Patterico's Pontifications

4/6/2011

Beck Program Off the Air at Fox?

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 10:50 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.  Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]

Yeah, it looks pretty well confirmed, although it’s also out of the blue.  And this passage is intriguing:

In the statement on Wednesday, Mr. Beck said he would be starting a “new phase” of a partnership with Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News. “I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News,” he said.

Mr. Ailes said in the statement, “Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards. I look forward to continuing to work with him.”

But then I think they said something like that when Seinfeld ended, right?  And everyone expected the leads to each get their own hit sitcom, etc.  It didn’t exactly work out like that, did it?

But I think the question was, did Beck decide he wanted to go out on a relatively high note?  Or was there a real cause? By reports his ratings had been going south for a while, and of course the left tried their best to demonize him in the eyes of advertisers.  My favorite was alleging that Beck was raising fears of inflation in order to help the Gold-selling companies that often advertised on the show, as though advertisers don’t generally seek target audiences…

So use this thread to react, speculate about causes, the future, etc.  Like you needed me to tell you to do that.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

59 Responses to “Beck Program Off the Air at Fox?”

  1. I was not a fan. Good riddance.

    Here’s a tribute:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-D_S7WOnjg

    carlitos (00428f)

  2. I was not a fan. Good riddance

    I’am shocked shocked I tell ya……………NOT

    DohBiden (984d23)

  3. Beck’s kind of show can only last so long. He hit the limit. Day in day out of that has had to have taken years off his life. If he does the same thing in Specials periodically he’ll be the new Baba Wawa!

    dfbaskwill (ca54bb)

  4. getting rid of O’Reilly would be a better move for Fox he’s the quintessential old fart anymore now that Larry King is off the air

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  5. No, they won’t do it, because he serves up the soft pablum, they won’t get rid of Shep either, who knows
    why,

    narciso (b545d5)

  6. Hey the left are trying to insist that Ryan’s plan will eliminate medicare even thought that ain’t true.

    DohBiden (984d23)

  7. His ratings have plummeted — from 3 million last January to around 1.6 million. 1.6 million is nothing to sneeze at, by any means, but I think Fox saw where this was all going.

    Beck was losing out to…. Beck. He had to top himself in order to keep his audience coming back. It got to the point where many just couldn’t swallow what Beck was peddling anymore (“Really? Van Jones was responsible for the Japan Earthquake? Gee, I don’t know about that….”)

    Beck is/was a showman. A huckster, a Barnum. He understood the medium, and his audience, and he played both like a fiddle for as long as he could. You have to admire that about him even if (as I do) you really loathe the guy.

    Kman (5576bf)

  8. Your one to talk about hucksters. 😀

    DohBiden (984d23)

  9. It is all about the eyeballs. Beck is losing his audience. Fox thinks they can get someone else to carry a show that will attract more than 1.6M viewers.

    They may be right.

    Would that the management of the other networks were businessmen instead of propagandists. Then we would lose Sgt Schultz and Rachel Madcow and the other foaming at the mouth archetypes.

    NotaYank (a47dbe)

  10. You have to admire that about him even if (as I do) you really loathe the guy.

    Actually, no you don’t.

    carlitos (00428f)

  11. nota

    they won’t get more viewers at 5 pm.

    But they might get a better deal with advertisers, which is the real determinant.

    ratings only matter to the extent that they attract advertisers.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  12. I like how Carlitos always trashes beck even when is right.

    DohBiden (984d23)

  13. I have been listening to his show in the past few months on SXM radio. It had almost a Y2K feel, with lots of talk about how we need to firm up our ties to community, resolve to get our priorities of family and God straight, and be ready because an APOCALYPSE!!! is coming. Financial, social, military/terror, it was never clear in his clearly heart-felt monologues.

    I believe he believed every word. But it took on a Wally George/Rev. Gene Scott type of feel. Hard to take seriously.

    Well, good luck to him. In a way, he is like Howard or Dr. Laura; the audience that follows him will be smaller but totally committed to the vision.

