Blog
LatestArticlesVideos
Radio
LivePodcastSerialsStations
TV
Podcasts
The Glenn Beck ProgramThe Glenn Beck PodcastThe Beck Story
Fine Art
Real Estate
Shop
More
AboutCharityBooksSponsorsContact
SEARCH
Live Radio

©2024 MERCURY RADIO ARTS.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY

Live

Glenn's Show Prep

New guard of conservative lawmakers discuss the dynamics of the new media with Glenn in D.C.

June 12, 2013
Wilson

Writer

Some of the biggest names in the cable industry are spending a few days in Washington, D.C. this week for the NCTA's Cable Show. For the last 50+ years, cable television has lead the information and entertainment industry in infrastructure and innovation…but in recent years, this industry has had to adapt to the new leader in innovation: the internet. The 2013 Cable Show, focused on integrating the 'new media' — digital entertainment innovation in the internet ecosystem.

TheBlaze has been ahead of the curve on this transition — starting online to empower our subscribers and just recently beginning to spread into the world of cable television. Tuesday afternoon in the nation's capitol, some of the most prominent names in conservative politics weighted in on the impact and power of the so-called 'new media' at TheBlaze's Cable Show reception and conversation about “News and Politics in a Multi-platform World” hosted by Glenn and TheBlaze with discussions lead by Mary Matalin.

TheBlaze's President of Business Development, Lynne Costantini, opened up the program by highlighting the amazing opportunity TheBlaze has to tap into an audience that is searching for a channel that represents their values. Before handing the mic over to Glenn, Lynne reminded attendees that there are 94 million libertarian and conservative Americans looking for more than just one option for news and information.

"I remember the when we first got cable television in our home," Glenn stated. "It was in the late 1970s and it was a time when the world was changing."
Glenn recalled all of the 'firsts' that came with cable television, and pointed out that we find ourselves in the position of experiencing new things and new technology every day now. Innovation is moving faster than ever before, he noted.
"The game is about to change — and it's about to change on every level."
Glenn noted that there are the people that see the future and the change coming and realize the implications: it could go horribly wrong or it could be amazing. Take the NSA for example…amazing technology that's monitoring law abiding Americans like criminals.
"There will be the people who embrace and create the changes," Glenn said noting Steve Jobs as an excellent example. "And the power grabbers. The ones who are too afraid they'll fail and do whatever they can to hold onto power."
"We [TheBlaze] are the change," Glenn said. "I've worked at CNN, I've worked at Fox — they're both great places to work. They both have a great product," Glenn added. "But there is a change coming. We have to bridge the gap."
"There is something to be said for the communal experience," Glenn continued. "The only thing that unites us now is the Superbowl. How can we go into the cable system and bridge that with technology."
"We're doing it in a way that's never been done before."
Glenn explained that TheBlaze isn't just a growing news and information network, it's a culture…a lifestyle.

"We find the people that are like-minded and want to live their lives in a certain way," he said. "Our audience is difference and we recognize that. Where everyone else is designing for the buck, we don't take a dollar if it's not right for them. I want a lifetime relationship. Find out who the audience is and connect of that."
"Our philosophy is not about politics. Politics are a waste…" Glenn said before apologizing to the audience full of politicians…
"What made us great is not about looking up what we're supposed to do in the regulation book, it's maximum liberty and maximum personal responsibility. The 'give me a chance' attitude — that's all great leaders have asked for," he explained.
Sounds great, right? Pretty simple…but how do Glenn and TheBlaze make that work as a business model?
"We empower the people on the other end."
After Glenn finished speaking, he passed the mic off to Mary Matalin who lead one-on-one discussions with Rep. Marsha Blackburn and Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. Senator Rand Paul also made an appearance. Their discussions were centered around the evolving media and the impact it's having on empowering the average American, and in the case of the NSA leaks, possibly being used against them.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is a big proponent of new and social media — the tools that have empowered much of the voting base that got her elected.
"The best way to use it is to think of it as the network of you," she told Mary when describing how she uses new media to get a message out.
Blackburn often reminds her staff to think of tools like Twitter and Facebook not just as a way to spread a message, but a way to listen to her constituents and the American people.
"It allows people to keep their attention on the kind of content that interests them — what they want to receive — and from there, build their own network.
"We now have the ability to meet and communicate with people where they are by utilizing the tools that are right in front of us, right at our fingertips. They have option on how they receive information," she added.
Rep. Blackburn also noted the ability of social media to remove the filter between the audience and information — something Matalin pointed out isn't always a good thing, noting the importance of context.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz, highlighted the impact social media has had directly on Washington, making note of several instances where Twitter has had the power to shift the conversation back to the truth. He was reminded to the vital role Twitter played in Senator Paul's 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floors regarding drones.
"I was very proud, nine months ago, to stand side-by-side with Rand Paul," Cruz stated. "Most of our colleagues in the Senate thought what Rand was doing was curious if not quixotic. He began speaking up and talking about the principle…what quickly happened was incredible."
Cruz explained how tens of thousands of Americans got online and started to support Rand in a filibuster, that when it first started, was only viewable online and on C-SPAN. When #StandWithRand started trending, Cruz became the first person in history to read tweets from the American people (or anyone else for that matter) on the Senate floor. The Texas Senator was reminded of one tweet in particular from a 78-year-old woman who had never used Twitter, but got online and signed up so she could publicly support with Senator Paul was doing and stand with him.
"The next day Obama was forced to explain the policy, and polling showed the American people had shifted 50 points in just days," he noted.
The explosion of new media has led to a "phenomenal democratization of information," Cruz added. "Anybody with a cell phone can be Dan Rather — hopefully with a greater propensity for truth."
Cruz also noted that with the recent leaks regarding the NSA and the IRS scandals, that the American people are quite justified in having real concerns and that now is the time to use the tools to put a stop to it.

