Glenn Beck: I'd Rather Emulate Walt Disney than Edward R. Murrow, Rush Limbaugh

Glenn Beck said he would rather be Walt Disney than Edward R. Murrow or Rush Limbaugh.

In an interview on CNN’s Reliable Sources, Beck said he would rather focus on cultural issues than become more like the conservative icon Limbaugh or the esteemed newsman Murrow.

“I’m not headed towards Edward R. Murrow. I’m headed towards Walt Disney,” Beck said. He said Disney “affected our culture in a positive way,” and he has wanted to be like him since he was a kid:

… Disney was an innovator on everything. We went to space because of Walt Disney. You know, Walt Disney brought his animator that did “The Seven Dwarves” and said, I have got this Nazi scientist that I need you to meet, Wernher von Braun.

And the year is 1954 or ’55. And he said, he thinks we can put a man in space. I want you to tell that story. In 1955, just before he opens the park, he does – and he starts his TV show, “Disneyland.” He has a special called “Man in Space.”

Host Brian Stelter asked Beck, though, about the perception that his network was too dependent on Beck’s personality and how that could limit his brand’s appeal. Stelter, who is also a media reporter, said one of the top “distribution executives, one of these big companies, said to me, the reason why we’re reluctant to pick up TheBlaze is because what happens if – forgive me this – what happens if Beck gets hit by a bus?”

“They’re basically saying, there’s no other must-see TV on the channel,” Stelter said.

Beck conceded he was aware of the problem, and “that’s why we changed it from GBTV. I was against GBTV at the very beginning and wanted it to be TheBlaze. And it’s not about me.”