    TimesDisliker (bc4437)

  14. I only caught his TV show in fits and starts and every time it seemed there was some ominous doomsday event on the horizon. Recently it seemed that George Soros and the unions are in a conspiracy to take over the world – starting in the middle east, doing virginity checks????? The only thing missing was an alien craft at area 51, unless I missed that episode. I was confused as to whether I was listening to some War of Worlds skit or not-news? I think he’s a likeable personality, I actually like his radio stuff better, makes for a better show, less chalktalk hysteria. So hopefully he is off and can rebrand himself into something else if the end of the word isn’t coming like he thought.

    Mary G (ce2b34)

  15. carlitos’s youtube link neatly explains why I cannot watch Beck’s program. That was a completely unserious argument, presented as an earnest explanation of Obama’s administration. It’s insulting to be lectured by a schoolmarm about something so asinine.

    Kman is projecting again, but he hits on Beck’s greatest positive point: democrat dissemblers loathe the fact that Beck hits the Obama administration with fact after fact after fact.

    They loathe the fact that Beck had more power over Obama’s czar cabinet than the US Senate. He brought up the truth, and it was so odious to the American people that Obama finally resorted to firing people merely because he was afraid Beck would talk about them in the future!

    It’s just a shame that Beck presented these truths in a package of annoying theories and dumb memory techniques that remind me of learning cursive or the geography of South America. I think he did that merely to fill the program’s allotted time. It is a shame the show is going away instead of improving, because Beck’s show does have far more simple informational content than other FNC opinion shows, and far, far more than you’ll ever find on CNN or MSNBC. They would talk about a century of history, or a fundamental primer on Alinsky. That’s great stuff, but it doesn’t have to be presented breathlessly with silly chalkboards.

    Beck’s radio program is much better than this TV program, btw.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  16. But they might get a better deal with advertisers, which is the real determinant.

    True, but I’m sure another factor is how much you have to pay the guy. I’m sure what Beck was seeking had the potential to eat into the advertiser revenue.

    From a cost-benefit analysis, Fox might be better off with someone who will demand far less than Beck, even if it means less advertising revenue.

    Kman (5576bf)

  17. The greatest leader the democrats can produce is Barack Obama. And he fired Sherrod merely because he was afraid Beck was going to talk about her.

    Every time a lefty mocks Beck’s silly programming choices, remember that as goofy as that was, Obama shivered in fear of it. That’s what the White House is reduced to.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  18. Every time a lefty mocks Beck’s silly programming choices, remember that as goofy as that was, Obama shivered in fear of it.

    Dustin, you’re full of “win” and you don’t even understand why. Don’t ever change, man.

    Kman (5576bf)

  19. LOL – Wally George! 🙂

    carlitos (00428f)

  20. Tell how best to present it, Dustin, and who’s going to dare to do this, again, Beck doesn’t care about advertisers, only as the vehicle for the message. He showed the tricks behind the Wizard’s games, and one can’t have that.

    narciso (b545d5)

  21. Re: #18….

    That’s bizarre, coming from a creepy little stalkerboi.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  22. Seriously, I think he has put a spycam program in Aaron’s computer, to him know when Aaron posts anything. Brrrr.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  23. Oh, my, Beck viewers have been reduced to 1.6 million, more than any of the other shows, combined. What a shocker! So yeah, let’s get rid of the guy who draws more viewers than all the other cable networks combined. Ailes just ain’t that stupid, people.

    And I love the comments on the left how Beck has lost over 400 advertisers, when he never had 400 advertisers to begin with.

    Beck may be a show-boater. So what? When others are trying to prove him wrong, they have to misquote him, claiming he made statements he never made (links are never provided unless it is MediaMatters). Odd how right Beck was on the Middle East when Tunisia fell. Ooops. Media Matter never addressed that.

    Beck warned a year ago that food prices were going to increase substantially. Checked your grocer bill lately? He also said gas prices would rise? Ummm? Anyone filled their gas tanks lately? He said gold would skyrocket? Gold price today?

    Some of us have been following the machinations of the far left for longer than we have been watching Glenn Beck. He is not wrong to point out the subversive actions of the DSA, or the CPUSA, or their holding hands with unions, like the CWA, AFL-CIO, et al. This has been going on for a long time. Beck just brought it to the public’s awareness more than anyone else has. David Horowitz has been trying to ring that bell for a long time. Beck got the bell rung.

