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Glenn wins award, talks disruptive innovation at TreBeCa Film Festival

April 26, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Friday afternoon, Glenn traveled to downtown Manhattan where he was presented with the TriBeCa Disruptive Innovation Award. After receiving his award, the Charles Darwin Prize, Glenn sat down with Aryeh Bourkoff to talk about how his company is changing the media.

To those less familiar with Glenn Beck and TheBlaze, what Glenn is building may simply seem like a new news and information platform. For those curious enough to take a closer look, what's going on at TheBlaze is much bigger. Like the award says, TheBlaze is disrupting the system with something it's never seen before — something that is taking the power away from the giant bureaucracy that "news" has become, and putting it right back in the hand of the consumer. The engagement of TheBlaze subscribers themselves are a large part of the innovative disruption that is TheBlaze.

"News is like sausage...you might like to eat it, but you never want to see it made," Glenn told the Disruptive Innovation audience.

Glenn learned this early on in his cable news career.

While at CNN, Glenn was waiting in a green room watching Ahmadinejad address the U.N. What Glenn heard the Iranian leader say was beyond anti-Semitic rhetoric, it was insanely dangerous and needed to be reported and explained to the American people who would, and should, be outraged at his open-armed welcome into our country for this speech. Let's just say what Glenn saw the so-called "experts" report on this speech wasn't what the American people needed to hear. They needed to hear the hard truth and they weren't getting it. Anyone watching the speech would know they weren't being given the full story, but the media is desperately trying to train it's viewers to ignore their own eyes and ears and to trust what they're telling them.

"The system needs you to believe that you can't do it on your own," Glenn explained.

But the truth is, you can. You don't have to do it their way…or any certain way. "That's why YouTube is so great…there is no filter between them [the networks] and you," Glenn pointed out. From the ground-level footage of the Boston Marathon bombing to Justin Beiber singing songs that would lead him to his eventual career, you control your own content.

Along with the bureaucracy roadblocks, the world of television refuses to offer you a better product. While televisions keep getting more and more advanced, the content hasn't improved in decades. If you've ever watched Glenn's show you know Friday's are just about the only day Glenn stays in the same area of the set for much of the show. The rest of the week he is walking across a 16,000 sq. ft. set, from screen to screen, animated and passionate about the information he's sharing with his viewers.

Have you ever seen any other television host do that?

When Glenn was at Fox, they were having a hard time keeping up with him. The set was too small and they cameras couldn't keep track of him when he would hop up and walk to any one of his given chalkboards without notice. How was it possible that in 2009 moving freely around a set was too advanced? Traditional cable is still using what Glenn called a "Desi shoot," created in the 1950s by Desi Arnaz. Basically, a multi camera set up for multiple stations, without the ability to shoot around an entire set.

What was Glenn's solution at the time? "Get me a sport's director, please. Just tell them I'm carrying the ball."

But Glenn wanted more that just the freedom to move around a set. He wanted the freedom to try new things. In hindsight, walking away from cable news has allowed Glenn to do a myriad of new things, but at the time it wasn't as easy of a decision. In fact, when he made the decision he was told he wouldn't go through with it. "No one leaves," they told him.

Well, he did.

Glenn was able to walk away because, as he put it, "I hadn't been in it very long, I still knew who I was."

But there was more to it…Glenn had bigger ideas. A staunch believer in freedom and liberty, the giant cable companies weren't representative of his fundamental beliefs. He wanted to eliminate the negatives of TV by building something new. Something different.

"Independece and freedom built up first, then transferred over to the network."

When Glenn says, "TheBlaze is a network YOU are building," he means it.

The belief that man can do it on their own is key to Glenn's vision of TheBlaze — something many of the big networks don't want you to believe. But Glenn knows, with faith and integrity, man CAN do it on their own.

And with that in mind, he wants to empower his audience to be more than just a viewer. His focus is on entertainment, education, integrity, and providing access to information, all of the other rules can be broken.

