After embracing Beck for years, the right wing is continuing to attempt to marginalize the monster they created with yet another assist from the “liberal media.”
Let’s not forget- back just two years ago when CPAC was sufficiently conservative and not a bunch of liberal homo loving pansies or sharia loving Muslim infiltrators, depending on your brand of wingnut lunacy, Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker. And his psychobabble was wildly applauded.
geg6
Heh. Seems like the FPers are having a mind meld.
Just Some Fuckhead
John can’t be bothered to read his blog.
MikeJ
Cole does approach it from a slightly different angle. As Beck’s popularity decreases, people may need to be reminded of what mainstream right wingers thought of him not that long ago.
The Ancient Randonneur (formerly known as The Grand Panjandrum)
@Just Some Fuckhead: He’s spending a lot of time crying about that mean ol’ Rosie.
gnomedad
Haha, post title WIN!
RossInDetroit
This is what happens to firebrands. They flare bright for a while and when they run out of fuel they go dark.
Tom65
This will not end well. I see a compound in Montana, gold hoarding, and an upside-down US flag in his future.
Martin
They’re only dumping him because he’s going to fuck up the GOP primaries and guarantee the GOP loses in 2012. If not for that, they’d be raising his salary – they still love the guy.
Zifnab
@gnomedad: Honestly, I thought he was talking about Huckabee at first.
BC
Yeah, but they’ll just get a different color of crazy to replace him.
Tone in DC
Beck’s (nearly) toast?
Very cool. Maybe the morbidly obese Oxycontin bandit is next.
justawriter
@Tom65: I don’t think so. I think Fox will have him assassinated by a rival news program as Lee Richardson intones solemnly, “the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.”
Every time I watch Network it gets creepier and creepier because it is becoming ever closer to being a documentary.
azlib
I read the New York Times piece on Beck. The piece treated him as just another celebrity without any reference to his clearly insane rantings. It is truly sad when the newspaper of record does not even state the truth that Beck is either crazy or just another carnival huckster. Why he deserved such a softball piece in the NYT’s shows how low our media has sunk.
Steve
Beck is not going anywhere. This is just a ploy by Fox for contract leverage, because they don’t want Beck to take them to the cleaners.
CaseyL
I’d be a little worried if they cut him loose. The man’s certifiable, and his forum on Fox – as a regular outlet for his paranoia – might be all that keeps him from from being a danger to himself and others.
Not that Fox would care; in fact, if he did have a violent meltdown, they’d likely milk it for ratings.
danimal
@BC: Yep. It’s a presidential primary year coming up. Don’t waste the crazy on TV.
Bachmann 2012!
Yeeeeeehawwwww!
John Cole
Feh- when I started the post, there was nothing up. Went to deal with RL shit, came back, posted it, and Anne had already posted about it.
MattF
I suppose it’s possible that Beck will have a no-kidding meltdown– he’s an actor, after all, and actors are not paradigms of stability. But if it involves vaseline and plug-in apparatus, I don’t want to know.
Chris
I’ve heard from someone who saw him on TV in the early 2,000s (back when he was obscure) that Glenn Beck was on the “9/11 was a coverup” bandwagon for a little while in these days. Anyone know if it’s true?
It seems like Beck’s a generic conspiracy nut who channeled his conspiracism in GOP-friendly terms when he found out that was where the money was. So the line in the article that “Mr. Beck has always marched to his own idiosyncratic music” is probably true to some extent and a big part of the problem.
Chris
@Steve:
Ah, that would make a lot of sense. Because even if his ratings are dropping, the hardcore that loves him will is the same hard core that powers the Tea Party Movement. Certainly NewsCorp can’t afford to risk going the way of CPAC.
Baud
@Martin: Exactly what I was going to say.
Violet
I appreciate the reminder that Beck was the keynote speaker at CPAC not too long ago. I’d forgotten about that.