    It will be a loss for FOX to no longer have Beck. I would recommend getting rid of sissy-boy, Shepard Smith, who I can attest is a liar. But then, maybe FOX feels the need for a far left queer to maintain it’s “fair and balanced” motto. Alan Colmes is straight.

    I still watch Beck, every show. Then I go to independent sources and research what he says. That’s what rational thinking people do. But I no longer watch Smith or O’Reilly as their arrogance gives me heartburn.

    I also know that Beck is no healthy. If you ever notice, when he is on O’Reilly, he wears a sweater under his jacket, and on his radio show, his hands are covered with gloves. He mentions it occassionally, that he is not real healthy and doctors can’t seem to determine what his health problem is.

    But he is a rich man who gives a lot of his money away but should be able to live a nice life without all the death threats.

    retire05 (63d9af)

  24. just goes to show how remarkable Rush Limbaugh’s longevity as a radio program is. doing something 5 days a week week in week out is exhausting. it is hard to keep fresh. I occasionally watched Beck but only snippets. a good entertainer and someone who didn’t try to offend his viewers. I really liked the phone routine where he kept waiting for the President to call

    Peterk (f11657)

  25. retire

    that’s kind of how i felt about beck. he struck he as out there and paranoid. but he kept predicting crap would happen and… then it did. he was right about gold. he was right about food prices. he was right about alot of things.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  26. Tell how best to present it, Dustin, and who’s going to dare to do this, again, Beck doesn’t care about advertisers, only as the vehicle for the message. He showed the tricks behind the Wizard’s games, and one can’t have that.

    Comment by narciso

    Oh, you’ve got me with this response. I could never appeal to an audience nearly as large as Beck has. I criticize his program, but it’s better than anything I would produce.

    I think if we put that aside, consider Beck’s radio program. It’s got more mockery and less gradeschool simulator.

    The problem is that every program that runs every day is going to have slow news days. I think Beck fills those gaps with humor and mockery and ranting on his radio program, which is great. and he fills it with pregnant pauses about his mnemonic device that links Obama to being an Oligarch on a chalkboard on this TV show.

    The solution is to find something else to fill the gaps with that keeps that audience watching, so that the excellent points he’s made about Obama’s administration do find an audience.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  27. Dustin, you’re full of “win” and you don’t even understand why. Don’t ever change, man.

    Comment by Kman

    Say, Kman, are you willing to let any of the commenters from this “echo chamber” comment on your blog? What’s the URL?

    You can’t because you are afraid of dissent.

    This response you made insults me while ignoring my argument, which was based on Obama firing Sherrod over mere fear Beck would bring her up. How pathetic democrats are if Obama is the best leader they can produce! Bush would never have caved like that!

    Dustin (c16eca)

  28. Beck, barely knew of Sherrod, the fact was though, inquiries would lead to the Pigford settlement and they couldn’t have that.

    narciso (b545d5)

  29. Kman isn’t Bi-polar he is Bi-idiot.

    He is an idiot over on his blog and here.

    DohBiden (984d23)

  30. Beck, barely knew of Sherrod

    That’s the funniest part!

    inquiries would lead to the Pigford settlement

    Yeah, that’s certainly a huge factor in Obama’s stupid reaction that greatly increased the attention on Sherrod and pigford. What a spineless jackass!

    Dustin (c16eca)

  31. Aaron Worthing, there is a great book that was written six years ago, The Politics of Peace. Basically, the book delves into the origins of the modern day “peace” movement and shows how they all tie into far left, Communist/Marxist/socialist philosophy. I read the book long before I ever heard of Glenn Beck.

    The mistake that most people make is that they think since the Berlin wall fell, and there is no longer a USSR, that the players just faded away. No one has pointed out the fallacy of this mindset more than David Horowitz. And of all people who should know, he should. Beck has used a lot of Horowitz’s research and how shown a number of things; like how the far left has jumped into bed with the Islamists (i.e. the Pallies).

