Leaked video: Glenn Beck ‘uses Vicks to cry on cue’

By Ron Brynaert
Friday, October 2nd, 2009 -- 9:24 am
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glennbeckfakecrying2 Leaked video: Glenn Beck uses Vicks to cry on cueA video posted to YouTube a few weeks ago making the rounds across the internet apparently shows Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck having Vicks applied under his eyes in order to cry on cue for a photo shoot.

One blog, Sensico, mocks, "This is only shocking video to those that love Glenn Beck and think he cries non-stop because he 'loves this country.'"

The blog links to a montage of Beck crying jags put to the theme song of "The Crying Game" as sung by Boy George: YouTube link.

In April, Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert mocked one of Beck's tear-ups, by pretending to be choked up about it: "I'm sorry. I just love Glenn Beck's sanity -- and I fear for it."

Of course, using Vicks to cry during a staged photo shot wouldn't be the same as using it to produce tears on television about how the country "is turning Socialist." So, until another tape surfaces showing Beck getting the Vicks treatment before a rant on Fox, it would be premature to speculate that he only emits fugazi tears.

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But if Beck is outed as a Vicks-enabled weeper, then there are other tricks of the trade he can employ.

A wikiHOW manual offers many suggestions such as, "Make a crying face, which usually involves closing your eyes and scrunching your face."

"Turn the corners of your lips down a little," the manual advises. "Try to force the inner corners of your eyebrows upwards. Wrinkle up your chin like people do right before they start bawling."

However, the manual notes, "This may look faked." So, another suggestion is to "try pinching hard in some sensitive parts of your body," and "tears will automatically flow down."

UPDATE

In a post entitled "Internet Finally Discovers Glenn Beck Photoshoot Video, Freaks Out," Huffington Post's Jason Linkins blogs, "Depending on your point of view, this is either the object demonstration of a time-tested photographer's trick, or the SMOKING GUN THAT WILL BRING DOWN GLENN BECK'S EMPIRE OF FAKE TEARS! As you might surmise, I am opting to err on the side of calmness and serenity, because Gawker posted this video about two weeks ago, and the Republic survived."

Gawker did indeed post the video about two weeks ago, after it was first "published exclusively in June," which we (staff and readers who send tips) somehow missed.

From Gawker's two week old blog post:

It's difficult to take a performance artist like Glenn Beck too seriously when he keeps breaking out of character. For instance: Time's new cover is another photo of him by Jill Greenberg, a liberal he pretends to hate.

The photo comes from a shoot Greenberg — whom Beck has lambasted as a liberal photo-agitator — did for a GQ story on Beck back in June, in which she made the emotionally unstable Mormon cry. Hey, as long as she makes him look good, right?

Here's the deeply unsettling behind-the-scenes video we obtained of a bawling Beck at that shoot, which we first published exclusively in June.

From Gawker's June post:

GQ assigned photographer Jill Greenberg to shoot Glenn Beck for an interview, in a cheeky homage to Greenberg's notorious series of crying children. Funny! Hey, didn't Beck accuse Greenberg of "terrorizing" children for those photos? Of course he did.

Beck's penchant for hysterical tears makes the pairing obvious—why not ask a photographer famous for taking pictures of crybabies to shoot a blubbering TV personality? But Greenberg is an officially designated public enemy of the right wing: Last year, when she was hired by the Atlantic to shoot John McCain, she boasted of taking extra shots of McCain deliberately lit to make him look old and leaving "his eyes red and his skin looking bad." Also, she posted photoshopped outtakes on her web site featuring a monkey shitting on McCain's head.

The following video was posted to YouTube on September 17:



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...

  • Northwestwoods
    I see a potential new sponsor. 'Hi, Glenn Beck for Vicks.'
  • ignatzfattis
    He's probably going to find out way too late that Vicks causes cancer when used on soft tissue (and for those who think I mean Kleenex, I mean eyeballs, tear ducts, inner eyelids, etc.) -it is made from petroleum after all.

    He's hooked on prescription "chronic dry eye" medication -how much you wanna bet.
  • And you expect this guy to tell us the truth about 9/11 or the Anthrax Attacks. Give me a break. We need independent real journalists in this country. And we need to pay attention to them. Thanks Raw Story!!!
  • ren0326
    You're right; we do need "independent real journalists" (which, BTW, is a point Beck makes himself). Unfortunately, there are precious few of them either left or willing to exercise their skills and fulfill their responsibilities as journalists. Do you think you're getting the truth (or even being made aware of much of the real news) by the talking heads on the major network news shows or in the press? The fawning coverage of candidate Obama should have clued you in on that one.