I agree it’s just a ploy by Fox ahead of contract negotiations. His ratings may not be that good, but they’re better than the competition, right? Maybe they’ll ask him to tone it down a tad or amp up the lighter bits, but he’s not going anywhere.
Ryan S
Could it be true… Is it possible that just maybe, maybe. We’ve reached PEAK WINGNUT…(DUNN, Dunn, dunnnnn).
mclaren
And before that, Ann Coulter was the flavor of the month. Fortunately she’s vanished into the cesspool whence she arose…but the Republican party seems to have an infinite supply of these monsters. Conservatism has become the political equivalent of thalidomide.
The Moar You Know
Repeat what I said on the last thread: Bullshit. I read this drivel yesterday. I’m sorry, but TV does not work this way.
When this is the case:
you don’t lose your time slot. Beck will be on Fox well past 2012. You can count on it. You can also count on him supporting anyone that the GOP puts forward to be their knight in shining armor, because Beck knows who signs his very large paychecks.
The Times article is ludicrous wishful thinking.
Now, you may be thinking – the guy is a money loser, no advertiser will touch him. So why’s he not going anywhere? Simple. To Fox – this part of Fox – money is irrelevant. They make plenty of money off the entertainment arm to afford Beck for 20 million years. Mindshare is everything, and Beck still has that.
When they move him to 11pm, call me (Star Trek fans will get the reference). Then and only then will I believe that they have plans to get rid of him.
zmulls
The comment above is right, we’ll just get more Rush instead.
Michael Smerconish moved to afternoons here in Philly — I’ve listened to him for a long time. I ticked by the new morning host and an announcer was saying that the “Rush Morning Update” will be returning.
Which made me realize — all this time there was a “Rush Morning Update” that I (thankfully!!!) wasn’t hearing. And probably because Smerconish realized it had no place in the middle of his show. I’m betting he quietly had it scotched at the station (without overtly critizing another host).
Keith G
@The Moar You Know: I would bet that you are correct, sir. By now one would hope that our side would be done with magical thinking.
soonergrunt
@azlib: I want softballs thrown to Beck. For at least the next 18 months, anyway. I want his brand of balls-out crazy to be the standard in the Republican party. I want for the sane middle (or whatever the hell they’re called) to look at the right wingers and go “holy shit, these guys are paste-eating stupid and crazier than outhouse rats!”
Ash Can
I just posted a bunch of long-winded drivel on the last thread, so I’ll just summarize here: I think there’s a lot to the argument that Fox would like to soft-peddle the out-and-out lunacy going into the presidential campaign, and get all of its on-air personalities on board with whichever candidate the network ends up backing. However, the argument that this is just a contract negotiating ploy makes a lot of sense too. And I don’t think these two factors are mutually exclusive.
Punchy
I believe exactly the opposite. I beleive its all a show, and he’s seen the correlation between whackjob broadcasts and the meteoric rise in viewers, at least until recently. Ergo, the insane persona. Away from the camera and reporters and anyone who could blow his ruse, I’m guessing he doesn’t really believe 93.7% of the shit he spews.
Comrade Mary
I’m going through a serious bout of one-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand …
1) How much do ratings matter to Fox?
If ratings = dollars, then those cheapass Moneyline ads probably aren’t bringing in as much cash as someone with a smaller audience but more prestigious advertisers.
If ratings = bragging rights, Beck might be safe now because he’s still number 1, but if he slips any further, he’s toast.
2) How much does playing nice and staying on message matter to Fox?
If Beck brings in the TPers without conflicting with Fox’s overall goals, such as supporting the right candidate, then he’s a in a good spot.
But if they really can’t trust him to play nice, and if messaging trumps profits, the ad revenue is irrelevant. If he can’t be controlled, they have to dump him.
And if he’s not on message AND he’s losing them money as well, then that’s when Beck slips on the red shirt and takes what’s coming to him.
Sloegin
It took Charlie Sheen making more sense than Glenn Beck for Fox to sit up and realize that he’s dragging down their brand and diluting their product line.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Oh please:
Excuse me if I don’t take rest of the words surrounding this paragraph seriously.