    But there are also those who don’t want the light of day shown on these groups. They have operated in the shadows (now with George Soros’ help) for a long time, and Beck has been the salt to their slugs. “The enemy of my enemy” whole philosophy.

    What Beck has shown is that with the election of Obama, these groups are now emboldened to come out into the light. What other source reported on the 10-10 Rally connections between the unions and the ist groups? Would Americans have known that the CPUSA and the DSA were well represented at the 10-10 Rally that was supposed to have been just unions?

    If none of you are familiar with the blog, NewZeal, you should be. Steeped in fact, it gives credence to a lot of what Beck says about the shadow groups, and people like Richard Trumka, Francis Fox Piven and Van Jones. These people don’t just go away, they go underground until they think it is safe to resurface. Obama gave them that security.

    retire05 (63d9af)

  32. One factor that has to be taken into account is the time slot. There aren’t a lot of hit shows at 5 pm on weekdays, probably because a large percentage of the population spends much of that time driving home from work. Since Fox News wasn’t going to pull Bill, Sean, or Greta from their prime time positions, it doesn’t surprise me that Beck would rather leave the network than remain in his particularly undesirable time slot.

    Joshua (9ede0e)

  33. Beck’s problem was that he moved away from covering the news to showcasing his obsessions. I can’t believe someone who blames Soros, and Jones for every problem in the world would last on T.V. for this long!

    Tim K (4d42b9)

  34. The solution is to find something else to fill the gaps with that keeps that audience watching, so that the excellent points he’s made about Obama’s administration do find an audience.

    Comment by Dustin — 4/6/2011 @ 11:57 am

    Well, Las Vegas Showgirls are always good – it worked for Oscar Goodman for years.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  35. I am grateful to Beck for exposing the left on TV, hoisting them on the petards of their own video and books.

    That said, he doesn’t have enough material for 5 hours a week. Once a week maybe.

    Patricia (0131bf)

  36. Tim K, how do we know that Soros/Jones/et al, aren’t a major contributor to the world’s problems.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  37. “but he kept predicting crap would happen and… then it did. ”

    He predicted things that were already happening, like the housing bubble crash, but before the general populace knew about them. Big difference. To someone with an ear to the ground, he was no savant.

    carol (5a5d33)

  38. AD, lol.

    In all seriousness, I think it would make more sense to have a 3 hour program that is a hybrid of 4-5 hosts, and their time allotment would change depending on how much material they have. Maybe Hannity and O’Reilly get 45 minutes on a day that Beck has a huge story, and maybe O’Reilly gets 90 minutes if he scores a major interview with a democrat, or Hannity if he has one with a rising Republican. Greta could have an hour of her typical coverage on slow news days, as she loves to cover dumb crap no one cares about.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  39. But where will the public turn for crazed conspiracy theories?

    JEA (ae9424)

  40. Beck just sang his TV swan song.

    ropelight (813ae1)

  41. It’s amusing seeing all these major liberal rags trumpet why Beck lost it, even in the context of declining liberal newspapers and network news programs, and the continued dominance of FNC.

    I guess they gotta take what they can get, but if FNC is being run like a business, I think it will continue to be a huge thorn in the MSM’s side.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  42. FOX couldn’t take the pressure from CAIR and Soros.. FOX submitted to their demands and that’s about all there is to it.. FOX owners and management are pusses… hey FOX.. got news for you.. they’re gonna want more heads to roll.. they won’t be satisfied until you turn completely which to tell you the truth it seems to be happening.

    hogtrashhd (74c615)

  43. Looks to me like the leftists have ran off another thorn in their side. Sooner or later the only Americans who will be allowed to be on national media will be those who read exactly what Soros wants themto say. Sort of the way Cadstro and Chavez operate.

    pagar (c14e13)

  44. Wow a finer collection of inane and braindead comments could only be found at MediaMutters or Stink Progress … Well done ‘boys’

    Iben Hakenluggis (838c59)

  45. It’s laughable to think that Beck’s leaving was the result of anything the Left was doing. I’m sure that Van Jones, David Brock and their puppetmaster Soros would love to take credit (and are attempting to do so already) but the reality is that either A) Beck feels constrained by FOX and wants greater freedom to get his message out or B) closeted Lefty (Shep Smith) and the egotistical pal of Obama (Bill O’Reilly) are worried that they won’t get any more dinner invitations. So if Beck was “forced out” it was to satisfy Shep and O’Reilly. But I’m sure that Beck is just as frustrated with their nonsense as they are with his message.

