KING HOLDS COURT AT TV CRITICS CONVENTION.

Byline: David Kronke Television Critic

The Television Critics Association's semiannual press tour kicked off in Pasadena Tuesday with CNN trotting out its most venerable institution and its most recent controversial firebrand.

Larry King was on hand to reflect upon his lengthy career and promote a late-April ``King-Size Week'' on CNN, while CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck tried to prove he's not the contentiously reactionary guy who said to incoming Minnesota congressman and practicing Muslim Keith Ellison, ``What I feel like saying is, `Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.' ''

``Quite possibly the poorest-worded question of all time,'' Beck conceded of his opening salvo to Ellison. ``That might come from my lack of intelligence.''

Beck has also said, of the victims of Hurricane Katrina,

``I didn't think I could hate victims faster than the 9/11 victims,'' and expressed surprise that former President Jimmy Carter did not attend Iran's December conference on Holocaust denial.

In person, however, Beck seemed sane, even affable. ``When they approached me about doing TV, I first said no,'' he said. ``I said, `Have you watched cable news lately? Everyone puts a Republican in this box and a Democrat in that box, and I'm not Kreskin but I know what this guy is going to say and what that guy is going to say, and they're going to yell at each other. And who wants to watch this stuff?' People are not stupid; They can spot b.s. a million miles away.

``Real people, if you sit around and watch your family, they'll laugh, they'll cry, they'll argue, and they'll try to have a real, philosophical debate -- that's what I try to bring to my show,'' he added. ``I'm a three- dimensional person, whether you like it or not.

And that's what attracts viewers, that I'm honest. That doesn't mean you like the opinion, but on my show you clearly get that it is my opinion. I am not a journalist. I even say, `I may be wrong on this.' ''

Beck even decried divisiveness. ``We have to stop dividing ourselves,'' he said. ``Republicans are trying to paint everyone on the left as a Hollywood nut job and that's not true. A lot of people disagree with each other but don't want to put one another in separate camps.''

It was also announced Tuesday that Beck will join ABC's ``Good Morning America'' as a regular commentator.

`King-Size Week'

Meanwhile, King revealed plans for the ``King-Size Week'' of April 16-22: Guests will include Oprah Winfrey and perhaps Angelina Jolie and Bill Clinton, and on Friday, the tables will be turned: CBS News anchor Katie Couric will host the show and interview King. CNN will also air a roast of King hosted by Bill Maher.

King admitted that his show has become more celebrity-driven and less news-oriented over the years.

``Yes, it's a delicate balance,'' he said. ``It's a dilemma for anyone in the business: what are people interested in, as opposed to what's truly important. The terrible situation in the Sudan is more important than the Laci Peterson murder. But what people are interested in is what we'll cover. Celebrities come and go. Stories appear one day and are gone the next.''

King somewhat drolly recalled the uncertainty the night last month that Saddam Hussein was executed. ``You're at one minute to go -- do you want him to be (hanged) on your time? Let Anderson (Cooper) have him.

On Saddam's execution

``Some people wrote that I was `visibly disappointed' that it didn't happen on my watch,'' he added. ``That was not true. I don't need to wait around for someone to get killed.''

King also remembered the evening of his first telecast on CNN in 1985, after Ted Turner, a frequent guest on his radio show, asked him to join his nascent network. King, unsure whether he would enjoy TV, agreed to try the show for a year. ``I had never seen CNN because CNN wasn't available in Washington,''

King reminisced. ``Maria Cuomo was the guest that night. I knew that first night that I loved the show.''

And asked a question about audience demographics -- news programming is aimed at viewers aged 25-54 -- the 73-year-old King wryly noted, ``Technically, what you're saying is I don't appeal to myself.''

David Kronke, [phone]

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CNN's Glenn Beck will join ABC's "Good Morning America" as a commentator.

Mike Mergen/Associated Press