TheBlaze is just getting started. Television, despite it's problems, is an important platform — something Glenn believes TheBlaze can help evolve. And while TheBlaze continues is efforts to be added to more TV providers across the country, it's just one of the platforms Glenn is building right now. The American Dream labs, an entire division devoted to innovation and story telling, is a big part of Glenn's future, along with radio, books, and stage shows — which are getting more and more creative every year. (Seriously, this summer's includes giant robots.)

Orson Wells and Walt Disney have had a notable influence on Glenn and his career. Through them Glenn learned to never give up, always think out of the box, humility, and to focus on the story. Those principles, along with a great team of smart business people, innovative thinkers, and hard working, honest employees Glenn is beginning to change the media.

"If you are in the book business you should be worried. If you are in the storytelling business you have a bright future."

Here's an inside look at a few photos and tweets from the event:

Yes…yes you did.

…wait what?

Yes, that's Psy (the Gangnum Style guy) with our very own Mr. Glenn Beck.

The West is dying—Will we let enemies write our ending?

Harvey Meston / Staff | Getty Images

The blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, and soldiers built our civilization. Their sacrifice demands courage in the present to preserve it.

Lamentations asks, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

That question has been weighing on me heavily. Not just as a broadcaster, but as a citizen, a father, a husband, a believer. It is a question that every person who cares about this nation, this culture, and this civilization must confront: Is all of this worth saving?

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

Western civilization — a project born in Judea, refined in Athens, tested in Rome, reawakened in Wittenberg, and baptized again on the shores of Plymouth Rock — is a gift. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t purchase it. We were handed it. And now, we must ask ourselves: Do we even want it?

Across Europe, streets are restless. Not merely with protests, but with ancient, festering hatred — the kind that once marched under swastikas and fueled ovens. Today, it marches under banners of peace while chanting calls for genocide. Violence and division crack societies open. Here in America, it’s left against right, flesh against spirit, neighbor against neighbor.

Truth struggles to find a home. Even the church is slumbering — or worse, collaborating.

Our society tells us that everything must be reset: tradition, marriage, gender, faith, even love. The only sin left is believing in absolute truth. Screens replace Scripture. Entertainment replaces education. Pleasure replaces purpose. Our children are confused, medicated, addicted, fatherless, suicidal. Universities mock virtue. Congress is indifferent. Media programs rather than informs. Schools recondition rather than educate.

Is this worth saving? If not, we should stop fighting and throw up our hands. But if it is, then we must act — and we must act now.

The West: An idea worth saving

What is the West? It’s not a location, race, flag, or a particular constitution. The West is an idea — an idea that man is made in the image of God, that liberty comes from responsibility, not government; that truth exists; that evil exists; and that courage is required every day. The West teaches that education, reason, and revelation walk hand in hand. Beauty matters. Kindness matters. Empathy matters. Sacrifice is holy. Justice is blind. Mercy is near.

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

If not now, when? If not us, who? If this is worth saving, we must know why. Western civilization is worth dying for, worth living for, worth defending. It was built on the blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, pilgrims, moms, dads, and soldiers. They did not die for markets, pronouns, surveillance, or currency. They died for something higher, something bigger.

MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP via Getty Images | Getty Images

Yet hope remains. Resurrection is real — not only in the tomb outside Jerusalem, but in the bones of any individual or group that returns to truth, honor, and God. It is never too late to return to family, community, accountability, and responsibility.

Pick up your torch

We were chosen for this time. We were made for a moment like this. The events unfolding in Europe and South Korea, the unrest and moral collapse, will all come down to us. Somewhere inside, we know we were called to carry this fire.

We are not called to win. We are called to stand. To hold the torch. To ask ourselves, every day: Is it worth standing? Is it worth saving?

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Pick up your torch. If you choose to carry it, buckle up. The work is only beginning.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Stop coasting: How self-education can save America’s future

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

Coasting through life is no longer an option. Charlie Kirk’s pursuit of knowledge challenges all of us to learn, act, and grow every day.

