Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating Interview With ‘Pussycat’ Glenn Beck

Love him or hate him it would be hard to argue that Glenn Beck was not one of this year’s more fascinating people (you can find interviews with all of Barbara Walters choices on our video page, by the way). Said Barbara Walters in her introduction: “Let’s meet a man who’s been accused of turning politics into a circus…it’s hard to tell sometimes whether Glenn Beck is being serious.” And then later on “Is Beck a leader, a demagogue, or just a media savvy clown?” Alas, Walters doesn’t manage to answer any of these questions, or get much out of Beck beyond one word answers. Not even any tears! (Beck, by his own admission, is a weeping willow.) Maybe Barbara is losing her edge. Which is too bad, though I suppose you can’t expect much more from such a short segment.

Still, perhaps the strangest thing about the interview (and the same could be said for the much better one Beck did with Katie Couric) is seeing Beck out in the real world, outside the vacuum of his nightly show, interacting with other mainstream media types. It would be nice to see more of it, and longer and better. Next up: Beck does Jay Leno on Friday. Can Charlie Rose (or, dare to dream, Jon Stewart!) be far behind.

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