The state of American media on January 18th, 2009 was an ambivalent one, at best. With a not-so-beloved president stepping down to make way for historic change to hit the White House, many wondered how the tenor of political coverage– a tenor that had appeared to peak in cynicism and malaise– would evolve in a new era of Barack Obama™ “Hope and Change.” On that day, an obscure former Headline News host debuted his new program on Fox News, and as he departs two years later, we can safely say Glenn Beck has left an indelible mark on the history of cable news. Below a compilation of Mediaite’s most memorable moments from the program.

Glenn Beck spent part of today’s show speculating that even John Lennon and The Beatles were Mao defenders (Mao has slowly evolved into the Kevin Bacon of Beck’s world view: everyone is connected to him by one degree or another). Case in point, according to Beck, are the lyrics to the song ‘Revolution.’ And alas, I do not think he reached this conclusion by listening to the record backwards.

I assumed that after nearly two weeks away from his television show — a period of time during which there was an attempted bombing of a commercial jet liner, and the subsequent fallout revealed a national security system that was entirely lacking, AND this happened on Obama’s watch — that Glenn Beck would spend a significant chunk of today’s show in some sort of apoplectic tirade about all of the above. Boy was I wrong.

After seeing the stir caused by Andrew Breitbart’s “Ornament-Gate” story, I had to go back and review the footage and pictures that I shot of White House Christmas decorations a few weeks ago. Breitbart’s Big Hollywood made an eagle-eyed catch of an ornament that appeared to be mocking Chairman Mao, and leapt to his defense. Or something. I think we can do better than that. Without even looking, I found a White House display that featured nudity and beasts of burden. See if you can uncover a new “scandal:”

A new front has opened in the “War on Christmas,” but this is very different than what anything we’ve seen before. Yesterday, Big Government ran a headline for the ages: “Exclusive: Transvestites, Mao and Obama Ornaments Decorate White House Christmas Tree.”

And no, they aren’t making that up, nor is it some extremist conspiracy theory. The images of Chairman Mao and Hedda Lettuce really ARE hanging on White House Christmas tree. Video after the jump: