Glenn Beck, Glenn Beck on the New York Times front page

He has a three-hour talk radio show five days a week. Two months ago he became the newest addition to the Fox News Channel lineup, securing the 5 pm spot that is usually a slow news hour, after hanging out at CNN for several years. He said he feels at home now ... people actually talk to him in the elevator instead of stopping in mid-sentence when he enters.

He consistently ranks as # 3 in the radio talk show market behind Rush and Sean Hannity ... and is # 3 in the cable TV news market behind Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, both also on Fox News.

His name is Glenn Beck and he is unabashedly patriotic and conservative all rolled into one ... and he was featured Monday on the front page of the New York Times.

He invited folks of all political persuasions to join him in "Rally for America" support the troops gatherings that were held nationwide after the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom (my family drove to Richmond to join 10,000 other folks for the WRVA-sponsored Glen Beck Rally for America at Innsbrook) or "We Surround Them" rallies that were held on March 13 of this year (the SWAC group filled the Sidelines Sports Pub to its 200 limit and had to turn people away at the door). He is a conservative Pied Piper, encouraging his audience to communicate with one another so they know they are not alone.

From the New York Times article:

The conservative writer David Frum said Mr. Beck’s success “is a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility.”

“It’s a show for people who feel they belong to an embattled minority that is disenfranchised and cut off,” he said.

I guess that statement is true. It certainly feels good to be in the presence of hundreds of others who are like-minded.

Read the entire article and marvel that a conservative made it to the front page of the New York Times.