On his radio show today, Glenn Beck tackled a particularly sticky issue when it comes to race. How does it make any sort of sense, he wanted to know, to refer to all black persons as “African American,” particularly when so many black individuals don’t live in the U.S.? Beck notes that, in South Africa, recognized races and ethnicities include black and “colored”

Glenn Beck’s biggest skill as a television hostis his uncanny ability for congratulating his audience for sharing his information. Today, he seemed to focus on his older viewers in particular (perhaps in response to this week’s The Simpsons)? In short, he lauded rough and tumble poor people of the Depression-era to the totally wussy poor people of today. Did you know poor people now have big screen TVs? Wimps!

There have certainly been a lot of media match-ups lately, what with Jon Stewart‘s ‘rivalry‘ with Glenn Beck, and Bill Maher‘s culture clash with Bill O’Reilly. Now The Atlantic‘s resident blogger Andrew Sullivan wants a piece of the action. Taking issue with a particular “half-baked piece of nonsense” that the “dishonest” O’Reilly uttered, Sullivan is requesting that Fox News let him bring his ‘Daily Dish’ to O’Reilly’s ‘No Spin Zone.’

As we suspected long ago, we can now officially confirm that Glenn Beck isn’t just considered a “joke” in some circles, he is now important and influential enough to merit a nearly 15 minute parody by America’s “most trusted” news personality, Jon Stewart. The take-down was beyond complete; Daily Show writers and producers revealed that they are meticulous students of Beck’s production methods: they didn’t miss a trick.

On Friday’s episode of The Rachel Maddow Show, the host took a few minutes to politely disagree with Glenn Beck‘s views on global warming, including his refuting of Maddow’s guest Bill Nye the Science Guy. “It is one thing to be outrageously wrong about facts and science, but the price of that is getting made fun of for it and getting called out on it — boom! — by Bill Nye the Science Guy,” Maddow concluded.

Last night, Glenn Beck hosted a special entitled “Time To Be Heard,” highlighting the struggles of black conservatives in America. Inspired by a former guest, Charles Payne, who grew up in Harlem, Beck’s five-part Friday show was devoted to detailing the political views of those not willing to give President Obama a “free pass” within the black community. Beck even takes a pilgrimage! Video inside.