Chris
I think Beck will go the way of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson: start out as a giant of conservative agitprop and slowly, imperceptibly go out of fashion as his viewership diminishes, the public tires of him, he makes more and more gaffes, and other, fresh spokesmen pop up to attract the attention of the conservative base. But anything as brutal as actually firing him, especially right now when (as many have pointed out) he’s still very popular with the base, that’s probably out.
@Comrade Mary:
As for how much ratings matter to NewsCorp, I don’t know, but I recall reading that Murdoch was operating various newspapers around the nation who’ve been losing money for years, just to make sure the message gets out. So, probably “playing nice and staying on message” does carry more weight.
Just Some Fuckhead
How will I know when to buy gold if Beck gets shitcanned? Does he have a newsletter?
Keith G
Speaking of folks being put in their place(s), Bill Daily seems to showing the old Obama team how its done:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_03/028307.php
MikeJ
@The Moar You Know: Tell that to Phil Donahue.
agrippa
Beck is not going anywhere. He has an audience that is very important to Fox/Murdoch. Murdoch wants to keep that demographic for political and economic reasons.
I doubt if Murdoch is troubled by this criticism of Beck. It helps his political bottom line, and does not harm his economic bottom line.
Murdoch is very savvy.
Montysano
@justawriter:
I’ve inflicted “Network” on several friends lately, and they hated me for ruining their weekend. Network is beyond documentary now; it’s actually quaint compared to the reality that we’re living.
None the less, the Finch “Mad Prophet of the Airwaves” monologue and Ned Beatty’s “Primal forces of nature” rant are positively eerie (in addition to be being some of the finest moments of American cinema).
The Tim Channel
@Martin:
Nuff said.
Enjoy.
The Tim Channel
@Sloegin: Possible FTW material.
Enjoy.
Benjamin Cisco
@Comrade Mary: __
I see what you did there.
The Tim Channel
@MikeJ: Donahue is an excellent example that being popular, and making the network a profit is SECONDARY to carrying water for the corporate message/goals.
Beck isn’t really ‘rich’ is he? Sure he has millions, but what’s that worth these days? Not much in the circle of UBERwealthy people who pull his strings. That’s for sure.
Beck is smart enough to know that he is nothing but a highly paid water boy for the powers that be. Somebody mentioned that even Beck probably doesn’t believe half (or more) of the crap he spouts on his show. Of that I’m sure. He’s also smart enough to know that as wealthy as he is these days, it’s an illusory wealth (and status) that could be pulled out from under him faster than you could cancel the rest of the season of the highest rated sitcom of our era.
Enjoy.
Corner Stone
@Keith G: Is it too meta that an ad for Goldline pops up at Benen’s site you link to?
El Cid
They all loved Bush Jr. and the Iraq invasion and occupation and shrieked and called you a bin-Laden-loving traitor (or fifth columnist by everyone’s favorite Tory) until the poll numbers went way too far down.
Then suddenly they had never really been happy with George W. Bush’s policies and he was really more of a liberal and he didn’t run Iraq very well.
sukabi
weird article… Beck’s behavior is understandable… he’s in the middle of a looooooong mental breakdown… my bet is he’s highly bi-polar with strong overtones of paranoia and sociopathic megalomania
El Cid
They all loved Bush Jr. and the Iraq invasion and occupation and shrieked and called you a bin-Laden-loving traitor (or fifth columnist by everyone’s favorite Tory) if you dissented agains his majesty and his perfect America-restoring fellow Republicans — until the poll numbers went way too far down.
Then suddenly they had never really been happy with George W. Bush’s policies and he was really more of a liberal and he didn’t run Iraq very well.
The Tim Channel
@agrippa: You say this Fox operative is ‘saavy’. Might he be saavy enough to throw Beck under the bus for what amounts (for the big boys) to chump change, in order to garner an illusion of some pre-election ‘fair and balanced’ creed? What’s the worst that could happen? Fox could lose a little income. Beck could rail at Fox from a new (less prominent) position. Big freakin’ deal.
