The reason Glenn Beck connects with his audience is not just his bulldog attitudes but that he blurts them out without editing. But when asked by Katie Couric to define what he meant by the term “white culture,” Beck had no choice but to shimmy all over the place.

If I were Beck in that moment I would have tried humorous deflection by referring Couric to a 1972 National Lampoon article called “Our White Heritage,” by Henry Beard, Michael O’Donoghue and George W. S. Trow. It appeared in issue #30.

Beck: “I’m not going to get into your sound byte gotcha game, which we already are. We already are.”

Katie: “No, actually, this is completely unedited, so if you felt like you wanted to explain it, you have all the time in the world.”

Beck: “Uhm-hmm.”

Katie: “No? Don’t want to go there? But basically, you stand behind your assertion, that in your view, President Obama is a racist?”

Beck: “I believe that Americans should ask themselves tough, tough questions. Americans should turn over all the rocks, and make their own decisions.”