Exclusive interview: Glenn Beck like you've never heard him before
Everybody's got an opinion about conservative commentator Glenn Beck. Maybe yours will be influenced, for better or ill, by Brian Stelter's conversation with him. Parts of it were televised on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday. Here's the first part:
Beck hosts daily radio and television shows. But he also oversees his own media company, Mercury Radio Arts, including a Web site and television channel called The Blaze. That's why Forbes magazine estimates that Beck and his company earn $90 million a year - making him not just a polarizing public speaker, but the face of a very big business.
Lately he's been espousing his distaste for politics - "I hate it more than I ever have," he said - and his desire to "affect culture."
Stelter asked if he had veered away from politics in part because it's bad for business, but Beck said no: it is "better for business if I talk about it."
"You would not believe the complaints that I get" about broadening out beyond politics, he added.
Beck talked at length about wanting Americans to unite around common principles and values.
"I think we're a country in civil war," he said. "I just think we're in a cold civil war. Shooting hasn't started, but somebody stupid is going to do something stupid and it will escalate - unless we talk to each other."
Here's the second part of the interview from Sunday's "Reliable Sources:"
Check out more of what Beck has to say on next weekend's "Reliable Sources," Sunday at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
#GazaUnderAttack, #IsraelUnderFire: how social media can change perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In the video above, Benjamin Wallace-Wells, a staff writer for New York magazine, discusses his column "Why Israel Is Losing the American Media War."
"Palestinian civilians under Israeli attack" has been "the single consistent theme of the coverage throughout," he said, "because of social media, because we're able to get a less filtered view of what the conflict looks like from within Gaza, because there are more cameras there now."
He also remarked that "I think that Israel is perfectly happy to lose the media argument, so long as they win the military fight. And I think the imbalance in this whole conflict is that Hamas sees it exactly the other way. They're perfectly happy to lose the military fight, so long as they win the media argument."
· Related: Red News/Blue News about the Middle East P.R. war
At the end of the segment, host Brian Stelter shared this:
Ben was talking about the images that we do see - but what about the images we don't see? I have seen a lot of questions online from you about why news reports from Gaza rarely, if ever, show Hamas militants firing rockets into Israel.
So are reporters in Gaza under pressure from Hamas? Are they being intimidated into only showing civilians, and not the people Israel calls terrorists?
I asked the executive in charge of international here at CNN, Tony Maddox. And he says no. Quote:
"Our infield reporters have repeatedly said that Hamas militants are rarely to be found on the streets of Gaza. We have had no intimidation from Hamas, and received no threats regarding our reporting. They have so far refused all requests for interviews in Gaza."
Rula Jebreal and Elliott Abrams on the Middle East war of words
Former MSNBC contributor Rula Jebreal and former Bush administration deputy national security advisor Elliott Abrams discuss the war of words playing out in the Middle East conflict.
Red News/Blue News: the Middle East P.R. war
In this week's edition of Red News/Blue News, Brian Stelter looks at the P.R. war between Israel and Hamas.
Here are the clips he cited in the segment:
- An Israel Defense Forces illustration of missile strikes in Manhattan that asks "What would you do?"
- Pro-Palestinian illustration that says "the safest place" in Gaza is "away from children"
- Joe Scarborough on "Morning Joe:" Israel's actions 'asinine'
- Ann Coulter on "Hannity:" Palestinian kids are "associated with a terrorist organization"
- National Review column: "Hamas's Co-Conspirators"
About "Reliable Sources"
Now more than ever, the press is a part of every story it covers. And CNN's "Reliable Sources" is one of television's only regular programs to examine how journalists do their jobs and how the media affect the stories they cover.
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About the host
Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
@cnnreliable on Twitter
