Image Credit: The Glenn Beck Program
Over 3,000 episodes of "The Glenn Beck Program" have been removed from Apple's distribution network, likely because of a too-large data feed pointing the service to the podcast.
On Wednesday, Beck took to X to ask Apple why his show had been removed from Apple Podcasts. He provided a screenshot that showed an email that read, "We found an issue with your show, The Glenn Beck Program, which must be resolved before it's available on Apple Podcasts."
In the same email, he was alerted that his show had been removed from Apple Podcasts until the problem was resolved.
So what's the "issue" @Apple?! pic.twitter.com/r111EXD8uS
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 16, 2023
Beck then asked his followers to contact Apple to demand that his podcast be reinstated.
Apple hasn't given an exact reason as to why Beck's podcast was removed. However, it's probable given the text of the removal email that it's a technical issue, and not a political one.
While Apple didn't explicitly say this, and should have, the issue appears to spawn from the podcast's significantly oversized RSS feed.
One Twitter user, Daniel J. Lewis, noted that the RSS feed for "The Glenn Beck Program" is more than 11 megabytes. Historically, Apple automatically flags RSS files that exceed 5MB. That 5MB warning was probably exceeded six years ago given the publication rate of the program.
In all likelihood, recent programs added to the RSS feed exceeded an auto-cutoff size, inducing the removal.
Hello! I'm not from @ApplePodcasts but I've been helping podcasters for years. And I think this is truly a technical problem, not censorship.
I see that your RSS feed is https://t.co/InthaIe4NI
That feed is more than 11 MB! That's so big I'm surprised it hasn't failed in Apple
— Daniel J. Lewis (@theDanielJLewis) August 16, 2023
Beck also noted that Apple didn't warn him that the program violated any of its content policies, and that his show didn't have any strikes against it. Other similar programs like Bill O'Reilly's show, and Charlie Kirk aren't impacted — and both have notably smaller RSS feeds.
Even in his initial video, Beck admits the removal is "probably just a glitch."