Last year, my wife and I made a commitment: to stop coasting, to learn something new every day, and to grow — not just spiritually, but intellectually. Charlie Kirk’s tragic death crystallized that resolve. It forced a hard look in the mirror, revealing how much I had coasted in both my spiritual and educational life. Coasting implies going downhill. You can’t coast uphill.

Last night, my wife and I re-engaged. We enrolled in Hillsdale College’s free online courses, inspired by the fact that Charlie had done the same. He had quietly completed around 30 courses before I even knew, mastering the classics, civics, and the foundations of liberty. Watching his relentless pursuit of knowledge reminded me that growth never stops, no matter your age.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures.

This lesson is particularly urgent for two groups: young adults stepping into the world and those who may have settled into complacency. Learning is life. Stop learning, and you start dying. To young adults, especially, the college promise has become a trap. Twelve years of K-12 education now leave graduates unprepared for life. Only 35% of seniors are proficient in reading, and just 22% in math. They are asked to bet $100,000 or more for four years of college that will often leave them underemployed and deeply indebted.

Degrees in many “new” fields now carry negative returns. Parents who have already sacrificed for public education find themselves on the hook again, paying for a system that often fails to deliver.

This is one of the reasons why Charlie often described college as a “scam.” Debt accumulates, wages are not what students were promised, doors remain closed, and many are tempted to throw more time and money after a system that won’t yield results. Graduate school, in many cases, compounds the problem. The education system has become a factory of despair, teaching cynicism rather than knowledge and virtue.

Reclaiming educational agency

Yet the solution is not radical revolt against education — it is empowerment to reclaim agency over one’s education. Independent learning, self-guided study, and disciplined curiosity are the modern “Napster moment.” Just as Napster broke the old record industry by digitizing music, the internet has placed knowledge directly in the hands of the individual. Artists like Taylor Swift now thrive outside traditional gatekeepers. Likewise, students and lifelong learners can reclaim intellectual freedom outside of the ivory towers.

Each individual possesses the ability to think, create, and act. This is the power God grants to every human being. Knowledge, faith, and personal responsibility are inseparable. Learning is not a commodity to buy with tuition; it is a birthright to claim with effort.

David Butow / Contributor | Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s life reminds us that self-education is an act of defiance and empowerment. In his pursuit of knowledge, in his engagement with civics and philosophy, he exemplified the principle that liberty depends on informed, capable citizens. We honor him best by taking up that mantle — by learning relentlessly, thinking critically, and refusing to surrender our minds to a system that profits from ignorance.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures. Every day, seek to grow, create, and act. Charlie showed the way. It is now our responsibility to follow.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins TPUSA tour to honor Charlie Kirk

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

If they thought the murder of Charlie Kirk would scare us into silence, they were wrong!

If anything, Turning Point will hit the road louder than ever. On Monday, September 22, less than two weeks after the assassination, Charlie's friends united under the Turning Point USA banner to carry his torch and honor his legacy by doing what he did best: bringing honest and truthful debate to Universities across the nation.

Naturally, Glenn has rallied to the cause and has accepted an invitation to join the TPUSA tour at the University of North Dakota on October 9th.

Want to join Glenn at the University of North Dakota to honor Charlie Kirk and keep his mission alive? Click HERE to sign up or find more information.

Glenn's daughter honors Charlie Kirk with emotional tribute song

MELISSA MAJCHRZAK / Contributor | Getty Images

On September 17th, Glenn commemorated his late friend Charlie Kirk by hosting The Charlie Kirk Show Podcast, where he celebrated and remembered the life of a remarkable young man.

During the broadcast, Glenn shared an emotional new song performed by his daughter, Cheyenne, who was standing only feet away from Charlie when he was assassinated. The song, titled "We Are One," has been dedicated to Charlie Kirk as a tribute and was written and co-performed by David Osmond, son of Alan Osmond, founding member of The Osmonds.

Glenn first asked David Osmond to write "We Are One" in 2018, as he predicted that dark days were on the horizon, but he never imagined that it would be sung by his daughter in honor of Charlie Kirk. The Lord works in mysterious ways; could there have been a more fitting song to honor such a brave man?

"We Are One" is available for download or listening on Spotify HERE