Three Surprising Things the Media Said About Glenn Beck This Week

Glenn Beck aired a series of deeply personal shows this week, beginning with the admission that he has been struggling with severe health issues for nearly five years, and continuing with a series of announcements of what he has planned for the future now that he has received a clean bill of health.

Those in Beck's audience weren't the only ones to take notice.

Though there have been the predictable naysayers, a number of media outlets commented on the news in a way you might not expect.

Glenn Beck speaks on his radio program. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

Vice News

Vice News, by no means a conservative organization, wrote that Beck has quietly "transformed into Glenn Beck 2.0—a quieter, gentler version who calls for national unity and optimism and who wants Americans to try to love each other a little more."

"Now that we have gotten this clean bill of health, I want to make sure I'm spending all the time that I have been given to do things that are empowering and uniting and good," Beck told Vice. "I think we have an opportunity to really change the way things are done in all arenas."

Vice wrote that Beck has become a "conservative media mogul" intent on reshaping his media empire "around his softer, more hopeful vision of America."

The outlet quoted Beck: "I want people to be able to see and understand -- and I mean this for the right and the left -- that family-friendly doesn't have to mean sappy crap. Things that are clean doesn't mean that they're not gonna be good or dynamic."

The Huffington Post

Among the new programming Beck announced this week was a show called History House, which tells the forgotten stories of history. Beck described the stories he wants to tell as "stories of love and courage where the good guys win."

The Huffington Post compared the trailer for History House to a Pixar creation, which Beck said Wednesday was a “huge compliment.”

“We released four minutes of a piece of [the show], and it’s going to be on Johnny Appleseed,” Beck explained on his radio program. “The Huffington Post posted it yesterday with something amazing. They said it was very reminiscent of Pixar, which is a huge compliment for us.”

You can see the History House trailer, below:

The Associated Press

The Associated Press also focused on Beck's call for reconciliation over victory, writing:

His health problems, which he had not revealed publicly before, were behind many absences from his show and were even why he moved his headquarters from New York to Dallas.

He said it was also behind statements that he's made about the need to love one another, and his efforts to apologize to some people he felt he wronged. The possibility of a shortened lifespan gave him a different outlook, he said.

"Maybe you didn't notice, but I've been gone," Beck said on his show Monday night. "But I'm happy to say I'm back."

New York Magazine wasn't wholly positive, but wrote that Beck managed to "complicate [their] feelings about him" with his description of the last five years and persistent call for Americans to love one another.

And D Magazine wrote a positive feature on Beck before the week's news broke, also commenting on what they see as a changed man.

"Since moving to North Texas, the controversial talk show host and Tea Party icon has gotten a little quieter, a little kinder, and a lot richer," the article read.