It's the eyes! The eyes!
I'm not sure what Fox News thought it was getting when it hired Glenn Beck away from CNN, but what they're getting is one serious train wreck of some of the most gobsmackingly weird and embarrassingly maudlin on-air performances in major-network history. Considering that we're talking about Fox here, that's saying something.
On Monday for one of his monologue segments Beck had the camera zoom in on his eyes so people could see them, while another camera kept his headshot in view. It was obvious what they were trying to achieve: Look into his eyes and see his earnest sincerity and you know he's a guy just like you and me and isn't that swell and make you feel better, and doesn't he make sense even when he talks complete lunacy?
Or something like that.
Me, I saw a glassy-eyed fanatic. And I expect a lot of people did. One viewer wrote in to say it looked "creepy" -- and so Beck confessed Tuesday (in the closing segment of the above video) that these shots were his idea. And he goes on to explain why: It's because, gwarsh, we all just need to look each other in the eye.
Which is, of course, as phony as can possibly be, because Glenn Beck isn't looking into anyone's eye when he stares into that camera. He's just pretending to himself that he is. Sort of like how he pretends to himself he can connect with people through their TV sets.
It's all just too weird for me. The crying thing was bad enough, but this kind of stuff is downright creepy indeed.
Oh, and for good measure, he cried again for us yesterday too:
I'm no psychiatrist, but I definitely want to stand on the other side of the elevator from that guy.