    Whether we should "pay attention" to such journalists if they existed is another issue. Depends on what you mean by "pay attention." If you equate that with believing everything they say or print, then, "No." Bad idea. Independent thought and judgment on your part is still required.
  • Joseph
    Glen Beck is around to make the true grass roots patriotic movement look silly. He acts like a fool so that the majority of dumbed down Americans associate him with the true freedom movement going on. Case closed, don't waste your time on him, he's there to confuse an already bewildered American society.
  • boybunny
    My question is "Do they put peanut butter on the roof of his mouth to make it appear that he is talking?".
  • anonlkmk
    Is that worse than Glen Beck raping and murdering a young girl in 1990?

    I dont think so.
  • ren0326
    Do you believe every internet rumor you hear or just the ones that fit your pre-determined opinions and biases? Seriously. Do you not think people at CNN, the Huffington Post, NBC, ABC, CBS, the New York Times...the White House...wouldn't be all over this story if it had any credibility?!? Don't be so gullible.
  • bufftrucker
    The "raped a young girl in 1990" remark traces back to a satirical website (http://didglennbeckrapeandmurderayounggirlin199...) that attempts to show how outrageous, baseless allegations can be propagated using the old Joseph Goebbels method of "staying on message" (read the attached blog; the people that wrote in "get it", as they say). The informer can deliver the message in such a way as to be able to claim that they weren't actually lying.
    The website doesn't claim that the allegation is true, only that it needs to be examined more closely, as Blecch himself would say. That he's getting a taste of his own Nazi tactics seems fitting. I have no sympathy for the a-hole.
  • Manwhat
    It's called a joke, you should try it sometime.
  • terrymo1
    if someone just shoot his ass,we would be rid of him! And maybe throw in hannity,oreilly and limbaugh just for the hell of it.
  • dukeb
    Shoot? I thought the right were the "angry mobs"? Glenn promotes Holding to truth, Speaking without fear, and Questioning with Boldness. All without violence. Yet, instead of having an honest debate, you radicals just want to shoot whoever disagrees with you. That sounds awefully Marxist, Communist even!
    Oh, and wipe some Vicks under your eyes and see if you can last more than a minute without tearing up. Glenn's tears are genuine concern for his family and OUR country.
    God Bless the USA.
  • shag11
    Effing idiot, and so are his followers are a bunch of idiots also.
  • ren0326
    Deep, thoughtful analysis.
  • dennycrane
    Preparation H would have been better and a size 22 clown shoe shoved up his ass.
  • conebeatsyanks
    Limbaugh - Talent on loan from god. Hannity - Let not your heart be troubled. Beck - tears

    These people are marketing phenomenons and that is what makes them so dangerous. I would have a modicum of respect for them if I thought they were real but they are not. Limbaugh makes everything about himself and then tries to sell it. The sad thing is that people hold on to what these three have to say.
  • bintexas
    If you listen closely to Beck at the beginning, he says "my eyes are getting used to it." This would indicate that this isn't "just a photo shoot" as indicated by another poster below. His crying jags have ALWAYS looked phony.
  • ren0326
    Uh...are you serious? That's your idea of logic? "He said he was getting used to it so that *proves* he uses Vicks all the time!!!"

    Here's another thought. He put Vicks on (in front of the entire photo shoot crew with a video camera running a few feet away, mind you) and, after a while, his eyes got used to the sensation (i.e., stopped burning as much), at which point he says, "my eyes are getting used to it." That has no implications other than for that particular photo shoot at that point in time. To extrapolate from this incident that he *must* be a habitual Vicks user is really just a sad commentary in your reasoning skills.

    His crying jags on TV may be phony. As he says, he's, first, an entertainer and emotions are a huge part of entertainment. What should be the basis of judgment here is whether the content he presents is of value...not the method or the means in which he presents it. Focusing on the validity of his tears is a distraction.
  • pakaal
    "I guess my eyes are getting used to it."

    Wow, kinda makes you wonder how often he does this, and conversely, if he ever cries real tears.
  • RadicalCaveman
    Everybody seems to be missing the main point here.

    Just past 25 seconds into the video, he says, "My eyes are getting used to it." This dwarfs the impact of what the video actually shows.

    In other words, HE ADMITS THAT HE DOES THIS ALL THE TIME. Of course, we don't know in what settings. But it seems unlikely he would think his eyes would be "getting used to" the Vicks, to the point where it didn't work as well anymore, if he just did it for photo shoots.

    This is beyond bizarre and should be publicized everywhere.
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