Glenn Beck, by Glenn Beck

The annual TIME 100 is a place where famous people get to write about how other famous people are famous. Sometimes, they even write about each other.


Glenn Beck hasn't quite reached Top 100 status yet, but he was granted the honor of writing a flattering 295-word bio for Rush Limbaugh. But Beck, the new fiery, bipolar conservative host on Fox News, may have been a bit jealous of his right-wing hero, judging by the number of self-references crammed into a space fit for a news brief.

Here's Beck's first sentence: "For some of us, being a media personality just isn't as easy as it used to be."

Beck, also a talk-radio host, then writes about how Limbaugh "paved the way for thousands of broadcasters, including myself."

And he ends his bit by saying, "Knowing firsthand just how hard it is to hold an audience's attention for a few hours ..."

Beck's natural affinity for himself comes through even more on his Fox News show, on which he has cried/pretended to cry (start at 2:50) for America's sake. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I just love my country, and I fear for it." Then he wiped his left eye and attacked "our leaders, and special interests, and the media."

Beck has a tough slot. Outside of Shep Smith (who mocked Beck for crying) and Chris Wallace, Fox News is devoid of real journalists who don't show favor to any side. One of the best lessons I got in journalism school is to shut up. Let the story tell itself and stay out of its way.

But it's tough to do that when you make yourself the story. Beck writes a Fox News blog about how great America and Americans and Americanism are, in which he uses the heralded techniques of an angry blog commenter to drive his points home, such as ALL-CAPS DECLARATIONS and context-irrelevant catch phrases like, "Remember the Alamo!"

At times, Beck's blog seems like the Xanga diary he might keep on his personal computer. "The life I lead today is an embrace of my community and an understanding that only through giving and extending myself to others can I ever feel really complete as an individual," he wrote in his most recent post.

The recommendation letter that Beck wrote for Limbaugh in TIME falls under the "Artists & Entertainers" category, which is doubly appropriate. Limbaugh is by all means one of the most fascinating entertainers in media. But Beck is getting there. In a profile, The New York Times headlined the ring leader as a "mad, apocalyptic, tearful rising star."

Entertainment is entertainment, regardless of whether it fits your ideology. Bill O'Reilly's tirades or ambushes might not be completely fair, but he's still good for laughs. And Keith Olbermann's theatrics and on-air editorials may be far-reaching, but at times, they're hilarious. So maybe Beck is onto something. Maybe his show, titled "Glenn Beck," is rightfully all about him.

When the Times interviewed Beck, he had just watched "Network," the 1976 movie about the news in which an anchorman famously blares, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

"I think that's the way people feel," Beck said in the interview. "That's the way I feel."