During Senator Mike Lee's discussion with Mary Matalin and Glenn, he explained how the new media empowering more citizens to get engaged and speak out against an over-bearing government made him optimistic.
"I think our best days are ahead of us," Lee explained, "in part because we are being put in the position of having to resort to federalism.
He explained the unique pattern that the ability to personalize the news and information you receive is having on the monopolized news industry.
"We've had a lot of consolidation in media outlets that give us our news. That fortunately is starting to change. we've got more alternatives out there for people to listen to. When people can have access to the truth and that truth can be checked and cross-checked because of the availability of multiple sources of media, we can all get better answers," Lee noted.
Highlighting Glenn and TheBlaze specifically, Lee continued, "not everyone in the news business has the same attention to detail as Glenn Beck. The more Glenn Becks that are out there — and I hope there will be many one day — the greater the opportunity there will be for people to know the truth. The thing about the American people is they will make the right choice when they are given the opportunity."
Closely tied to the evolution of the media was another popular topic of yesterday's event: the recent leaks regarding the NSA and the IRS targeting of conservative groups. Senator Rand Paul focused heavily on this issue while speaking at the event.
…after a quick parody of Glenn's silent monologue of course…

Senator Paul told the crowd that he plans to take the issue regarding the NSA's surveillance of law-abiding citizens to court to put a stop to the abuse of power. Paul explained the importance of informing the people around us who operate in the digital space that their government is abusing its power.
While all of the guests who joined TheBlaze on Tuesday didn't share the same opinion on the leaks, they all believed what the NSA was doing, if true, was wrong and an abuse of power. They were also quick to highlight that the solution is YOU and your ability to exercise your freedom of speech with new media.
Marsha Blackburn noted that to really solve the problem, conservatives NEED to start whittling away at the size of the federal government.
"They have too much time and money on their hands," she said.
Senator Cruz also noted the answer to government overreach and its growing power is new media.
"The answer is new media and social media — speaking out and education our citizens on liberty."
Mary Matalin wrapped up the discussions by noting the reason Glenn's network model is so amazing: You.
"Glenn's audience understands the need for virtuous citizens," She explained.
She went on to say that this understand the need for there to be MORE virtuous citizens and they're actively involved in spreading that message and the message of TheBlaze. That's what makes TheBlaze different than any other network — you.

        Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode
    

         Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images
    
Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.
Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.
President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.
If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’
The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”
First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.
“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.
A restoration, not a renovation
Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.
What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.
The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.
The selective guardians of history
Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”
Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”
If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”
The real desecration
The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.
The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.
   Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images
 
Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.
The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        A new Monroe Doctrine? Trump quietly redraws the Western map
    

         Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images
    
The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.
For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.
The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.
The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.
While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.
Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.
Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.
Beyond Venezuela
Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.
Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.
  PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images
 
All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.
It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.
Trump’s Monroe Doctrine
Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.
Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        Antifa isn’t “leaderless” — It’s an organized machine of violence
    

         Jeff J Mitchell / Staff | Getty Images
    
The mob rises where men of courage fall silent. The lesson from Portland, Chicago, and other blue cities is simple: Appeasing radicals doesn’t buy peace — it only rents humiliation.
Parts of America, like Portland and Chicago, now resemble occupied territory. Progressive city governments have surrendered control to street militias, leaving citizens, journalists, and even federal officers to face violent anarchists without protection.
Take Portland, where Antifa has terrorized the city for more than 100 consecutive nights. Federal officers trying to keep order face nightly assaults while local officials do nothing. Independent journalists, such as Nick Sortor, have even been arrested for documenting the chaos. Sortor and Blaze News reporter Julio Rosas later testified at the White House about Antifa’s violence — testimony that corporate media outlets buried.
Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened.
Chicago offers the same grim picture. Federal agents have been stalked, ambushed, and denied backup from local police while under siege from mobs. Calls for help went unanswered, putting lives in danger. This is more than disorder; it is open defiance of federal authority and a violation of the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
A history of violence
For years, the legacy media and left-wing think tanks have portrayed Antifa as “decentralized” and “leaderless.” The opposite is true. Antifa is organized, disciplined, and well-funded. Groups like Rose City Antifa in Oregon, the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club in Texas, and Jane’s Revenge operate as coordinated street militias. Legal fronts such as the National Lawyers Guild provide protection, while crowdfunding networks and international supporters funnel money directly to the movement.
The claim that Antifa lacks structure is a convenient myth — one that’s cost Americans dearly.
History reminds us what happens when mobs go unchecked. The French Revolution, Weimar Germany, Mao’s Red Guards — every one began with chaos on the streets. But it wasn’t random. Today’s radicals follow the same playbook: Exploit disorder, intimidate opponents, and seize moral power while the state looks away.
Dismember the dragon
The Trump administration’s decision to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization was long overdue. The label finally acknowledged what citizens already knew: Antifa functions as a militant enterprise, recruiting and radicalizing youth for coordinated violence nationwide.
But naming the threat isn’t enough. The movement’s financiers, organizers, and enablers must also face justice. Every dollar that funds Antifa’s destruction should be traced, seized, and exposed.
   AFP Contributor / Contributor | Getty Images
 
