DALLAS — “The Glenn Beck Program” aired a segment Friday promoting the faith-based anti-porn surveillance software Covenant Eyes and editorializing on recent news that the current speaker of the house, Republican Mike Johnson, is a user and subscriber.
The 15-minute segment featured a conversation between guest host Justin Barclay and Covenant Eyes CEO Ron DeHaas.
DeHaas is also a board member of NCOSE, the powerful, religiously-inspired lobby formerly known as Morality in Media, which has as its mission the eradication of all pornography. According to NCOSE’s definition, pornography encompasses anything from Cosmopolitan and Sports Illustrated magazines to all adult content online.
Barclay prefaced the interview with editorializing comments from mainstream outlets, including Rolling Stone magazine, which characterized as unusual Johnson’s admission that he and his teenage son use Covenant Eyes to monitor each other’s internet usage to avoid pornography.
“I don’t mind being called crazy when ‘normal’ is so evil, when it’s so wrong,” Barclay commented. “I don’t mind being called a little nutty. I don’t want to be normal. And neither does ‘MAGA Mike’ Johnson, apparently.”
DeHaas — who promotes what he calls his “accountability software” from an office park in Owosso, Michigan, located in the economically ravaged expanse between Flint and Lansing — told the “Glenn Beck Program” audience that the media has been misreporting “the true story.”
“The true story is: Mike Johnson is a good father,” he told Barclay. “And you’re right — people have taken that and turned it around to evil, like that’s an evil thing, being a good father is a bad thing.”
Speaker Johnson's 'Advertisement' for Covenant Eyes
According to De Haas, Johnson’s recently resurfaced remarks endorsing Covenant Eyes, made during a panel at a Baptist Church gathering a year ago, essentially constitute “an advertisement” for the for-profit anti-porn service.
“He talked about Covenant Eyes’ accountability and how well it works, and how he used Covenant Eyes successfully to help teach his son to stay away from pornography,” DeHaas explained.
“Mike Johnson, a good father, had a desire to discourage his son from getting trapped by pornography,” DeHaas stated. “And not only that, he sets an example for his son by holding himself accountable with his son — mutual accountability. So the real story is ‘Mike Johnson is a good father.’ We could use more good fathers who are active and engaged in parenting, and we ought to salute him.”
DeHaas went on to make sweeping claims about adult content, without providing sources.
“You know,” he told Barclay, “we have to face the fact that virtually everybody now — there are a few exceptions that I’ve come across — but virtually everybody has been tempted by porn on the internet. The statistics show that upwards of 70% of men, and upwards of 50% of women actually have an ongoing struggle with it.”
DeHaas claimed that he has “corresponded with hundreds of teens and young adults who have struggled with porn since they were younger than 13. And these are kids that come from good homes. Their parents really are shocked to find this out.”
Although religious conservatives like DeHaas have consistently opposed attempts to implement science-based sex education in U.S. schools, the faith-based entrepreneur complained that porn has effectively become “the sex education of our young people.”
“It is training the boys, ‘This is how you treat girls’ and it’s teaching the girls, ‘This is how you get treated,’” DeHaas stated, framing the issue in a way that ignores the existence of LGBTQ+ people and content — a common, deliberate act of erasure among NCOSE and other anti-porn activists.
Porn as the Devil’s Work
The segment also included a bizarre, innuendo-filled aside in which DeHaas attempted to link the existence of online porn with “the growth of the erectile dysfunction industry.”
“Two decades ago, the ads for the drugs were old men talking to old men,” the 74-year-old DeHaas shared. “Now you listen to the ads, it’s young men talking to young men. And so that’s the results.”
Barclay described the issue as “a battle for the soul of the nation,” arguing that pornography does “tremendous damage” to, or even prevents, relationships between men and women and likening this to something “the devil” might do.
DeHaas replied: “You know, you’re absolutely right. Pornography is damaging every relationship that you can think of. It’s your family, your friends, it impedes your work. It impedes whatever ministry you have.”
He added that 93% of Covenant Eyes members say they use the app “to improve their relationship with God,” which they believe porn has damaged.
The segment ended with a full promotional plug for Covenant Eyes, without disclosing whether “The Glenn Beck Program” had been compensated for this infomercial-like news segment.