Beck won’t suddenly have a “road to Damascus” moment and change political stripes, even if he’s pushed to a different microphone. He’s entirely dependent on the Teatard party. Beck’s stock is now hitched so solidly to the Sansabelt crowd, that you can track the magnitude of his projected success/failure by watching the futures market on assisted mobility scooters.
Enjoy.
Chris
@El Cid:
Time for a line from Rolling Stone magazine:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/matt-taibbi-on-the-tea-party-20100928?page=1
JWL
As witnessed by FOX recently cutting ties with Gingrich and Santorum, the republican party establishment is now in the process of opening the cage doors, and shooing its more notorious birdbrains from their perches. They’ve served their purpose, and it’s time to begin gearing-up to re-take the White House.
El Cid
@Chris: I know, I know.
However, I haven’t personally encountered someone to have claimed that they were ‘protesting,’ unless by ‘protesting’ they meant that they crossed that astoundingly brave barrier to not be happy with Bush Jr’s policies, and to grumble about it with their friends.
Given that this is akin to blasphemy among Republicans and ‘conservatives’, they probably count this as brave protest.
Maude
@El Cid:
Exactly.
Beck is like a Jimmy Swaggart.
The Moar You Know
@JWL: An interesting problem for the GOP: Bachmann. She’s not a Fox employee, but is actually in Congress, and obviously cannot be controlled easily. How are they going to fit a leash on her?
The Tim Channel
@El Cid: Whatever bad things they might infer towards Bush in order to distance themselves from their complicity with him, you never hear them complain about his war crimes, because of that very same complicity.
They didn’t complain about torture when it was being illegally done to foreigners in a strategy designed not to find the imaginary WMD’s they knew didn’t exist, but to elicit false confessions for Fox News (et.al.) to broadcast as justification for their illegal aggressions.
Now Obama is torturing an American (Bradley Manning) citizen on American soil using American military personnel to do it. But I’m just a know nothing DFH, not somebody as accomplished as Obama or Bush, and certainly not a candidate for a Nobel peace prize.
Manning is not some evil genius. He’s not the devil in disguise. From what I can tell, he’s a sensitive gay male who had his consciousness shaken by the cognitive dissonance of the situation he found himself in. He then decided to try to correct it by the only means available to him. The military ought to be worried that there will be many more Bradley Mannings in the days and weeks to follow, because scattered among the troops are young people with enough moral grounding that at least one or two are likely to feel at least a little guilt when they push that switch in Utah that kills the dozen young boys collecting firewood halfway around the world in some God forsaken corner of the globe they really don’t give a rat’s ass about in the first place.
See you in Wiscairo.
Enjoy.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Fox has the kind of viewers that sit in front of their tee vee all damn day. Just because Fox can’t sell ad space to Bud and Chevy during the Beck show, you know that the Fox ad dept will make those advertisers understand that they are still reaching those viewers in different time slots.
The tee-vee-all-damn-day demo is coveted by advertisers who want to hammer their message over and over again. This is an element in the technique of “branding.” You could call it brainwashing too.
El Cid
@The Tim Channel:
They did not complain about Bush Jr’s war crimes because they do not believe that the US has ever had policies that could be described as war crimes.
At most every now and then, in this view, a particular military member goes wild, but such accusations are probably the result of liberals who are stirring up hate against the military.
What I emphasize that they criticize about the Iraq invasion and occupation can occasionally involve blase complaints about WMD lies, but overwhelmingly it’s about it not being run well.
Until, that is, right after the “Iraq Study Group” report and the election of Democrats in 2006, when Bush Jr. and Democrats and journalists launched THE SURGE (HALLOWED BE ITS NAME, AND OF ITS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON DAVID ANTONIUS GAIUS JULIUS CAESAR PETRAEUS) which fixed everything in Iraq and showed that we now know how to run an occupation.
