Glenn Beck: 'I Played a Role in Tearing the Country Apart'

By Katherine Weber, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, January 23, 2014

Conservative television and radio personality Glenn Beck recently reflected on his time spent at Fox News, saying that he made "an awful lot of mistakes" and played a role in "helping tear the country apart."

Beck, who had his own television show on the Fox News network from 2009 to 2011, told Fox's Megyn Kelly on Tuesday evening that he wishes he had used more "uniting" language while hosting his "Glenn Beck" television program.

"I remember it as an awful lot of fun and that I made an awful lot of mistakes, and I wish I could go back and be more uniting in my language," Beck said during the Tuesday airing of "The Kelly File."

"I think I played a role, unfortunately, in helping tear the country apart and it's not who we are," Beck continued. "I didn't realize how really fragile the people were. I thought we were kind of a little more in it together. And now I look back and I realize if we could have talked about the uniting principles a little bit more, instead of just the problems, I think I would look back on it a little more fondly."

Beck became known on his Fox News television program for his outrageous stunts and sometimes inflammatory rhetoric. The show, which proved to be a major ratings powerhouse for the network, included shocking skits such as Beck dressing up in lederhosen and dancing, gutting a fish on live television, and accusing Obama of being "racist."

The conservative host left the Fox News network in June 2011 to start his own Internet-based media company, known as TheBlaze. Reports on the split indicate both Beck and Fox responded amicably to the television host's departure.

Beck has made similar comments regarding his time at Fox News before, telling The Associated Press in June 2013 that he regretted playing a "dividing role" on his television program. "For any role that I have played in dividing, I wish I can take them back," Beck said. "I don't wish I could take back the truth that was spoken but perhaps – not perhaps – many times I could have said it differently."

The television personality clarified in his most recent interview with Kelly that he is not speaking about the Fox News network as a whole, but rather his personal role at the television network. "That's only my role," he told Kelly.