Glenn Beck: I'm Always on Verge of Collapse

Glenn Beck gets the cover treatment in this Sunday's New York Times magazine in a lengthy profile by Mark Leibovich. Some quick highlights:

• In the flesh: "Beck is sheepish and approachable, betraying none of the grandiosity or bluster you might expect," Leibovich writes. Later: "Beck fashions himself a kind of self-teaching populist for the Internet age."
• On the Tea Party: "Not involved," Beck says. "I stand with the Tea Party as long as they stand for certain principles and values."
• On his boozing: "I said to someone the other day, 'I am as close today to a complete and total collapse as I was on the first day of recovery.'" He refers to himself as a "recovering dirtbag."

• Tension at Fox: Leibovich says Fox News chief Roger Ailes "has been vocal about how Beck does not fully appreciate the degree to which Fox News has made him the sensation he has become." Other staffers reacted to the mention of Beck's name with "either a sigh or an eye roll."
• Ratings: Beck's are down from 2.8 million viewers a night in 2008 to 2.1 million, and many advertisers want no part of him. "Beck's show is known in the TV sales world as 'empty calories,' meaning he draws great ratings but is toxic for ad sales," Leibovich writes.

The full profile is here. More coverage here.
(More Glenn Beck stories.)