    Moira (17e42b)

  46. And everyone expected the leads to each get their own hit sitcom, etc. It didn’t exactly work out like that, did it?

    Uhhhh, they did get their own sitcoms. They weren’t hits, but they did get to try. At least one each for both of the male leads and two, one moderately successful, for the female lead.

    I’m sure they each had enough clout to get their pick of vehicle they thought best for their ability. It’s hardly the network reneging on anything there…

    Smock Puppet (c9dcd8)

  47. How many would have ever heard of Alinsky if it wasn’t for Beck?
    Would we have heard about the person who looked to Mao as an inspiration and model for governance? Would we have heard about Van Jones?

    I thought Beck’s blackboard was great, there needs to be more of that if not on TV then on the internet- small lectures that give facts that one can see and hear.

    And as Aaron said, I heard about the problems in the real estate market, how everything was over-leveraged, how real estate would fall and take a big hunk of the economy with it, on Beck and nowhere else at least 6 months before it happened.

    But being imperfect makes one make mistakes- like leaving a “C” out of oligarchy. What an incredible blunder that shows he has nothing worthwhile to say. Why, I bet he doesn’t even know how many states are in the US!!

    If his ratings have gone down it’s likely because so many people have had enough of the truth and they can’t take any more of it. Stanley Kurtz can do the research on Obama and Ayers and build the case of how radical they are in a book that is frighteningly close to making himself look to be a crackpot, but Beck has been doing the same material and the same conclusions on national TV.

    There is a lot of Beck’s manner that is “different than how I would do it”, but I respect him.

    As far as the foreboding sense of “doomsday”, what do you say about it? You could say that the US is too big to fail, that other countries depend on us too much to want to see us collapse, that everybody in government wants the best for the American people after all and assume the bad scenarios are over-imagination. But then you see people push the federal debt as if they are stealing money from a bottomless pants-pocket of a filthy rich uncle, supporting thugs and condemning or turning their backs on democratic reform as in Honduras and Iran, and you wonder just how bad are things, anyway. I mean, really, we have a president who shares the ideological heritage of the Weather Underground and Jeremiah Wright, how much more absurd can you get? Either nothing of what we see really matters anyway, or we’re in deep do-do as they say.

    Besides, Beck probably has a lot to keep him busy with The Blaze and his live shows.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  48. But where will the public turn for crazed conspiracy theories?

    Comment by JEA — 4/6/2011 @ 2:56 pm

    That’s always been MSNBC’s market.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  49. I catch bits and pieces of Beck from time to time on my days off, and inevitably have to turn him off after five minutes. His touting of conspiracies on the left would do Lyndon LaRouche proud. He simplifies everything too much, to put it simply (so to speak).

    Last week, he was attempting to prove that the revolution in progress in the MidEast (well, we hope it’s in progress) was a carefully orchestrated arrangement between the Obama Administration (via Samantha Powers on behalf of Soros) and the Muslim Brotherhood, Apparently all those Egyptians, Libyans, Tunisians, and Syrians who are not part of the Muslim Brotherhood don’t count in Beck’s world…

    Sometimes he was good, but too often he swung for the bleachers and missed.

    kishnevi (d785be)

  50. Glenn Beck said right from the beginning he only wanted to do this so long…that changes were coming. Indeed, his show had become somewhat repetitive and it was obvious that his creative heart wasn’t in it. He’s moving on and it’s a good thing. I hate it when people rip on Glenn because he did a great deal for the movement. I hope he finds a good place, whether on his own network or with specials on FNC. I also hope they replace him with Gutfield.

    Tea Party at Perrysburg (dffb9a)

  51. Tim of course the Koch Brothers are to blame for everything in this world………..we get your ilk

    DohBiden (984d23)

  52. Glenn Beck is a powerful communicator, a creative entrepreneur and a true success by anybody’s standards.
    Sure, his way of getting the message across is very unique. However, the news must be based on genuine facts and that is the problem with Beck. His theories tend to be very biased and lack expertise.

