Media Bloggers Noticed Glenn Beck's 'Transformation' -- Here's What They Had to Say About It

Has 2014 been a good year for Glenn Beck? One media blog seems to think so wholeheartedly.

Media news website The Wrap published its "Top 5 Media Winners of the Year" list on Thursday, honoring the "media personalities and networks [that] are coming out on top" in 2014, "a year of complete and utter media mayhem" as the media landscape continues to evolve quickly and dramatically.

"Some picks will surely raise your eyebrows," the list's intro promised.

The list was nothing if not eclectic, with the No. 1 spot going to Fox News' Megyn Kelly, CNN nabbing No. 3, LeBron James coming in at No. 4 and ABC News taking No. 5.

The No. 2 winner: Glenn Beck.

Glenn Beck laughs helplessly as Mike Rowe appears on his television program Feb. 19, 2014. (Photo: TheBlaze TV)

The Wrap's profile noted Beck's dramatic health struggles, lauding him for his recovery, before delving into the reasons the publication deemed him one of 2014's biggest winners:

Several years ago, Beck was a bombastic Fox News host pouring gasoline on colleagues on-set, then setting them on fire to depict how President Obama has singlehandedly destroyed America.

[...]

Five years later,  Beck’s transformation is complete–to his credit–without many media critics even noticing the magic act he performed.

“I made an awful lot of mistakes, and I wish I could go back and be more uniting in my language,” Beck told Megyn Kelly in January. “I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart. And it’s not who we are.”

[...]

And on his radio/Internet show on TheBlaze, Beck has been able to evolve his image–from bombastic conservative to soft-spoken, honest broker.

“From the beginning, most people on the left were against going into Iraq. I wasn’t…. Liberals, you were right. We shouldn’t have,” Beck said. Beck’s makeover from polarizing TV lightning rod to soft-spoken, post partisan media figure is a hard act to pull across a career, much less a calendar year.

With his presence on TV news and the speaking circuit in demand more than ever, and his digital TV enterprise TheBlaze continuing to grow, the new, more humble Beck won big in 2014 by simply making most forget the Beck of 2009-2011. And his final victory lap: Forbes Magazine lists him  making a cool $90 million in 2014.

—

Follow Zach Noble (@thezachnoble) on Twitter