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A Glenn Beck timeline

1964: Born Glenn Edward Lee Beck in southwestern Washington state, where his parents ran a bakery. He is raised Roman Catholic and attends a Catholic school.

1982: Gets first job in radio, in Provo, Utah.

1983: Moves to a radio station in Washington, D.C.

1983: Moves to Corpus Cristi, Texas, for a radio job.

1983: Marries, at 19, first wife, Claire. They have two daughters.

1985-87: Morning DJ in Louisville, Ky., on a show called Captain Beck and the A-Team.

1987-89: Headlines "morning zoo" radio show in Phoenix. Phones rival DJ's wife and mocks her recent miscarriage.

1989-90: Works as DJ in Houston until fired for poor ratings.

1992-99: Works at radio station in Hamden, Conn. Minority groups demonstrate at station after Beck mocks Chinese-American caller.

1994: Beck and Claire divorce. Beck stops using marijuana and alcohol with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. He later says he smoked pot daily from age 16 to 30.

Mid- to late '90s: Engages in self-described "spiritual quest," reading widely on many faiths.

1999: Marries second wife, Tania. Together they join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have two children together.

2000: "The Glenn Beck Show" debuts on Tampa, Fla., radio station and becomes No. 1 in the ratings within a year.

2002: Radio show goes nationwide, launching on 47 stations.

2005: Starts twice-yearly theater tours with one-man show.

2006: Launches "Glenn Beck," a daily, one-hour TV program on CNN Headline News.

2008: Radio show is heard on 280 stations and satellite radio. Estimated audience of 6 1/2 million is smaller only than those of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh.

January 2009: Beck moves TV show to Fox News Channel.

Late 2009: Beck's TV show attracts about 3 million viewers daily, dominating his time slot.

August 2010: A Beck-sponsored "Restoring Honor" rally draws large crowd to the Lincoln Memorial on 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech; estimates of the number of attendees range from 87,000 to 500,000 or more.

Winter/spring 2011: TV show ratings fall to about 2 million, down 40 percent from a year earlier.

April 6, 2011: Beck announces his Fox show will end sometime later this year.

Books

Beck has authored 11 books or audiobooks and has ranked No. 1 in four bestseller categories: hardcover nonfiction, paperback nonfiction, hardcover fiction and children's picture book. The books:

"The Real America: Messages from the Heart and Heartland," 2003.

"An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems," 2007.

"The Christmas Sweater," 2008.

"America's March to Socialism: Why We're One Step Closer to Giant Missile Parades" (audiobook), 2008.

"An Unlikely Mormon: The Conversion Story of Glenn Beck," (audiobook), 2008.

"The Christmas Sweater: A Picture Book," 2009.

"Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government," 2009.

"Arguing with Idiots: How to Stop Small Minds and Big Government," 2009.

"The Overton Window," 2010.

"Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth, and Treasure," 2010.

"The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life" (Keith Ablow, co-author), 2011.

The enemy: progressivism

In his book "Common Sense," Beck writes: "(P)rogressivism has less to do with the parties and more to do with individuals who seek to redefine, reshape and rebuild America into a country where individual liberties and personal property mean nothing if they conflict with the plans and goals of the State."

Conspiracy theories

Beck's espousing of conspiracy theories is among his most divisive aspects. To his fans, he's exposing hidden links among forces that are secretly working together to erode Americans' freedoms and undermine the Constitution. To his opponents, he's a fear-monger who exploits the economic and racial insecurities of working- and middle-class white Christians with dark mutterings about the American left's alliance with forces in the Middle East and thinly veiled antisemitism directed at billionaire philanthropist George Soros and Jewish bankers. He has gone so far as to advise listeners to hoard canned food and stock up on freeze-dried meals to be able to survive the likely societal collapse if progressivism prevails.

Criticism & parody

Last year alone, three books were published that were dedicated all or in part to criticizing Beck:

In "Common Nonsense: Glenn Beck and the Triumph of Ignorance," investigative reporter Alexander Zaitchik writes: "As the ingredients of Beck's hard-right politics have changed throughout the years, the belief in a slowly unfolding secret plot involving enemies at home and abroad has remained the singular constant. Indeed, Beck has been quietly mainstreaming right-wing conspiracy culture for the better part of a decade."

"The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama," by Philadelphia Daily News reporter Will Bunch, asserts that Beck is playing a character and promoting exaggerated theories he doesn't fully believe as a lucrative scheme for self-promotion. After cataloging what Bunch says are forebears whom Beck has ripped off, he writes, "This is all well-worn stuff, but no one has drawn it all together and sculpted it for the purpose of conning an especially susceptible audience during turbulent racial and economic times."

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank released "Tears of a Clown: Glenn Beck and the Tea Bagging of America." In a column last week, Milbank wrote, "In banishing Beck, ... Fox has made an important distinction: It's one thing to promote partisan journalism, but it's entirely different to engage in race-baiting and fringe conspiracy claims. Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity may have their excesses, but their mainstream conservatism is in an entirely different category from Beck's."

Beck has been parodied and satirized by Jason Sudeikis of "Saturday Night Live," Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and "South Park." Last fall, Stewart and Colbert staged their own D.C. event to mock Beck, called the "Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear." The Onion Network News recently released a spoof segment titled "Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck."

As of last fall, nearly 300 companies were refusing to advertise on his Fox show, including Wal-Mart, CVS, Best Buy, Verizon Wireless, Procter & Gamble and Geico.

Enemies list

Among Beck's favorite targets:

President Obama: Beck said Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture," and, "I'm not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist." He later apologized.

George Soros: Beck devoted several days last fall to depicting Soros as "the puppet master," a man at the center of a vast network of left-wing and Jewish groups determined to bring about a "new world order" featuring "one world government." He accused Soros, a Holocaust survivor, of collaborating with the Nazis as a teenager, saying on his radio show, ""Here's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps."

Truth will out

The Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact.com, which evaluates the truthfulness of public statements by major figures, has examined 23 Beck claims. Eight were judged "True," "Mostly True" or "Half True," while the remaining 15 rated verdicts of "Barely True," "False" and "Pants on Fire." Among the most egregious: In a holiday special about Wilmington, Ohio, that depicted a community devastated by huge job losses but rallying through self-reliance and prayer, Beck said, "And this town hasn't taken any money from the government. They don't want any money from the government." PolitiFact found at least $15 million in state and federal funds has gone to Wilmington.

If you go

An Evening with Glenn Beck

When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Where: Palace Theatre, 19 Clinton Ave., Albany

Tickets: $95, $65, $35

Info: 465-4663; http://palacealbany.com