SiriusXM Pulls Beck Over Guest’s Trump Comments

Glenn Beck's SiriusXM program is off of the satellite radio operator for a week, and maybe longer, following comments made by a guest that "may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office."

That would be GOP nominee Donald Trump. On Beck's May 25 broadcast, author Brad Thor suggested that, given the "spineless Congress," there was no Constitutional way to remove him from office and suggested, saying he was thinking like a writer of political thrillers: "If Congress won’t remove him from office, what patriot will step up and do that if, if, he oversteps his mandate as president..."

Thor said it was a "terrible, terrible position the American people will be in to get Trump out of office because you won’t be able to do it through Congress." Beck said he agreed.

And that was enough for SiriusXM.

"SiriusXM encourages a diversity of discourse and opinion on our talk programs," SiriusXM said in a statement. "However, comments recently made by a guest on the independently produced Glenn Beck Program, in our judgment, may be reasonably construed by some to have been advocating harm against an individual currently running for office, which we cannot and will not condone. For that reason, we have suspended The Glenn Beck Program from our Patriot channel for the coming week and are evaluating its place in our lineup going forward. SiriusXM is committed to a spirited, robust, yet responsible political conversation and believes this action reflects those values."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.