Beck Returns to Air, Does Not Address Advertiser Fallout over Obama Remarks

Talk show host Glenn Beck returned to the air Monday, but did not address the advertiser boycott that began after he called President Barack Obama a racist.
Beck, who had been away on a planned vacation, didn't shy away from making other controversial statements upon his return, however. Launching a weeklong series called "The New Republic: America's Future," Beck opened the show by encouraging viewers to tell their friends to watch his show with a pen and paper because he was going to ask "reasonable questions for unreasonable times."

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Beck accused the Obama administration of planning to "spend its way out of debt," and asked why it was considered "hateful" to expect legislators to read massive 1,000-page bills about healthcare before passing them.Glenn Beck Programreturned with 36 fewer advertisers, according to ColorofChange.org, the group leading the boycott against Beck's show. But some companies are going further than just pulling ads from Beck's show. Clorox, for example, said in a statement to Politico that the company doesn't want to be "associated with inflammatory speech used by either liberal or conservative talk show hosts."

DefendGlenn.com, a website supporting Beck, said Wal-Mart wasn't simply pulling ads from Beck's program, but "all cable news talk shows."
TVGuide.com's calls to a Wal-Mart spokesperson were not immediately returned.
The boycott began shortly after Beck called Obama a racist with a "deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture" during an appearance on Fox & Friends.