Beck seeks to rally disaffected, aggrieved Americans

"There are absolutely historical precedents for what is happening with Beck," said Tom Rosenstiel, the director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "There was a lot of radio evangelism during the Depression. People were frustrated and frightened. There are a lot of scary parallels now."

The conservative writer David Frum said Beck's success "is a product of the collapse of conservatism as an organized political force, and the rise of conservatism as an alienated cultural sensibility."

"It's a show for people who feel they belong to an embattled minority that is disenfranchised and cut off," he said.

Sitting in his corner office overlooking Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan, Beck rejected such charges but acknowledged that some people see sinister meanings in his commentaries. He said the people "who are spreading the garbage that I'm stirring up a revolution haven't watched the show."

To answer his critics, Beck delivered a 17-minute commentary — remarkably long by cable standards — on March 23, answering criticisms, including one from Bill Maher that he was producing "the same kind of talking" that led Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

"Let me be clear," Beck said. "If someone tries to harm another person in the name of the Constitution or the 'truth' behind 9/11 or anything else, they are just as dangerous and crazy as those we don't seem to recognize anymore, who kill in the name of Allah."

When it was suggested in an interview that he sometimes sounds like a preacher, he responded, "No. You've never met a more flawed guy than me."

He added later: "I say on the air all time, 'If you take what I say as gospel, you're an idiot.' "