservative Dick Clark.
Graphics by Chris Ritter for BuzzFeed
IRVING, Texas — The spring of 2010 was a dark time for Glenn Beck. He was leaving Fox News amid escalating controversy around his show, a provocative broadcast that proved too hot even for the conservative network. His liberal critics were smugly celebrating his apparent fall, and his future was far from certain. But his pessimism, he said in an interview, went beyond the cracks at the foundation of his own media empire: He was beginning to doubt whether the right-wing political movement he had marshaled from his perch at Fox was actually strong enough to snatch the nation's soul from the jaws of tyranny.
"All I was seeing was how vast the resources of the Left were and how well-orchestrated," Beck told BuzzFeed. "And every time I would war-game it, I would be like: lose, lose, lose, lose, lose." The gloomy outlook followed him even to Washington D.C. in August of 2010, where he drew crowds in the hundreds of thousands for a widely-publicized rally. On stage, he preached about the need for a "restoration of honor." But inside, he was filled with uncertainty: "That's where I was when I was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial mentally. That's not what I was saying, but mentally, that's where I was at."
Two years later, Beck is richer, if less relevant. He has launched an ambitious and lucrative online television network, and Monday announced a new $100 million radio contract. He’s hosted high-profile rallies on two continents. And Beck believes, most important, that he’s arrived at a solution for both America's teetering democracy, and his once-toxic brand.
"The conservative movement needs a Dick Clark," Beck told BuzzFeed in a recent interview. "And I hope to fill some of that vacuum."
The venue set to introduce the world to this kinder, gentler Beck is a three-day event in Dallas that the conservative media mogul has billed, "Restoring Love." It will include a "global Tea Party summit," a conference of conservative religious leaders, and a concert-rally at Cowboys Stadium featuring inspirational music from a growing roster of artists Beck is building. The goal, he said, is to seize control of pop culture from the left by producing patriotic, uplifting art — and use that new megaphone to promote a message of enlightenment and love. The event sold out its 40,000 available tickets in less than two days, a source at Beck's company told BuzzFeed.
In Beck's telling, the Dallas event is the natural product of a years-long evolution of the modern conservative movement — in which he places his own projects as conspicuously central — that has moved beyond mere grassroots politics, and on to loftier ambitions. But it also marks the latest move in an aggressive transformation of the Glenn Beck brand, from the right-wing ranter-in-chief he played on Fox, to the red-state Prophet of Love he's casting himself as today — a wholesome hybrid of Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, and Mahatma Gandhi, the role models he now frequently name-checks.
To lay out this vision, Beck opened the doors of his new Dallas headquarters to BuzzFeed last week. The host moved his family from the New York area to Texas shortly after launching GBTV last year, and his company quickly colonized a large soundstage in Irving that was once used to film Hollywood blockbusters, including, one producer noted with pride, scenes from Robocop. Beck's office is located on the second floor of the building, and resembles an ultra-patriotic Chili's — festooned with fashionably kitschy trinkets, placards emblazoned with feel-good maxims, and framed photos of Beck-world celebrities, including the late Mormon prophet Gordon B. Hinckley.
Dressed in the casual-Friday uniform his departure from Fox has afforded him — Converse sneakers, blue jeans, and an Oxford shirt with a T-shirt over it that read "Hebrew Bison" — Beck sat on a couch flanked by his longtime producer Joel Cheatwood on the left, and a speakerphone through which publicist Josh Raffel (whose firm also represents Katie Couric and Justin Bieber) monitored the discussion from New York.
The interview was ostensibly scheduled to talk about the program for the upcoming rally in Dallas. But Beck, a frenetic presence whose always-churning imagination causes him to live, he said, "about four years in the future," couldn't help talking big picture. His current obsession: Spreading conservative values by "reclaiming" mainstream popular culture.
"I watched Glee, which I think is brilliant," he said. "Absolutely brilliant... Now can't we do that while having the struggle and the things that are in real life, the good and the bad, but have it not celebrate high school kids hooking up? The answer is yes. That's our goal."
In addition to developing scripted dramas at this own network, and planning future film projects in the vein of True Grit (a recent favorite of his), Beck said he's partnering with a number of musical artists — some of whom he'll name, others he won't.
