Fox News Polls Glenn Beck’s Fear That ‘The Whole U.S. Economic System Could Breakdown’

By Matt Corley

On the November 23, 2009, the New York Times published an article warning about the “wave of debt payments facing the U.S. government.” Later that day, on his Fox News show, Glenn Beck used the article as a jumping off point to discuss “the three scenarios that we could be facing: recession, depression, or collapse.” In the case of potential “collapse,” Beck recommended his audience follow “the 3G system” of “God, gold and guns.” Watch it:

The “3G” show was hardly the only time Beck warned of total breakdown of the U.S. economy. On June 5, 2009 Beck declared that “if we don’t come to some common sense, we’re facing the destruction of our country.” Weeks later, he predicted that “we’re all going to be living under a bridge soon, fending off bums with a bear bottle.”

Now, it appears that Beck’s employer is taking his fearmongering seriously. On Friday, Fox News released a poll in which it asked respondents if they’ve taken particular actions “out of concern the whole U.S. economic system could breakdown.” The public, it seems, has largely ignored Beck’s advice:

Unfortunately, the Fox poll did not ask whether the gold and gun-buying respondents watch Beck’s show. As ThinkProgress has previously noted, though Beck’s often combines economic fearmongering with gold advocacy, he rarely mentions that he receives financial support from gold companies.