Updated: 12/18/09 8:50 AM EST
Glenn Beck has no apologies for promoting gold – and no time for the criticism he’s gotten for it.
Glenn Beck has no apologies for promoting gold – and no time for the criticism he’s gotten for it.
But Beck recently took to his website to mock critics who questioned whether it was proper for him to tout gold investments as a hedge against an economic collapse he often predicts on the air, while a handful of gold coin retailers pay to advertise on his shows on Fox News and AM radio.
“I have a statement to make about the recent allegations by the liberal blogs that – quote – Glenn Beck promotes gold to audience, while profiting from gold investment firms,” Beck said in 4-minute clip posted on his website Friday evening.
“Yes. Yes, it’s true,” he said, pretending to choke up and explaining that “like Tiger Woods, I’m not a perfect person, starting with my chins. I’ve got – I don’t know – seven of them. My hairline is thinning. I’m a little overweight.”
Scrunching his face into a mask of mock puzzlement, he said “the accusations that I actually purchase one of the products I endorse may be shocking to some.” He said he’s turned down or terminated endorsement deals “because I didn’t believe in them” and proclaimed, tongue-firmly-planted-in-check that he’d been trying to keep his arrangement with Goldline a “secret.”
“But I guess it was only a matter of time before people started to catch on, what with the daily advertisements and my firm belief that the dollar is in rough shape and people should protect themselves, and me being on the Internet and the radio and television all the time saying this.”
Beck facetiously said he “didn't know that by me suggesting to you to buy gold through a fine establishment like Goldline.com – 866-Goldline – that the global price of this trillion-dollar industry – global industry – would actually start to wildly fluctuate, because of me.”
Beck endorses Goldline International, but last week, Fox requested that he clarify his relationship with the firm, prompting it to tweak its trumpeting of Beck’s endorsement. Goldline removed an identification of Beck as a “paid spokesman” from its website, but left the rest of the site – which prominently features his endorsement, photo and a radio interview he did with the company’s president Mark Albarian – intact.
Removal of the “paid spokesman” language from Goldline’s site brought his arrangement with the company in line with a network policy prohibiting “on-air talent from endorsing products or serving as a product spokesperson,” according to Joel Cheatwood, a Fox News executive.
“We asked for clarification. We got it. We’re satisfied. It’s a dead issue,” he told POLITICO. read more>>