    Jay Banks (277d62)

  53. MediaMatters has helpfully posted charts of his ratings since he took over the 5pm time slot.

    Are his ratings really “plummeting”? Or is this nothing more than ratings returning to normal after a time period when people were particularly interested in “news commentary”?

    The peaks and troughs seem to track pretty evenly across the competing networks in that time slot…

    Douglas2 (62fec6)

  54. Douglas,

    if any lefty version of Beck had half of his ratings, CNN or MSNBC would trumpet their huge, huge success.

    But then, there is such a thing as liberal fascism, and I do think conservatives have to try much harder to attract sponsors. A lot of companies that would advertise on Beck’s program don’t, because of the calls to boycott their products… merely because Beck criticizes Obama’s administration loudly.

    However, I don’t think FNC wants to validate that tactic. My guess is that Beck’s show is extremely tiring to produce and it’s also clear there just isn’t enough material for this format to work every single day, so exhausted people are changing it to something that will work better.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  55. Holding aside some of Beck’s lapses into conspiracy theory, who else on the right has been doing the research into some of the players on the left and in the Obama administration. What we hear from everywhere else is the typical pablum put out by the left about their own guys.

    Like it or not, there are ties among individuals like Soros and many organizations that are playing significant and influential roles with Obama and the Dems. Shooting the messenger doesn’t invalidate the reality of those ties. Am I the only one who has read Soros being quoted that he enjoys influencing national level politics around the globe? He certainly has organized things for his desires to be heard and acted upon.

    Anyone remember Beck’s analysis of the cap and trade scheme with Gore and his investments in the exchange that would be handling the trades. That was certainly covered in great depth by the MSM and other conservative media players…

    Beck was fearless and focused. I will miss his show.

    in_awe (44fed5)

  56. Dustin, fwiw Beck used to be on CNN and his show was successful by their standards. He drew @ 300,000. I can’t recall the ratings for that stiff John Gibson, who Beck replaced on Fox, but Beck is a huge improvement and still an advertising bonanza for the station. The ratings Beck has lost have not gone to a competing network.

    I can take or leave him, but have to acknowledge his success at what he does. Let the haters hate, he is going out the front door on his own terms and Fox does not have a replacement that will get similar ratings.

    For those (like me) who love ratings data, here is something from the current ‘Talkers’ magazine. Enjoy~!
    Top Talkers. Rush Limbaugh continues his dominance at the top of radio audiences with over 15 million listeners, according to a survey in TALKERS Magazine. Some of the LARP who rank high with minimum weekly cume in the millions:

    1. Rush Limbaugh – KFI (15+)
    2. Sean Hannity – KABC (14+)
    3. Glenn Beck – KRLA (9+)
    Michael Savage – not heard in L.A. at the moment (9+)
    5. Mark Levin – KABC (8.5+)
    Dave Ramsey – KFWB (8.5+)
    7. Neal Boortz – not heard locally at this time (6+)
    Laura Ingraham – KFWB (6+)
    9. Mike Gallagher – KRLA (3.75+)
    Mike Medved – KRLA (3.75+)
    Doug Stephan – KFWB (3.75+)

    TimesDisliker (3fabdc)

  57. 49) In 1917, there were very few Russians that were Bolsheviks, much less Mensheviks, or even Social REvolutionaries, In Cuba, in 1959, how many were
    members of the July 26th movement, but they were
    the strongest single organized faction, I underline organized.

    narciso (cfef6a)

  58. I can take or leave him, but have to acknowledge his success at what he does

    True.

    I think there’s much more to this than money. I think the show is difficult to make, and there are ideas to improve, rather than the ridiculous notion Beck is a ratings or advertising failure.

    I’m also pretty sure this isn’t about giving Beck a pay cut.

    Dustin (c16eca)

  59. It’s real a kind of Gresham’s law, Beck goes, and Shep and to a lesser extent, O’Reilly stays.

    narciso (cfef6a)


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