UPDATE: Team Beck responds to The Weekly Standard's “embarrassing” article, calls for boycott

Stu Burguiere, Glenn Beck's radio producer and co-host, has responded to Matthew Continetti's Weekly Standard article slamming Beck's warped historical perspective. And as you would expect, Stu wrapped The Weekly Standard into the growing conspiracy to take down Glenn Beck, and even called for a boycott of the neocon weekly.

This, of course, is a slightly awkward situation, and not just because you have two conservatives at each others' throats -- Team Beck is biting a hand that feeds them. The Weekly Standard is one of Beck's loyal sponsors, and has stuck with him throughout the advertiser boycott. Now Beck's producer is telling his listeners not to buy their product:

Look, we usually love The Weekly Standard. They are typically an extremely useful and important source of analysis (I think?). But, this is horrible. It's a hit piece barely worthy of Media Matters, and I'd rate it as impossible that the author doesn't know it.

The piece is filled with so many discredited attacks and poorly researched nonsense (the list is just one small example) that you might think it is just laziness. But it's worse than that. It's intentionally misleading. It's a collection of lies they are proud of. They put it on the cover. I mean, it's enough to doubt anything they print.

I don't understand the motivation, but luckily their circulation is so impossibly small that Glenn reaches more people in 11 seconds on the air than they do in 6 months. Oh, but how will we compete with those creative cartoons on the cover!!! So innovative for 1962!

Truly embarrassing work.

You can cancel your subscription by calling 1-800-274-7293. When you're done...might I suggest another option.

If I were at the Standard, I'd be a little piqued at having laid out all those advertising dollars.

As for the substance of the response, Stu didn't care to elaborate much on which of the attacks were “discredited” or “poorly researched.” Given that much of what Continetti wrote was drawn from Beck's own words and his well-established connections to the hyper-paranoid world of 1960s anti-communist extremism, it's hard to figure out how he could have mounted an effective defense, which is why he retreated to boasting about his boss' ratings.

When you look back at the past few months -- what with the advertiser hemorrhage, the disastrous Eric Massa interview, the softening ratings, and harsh criticism coming from a pillar of American conservatism -- you get the sense that Beck's shtick is starting to wear pretty thin. As more people get fed up with his antics, expect more childish outbursts like this.