This fight transcends party lines. It’s not about left versus right; it’s about civilization versus anarchy. When politicians and judges excuse or ignore mob violence, they imperil the republic itself. Americans must reject silence and cowardice while street militias operate with impunity.
Antifa is organized, funded, and emboldened. The violence in Portland and Chicago is deliberate, not spontaneous. If America fails to confront it decisively, the price won’t just be broken cities — it will be the erosion of the republic itself.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

        URGENT: Supreme Court case could redefine religious liberty
    

         Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images
    
The state is effectively silencing professionals who dare speak truths about gender and sexuality, redefining faith-guided speech as illegal.
This week, free speech is once again on the line before the U.S. Supreme Court. At stake is whether Americans still have the right to talk about faith, morality, and truth in their private practice without the government’s permission.
The case comes out of Colorado, where lawmakers in 2019 passed a ban on what they call “conversion therapy.” The law prohibits licensed counselors from trying to change a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, including their behaviors or gender expression. The law specifically targets Christian counselors who serve clients attempting to overcome gender dysphoria and not fall prey to the transgender ideology.
The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.
The law does include one convenient exception. Counselors are free to “assist” a person who wants to transition genders but not someone who wants to affirm their biological sex. In other words, you can help a child move in one direction — one that is in line with the state’s progressive ideology — but not the other.
Think about that for a moment. The state is saying that a counselor can’t even discuss changing behavior with a client. Isn’t that the whole point of counseling?
One‑sided freedom
Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, has been one of the victims of this blatant attack on the First Amendment. Chiles has dedicated her practice to helping clients dealing with addiction, trauma, sexuality struggles, and gender dysphoria. She’s also a Christian who serves patients seeking guidance rooted in biblical teaching.
Before 2019, she could counsel minors according to her faith. She could talk about biblical morality, identity, and the path to wholeness. When the state outlawed that speech, she stopped. She followed the law — and then she sued.
Her case, Chiles v. Salazar, is now before the Supreme Court. Justices heard oral arguments on Tuesday. The question: Is counseling a form of speech or merely a government‑regulated service?
If the court rules the wrong way, it won’t just silence therapists. It could muzzle pastors, teachers, parents — anyone who believes in truth grounded in something higher than the state.
Censored belief
I believe marriage between a man and a woman is ordained by God. I believe that family — mother, father, child — is central to His design for humanity.
I believe that men and women are created in God’s image, with divine purpose and eternal worth. Gender isn’t an accessory; it’s part of who we are.
I believe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” still stands, that the power to create life is sacred, and that it belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.
And I believe that when we abandon these principles — when we treat sex as recreation, when we dissolve families, when we forget our vows — society fractures.
Are those statements controversial now? Maybe. But if this case goes against Chiles, those statements and others could soon be illegal to say aloud in public.
Faith on trial
In Colorado today, a counselor cannot sit down with a 15‑year‑old who’s struggling with gender identity and say, “You were made in God’s image, and He does not make mistakes.” That is now considered hate speech.
  
 
That’s the “freedom” the modern left is offering — freedom to affirm, but never to question. Freedom to comply, but never to dissent. The same movement that claims to champion tolerance now demands silence from anyone who disagrees. The root of this case isn’t about therapy. It’s about erasing a worldview.
The real test
No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, we cannot stop speaking the truth. These beliefs aren’t political slogans. For me, they are the product of years of wrestling, searching, and learning through pain and grace what actually leads to peace. For us, they are the fundamental principles that lead to a flourishing life. We cannot balk at standing for truth.
Maybe that’s why God allows these moments — moments when believers are pushed to the wall. They force us to ask hard questions: What is true? What is worth standing for? What is worth dying for — and living for?
If we answer those questions honestly, we’ll find not just truth, but freedom.
The state doesn’t grant real freedom — and it certainly isn’t defined by Colorado legislators. Real freedom comes from God. And the day we forget that, the First Amendment will mean nothing at all.
This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.