El Cid
@Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel): It’s playing on pretty much any store TV I go to. I live in Georgia, so if you try that cute thing about telling them you prefer they changed the channel or won’t return unless they change the channel, most of the time you’re pissing in the wind. Not always.
Chris
@El Cid:
Which of course is still a point against them. The reason it “wasn’t run well” was because the entire thing was run in-house by the ideologically circumcised Cheney/Rumsfeld neocon clique, with anyone outside of it either shoved aside or made to follow the party line.
(From what I’ve heard, Rumsfeld was furious with the amount of things in the Afghanistan campaign that weren’t under his direct control – CIA, State, foreign countries, the Northern Alliance and all – and planned the Iraq war to make sure that from day one, him and his clique at the Pentagon would be running every aspect of the show).
Things didn’t get better until Rummy was fired, Gates brought in, and they started listening to people based on whether they knew shit about the Middle East rather than what their standing in the GOP was. And the list of advisers the military listened to during the so-called “surge” phase would have had people screaming for blood just a year earlier. If I recall, Odierno’s special adviser, Emma Sky, was a British peacenik activist who’d furiously denounced the war from day one, but actually knew something about the Middle East (which no one in the neocon clique could boast). Pretty sure I saw a Palestinian activist somewhere in there too.
I rant, I know. Anyways, point is: the reason the Iraq war was badly run was because the people who ran it valued ideological purity over actual experience and knowledge. Lo and behold, that’s exactly what the Tea Party Movement’s about. Nothing’s changed.
Hob
On the “is Beck really crazy or is it an act” thing, I’m pretty sure it’s not all an act. Stuff like his obsession with “Cloward-Piven” and Skousen is way more idiosyncratic and obscure than necessary– there’s plenty of equally nutty but less dated material you could easily cull from the Interswamps if you just wanted to impersonate a wingnut. And the fate of “The Christmas Sweater” suggests that when Beck is trying to be canny and give
the people what they want– instead of just barfing up the products of his own paranoid trip, which happen to resonate with an unfortunate number of Americans– he’s not very good at it.
I could just barely imagine Beck as a brilliant burned-out lefty doing the ultimate nihilistic troll job– like the guy in A Hall of Mirrors (great novel, read it). But that would be less of an act and more of just a different kind of crazy.
catclub
@gnomedad: Nope,
the Boy who _Cried_ Kenyan S********* Usurper
catclub
@Hob: Was that about the Kid who was a HABs fan given a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey?
Svensker
@Chris:
Just wanted to see that again.
Socraticsilence
I think some people are making the same wrong assumption that Back is making- that Fox is run for the benefit of the GOP rather than simply to make money- sure Ailes would like to do both but if it comes right down to it, Fox News would take an Obama re-election and the attendant boost in ratings it would spark over canning Beck, et al in order to make the GOP seem reasonable.
Brandon
I think people are missing the point a little bit. Fox News, the network that browbeats reporters of other publications who even reprint mildly critical information about the network, its management and talent, has very calculatedly thrown one of its own under the bus in the New York Times of all places. It was so premeditated that the NYT writer had a week to watch his show for context about his story.
How and why does a network known for bullying tactics come to this end for the first time in its history? That is the key question. And clearly this horse head in the bed moment has not gone unnoticed by Beck or any other Fox employee.
skippy
@johncole: john, may i reespectfully suggest the title of this piece be changed to “the boy who cried kenyan socialist usurper”?
it took me a moment or two to get the literary reference.
The Tim Channel
@Brandon: I enjoyed your viewpoint, but tend to side with those who believe this is probably just a bargaining play by Fox, even as I fantasized myself that Fox might fire him just to appear more ‘fair and balanced’, I don’t think that’s really going to happen. Your conjecture on the broader Fox employee base, vis-a-vis a sideline slapdown of Beck’s slapdown keeping them all in check is still worth a second consideration.
Enjoy.