Glenn Beck has apparently realized that for years he's been one of the most politically polarizing figures in the nation.
This week Beck has admitted although he regrets the way that some of his incendiary opinions have caused division in the country over the last several years, he's still right about them.
It was his tone, not his content, that he sometimes regrets he says.
Claiming that he wasn't aware his his comments like President Barack Obama having 'a deep-seated hatred for white people' could have ended with people 'at each other's throats,' Beck said he was puzzled by activists who go on to organize boycotts of people who say things they disagree with.
Beck's show on Fox News Channel finally ended in 2011 after an advertiser boycott inspired by his eye-popping but as yet unsubstantiated racial comments.
'For any role that I have played in dividing, I wish I can take them back,' Beck, 49, said this week. 'I don't wish I could take back the truth that was spoken but perhaps — not perhaps — many times I could have said it differently.'
Although he sounded regretful Beck failed to offer any particular incidents.
According to ABC News, Beck is hoping to persuade cable and satellite operators to begin telecasting TheBlaze, his homegrown online opinion and entertainment network, started after he left Fox News.
Angelo Carusone, a vice president at the liberal media advocacy group Media Matters, said Beck's non-apology didn't surprise him.
'Beck's entire history is a series of booms, busts and rebirths,' he said. Beck needs to repair his brand in business circles to support his ventures and the cable distribution, Carusone said.
'Brand repair doesn't happen immediately. It's a process. Beck knows that. This soft contrition seemed like an attempt to advance that slow process. I'm not sure this will be effective, though, given that his approach hasn't really changed.'
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