Glenn Beck used to be on CNN and while he was conservative in tone, he was on the moderate end of the scale. When he moved to FoxNews, he became infected with the FoxNews mentality, which was if you can’t say anything nice about a Democrat or progressive, make something up.

Many free thinkers have issues with FoxNews, the main one being that it’s very tough to separate the commentators from the reporters. While MSNBC does have it’s share of reporters that will give opinions during a newscast, such as the dust up that occurred after the Miss California news conference, in the vast majority of cases the reporters won’t let their personal opinions interfere with getting the story across. It’s a testament to the other cable networks that when it does happen on MSNBC or CNN it sticks out like a sore thumb while if it happens of FoxNews it’s just business as usual.

Commentators are a whole other issue because they are paid to give their opinion. Beck is a commentator, not a reporter however you would assume that statements mad eon his show, either as fact or opinion, would have a basis in reality.

Glenn Beck was on The View this morning, and he made a comment just as his segment started that he felt more nervous being on The View than when he saw President Bush. While that initially sounded like the usual suck up comment, there was actually something behind the scenes, which oozed onto the broadcast, which made that comment all too real. The incident illustrates why FoxNews and their staff aren’t trusted by many people, clearly because of the axiom if you can’t say anything about an enemy make something up.

Apparently, and I’m using that term as legal cover since the video produced confirmed one side of the story and Beck himself confirmed the other part, Glenn Beck talked about an incident that occurred on a train while he traveled to the recent correspondence dinner on the radio. The video tape produced implied that Barbara Walters and Whoopie Goldberg got special treatment on the train and how Barbara Walters called Beck over to talk to him. You got the distinct impression Beck, being the common man, was in a world of celebrity and was being pushed about by those on a higher plane of the journalism status ladder.

Goldberg was pretty upset with the video presentation because she said he outright lied about what happened. She said they didn’t get preferential treatment and it was Beck who came over to Walters not her summoning him. After about a tortured minute of him trying to explain himself, he said he got it wrong and he was the one who came over to Walters. The thing that got me a bit hot under the collar was this wasn’t an incident where he made a slight mistake. Beck, on the video, did his best Rush Limbaugh in describing the trembling voice and shaky hands of Barbara Walters summoning him over to her, when in reality it was the sheepishly shy Beck who angled to talk to her.

Quite a vast difference in perception.

Beck tried to dig himself out of the hole he was in, but the video and his already admission for ‘misrepresenting the incident’ (his words) pretty much sunk him. While I expected Goldberg to do most of the vicious attacks, because she was hot about the whole thing, it was Walters who really knocked Beck down. She ended up asking most of the questions, trying to find out if he checked sources or if he just took things on their word and ran with them. His persistence on being a commentator and not a journalist hurt more than helped his credibility since he admitted the one thing he was privy to personally he got wrong and had to backtrack on. What was worse, he was trying to stick by his story, kind of, on the special treatment because he kept mentioning he could produce other people who would vouch for his side of the story.

It got the worse when Walters questioned Beck about what he was passionate about. While I haven’t seen his show, I have heard that sometimes he can get very emotional on his show, almost going to tears. Walters mentioned this point before asking the question about his passion. At first, he did the very stupid thing of wanting to make an issue about her mentioning the crying. I’m not all together sure what happened next, but I do remember he made the mistake I have seen many male conservatives make on The View. When their manhood is threatened, they try to deflect by putting The View in the box of being some female chatfest. Anytime that’s done, the women on The View gets upset, the audience gets upset and pretty much the guy who says might as well go back to the cave because there is no going back. Beck made that mistake and it was very ugly because Walters, again being very aggressive on this, was very clear in that she wasn’t insulting him on crying but was trying to get information and pass information to those who have never seen his show.

Beck did another conservative thing, thus even killing the support of Hasselbeck, by saying he believed in the flag, the founding fathers, all the red meat Republican talking points which is normally said to paint the opponent as not being patriotic. Again it was Walters who tried to get him off talking points.

It was a telling broadcast because it confirmed something about the commentators and especially the radio personalities that are on the air. Their conviction has to do with ratings. They aren’t crusading reporters trying to loom out for the little guy. They aren’t the voice of the masses. They’re people trying to get market shares and feed into the fears and preconceived notions of their listeners. They aren’t trying to bring knowledge but are reinforcing stereotypes. The View exposed this on Beck and it was a credible surprise that Barbara Walters was the one who exposed it.