From the Daily Beast (Howard Kurtz):
Despite his monster ratings, Fox News is bidding farewell to Glenn Beck as tensions between the incendiary host and the top-rated cable news channel have led to a near-total divorce.
I say near-total because the two sides announced a deal today in which Beck’s production company will produce occasional content for Fox. But insiders say this will amount to a handful of specials and that many senior Fox executives are relieved to be rid of Beck, whose ratings have dropped 40 percent.
Beck, too, has tired of the friction with Fox and is said by people close to him to be happy to end the partnership.
Whatever the genesis, for Beck to give up his daily 5 p.m. program, which at its peak drew more than 2.5 million viewers, is a case study in how even the most successful broadcast personalities can become too hot to handle.
In the end, the man who drew a huge crowd to the Lincoln Memorial, but also became a lightning rod after calling President Obama a racist, lasted less than three years as a daily Fox host. More than 300 advertisers fled the Beck show, but he still delivered a huge lead-in audience for Bret Baier and others who followed him on the Fox lineup.
This news was predictable. Glenn Beck has been under fire for some time now for his incendiary remarks. Since the last election, his shows have gotten boring. His outlandishness has become a drone. Did he quit trying or was mission accomplished? Now he sounds like he is just trying to advance Mormon ideas. I stopped listening several weeks ago.
Glenn Beck won’t be starving to death. He has his radio show and he will start a production company. The details are sketchy. He and Roger Ailes both exchanged pleasantries about each other, according to the Beast:
The news release papers things over with friendly quotes. Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said: “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.”
Beck responded in kind: “I truly believe that America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News. I cannot repay Roger for the lessons I’ve learned and will continue to learn from him and I look forward to starting this new phase of our partnership.”
No blaze of glory for Glenn Beck. He is influential and he is incendiary and radical. I sort of like having him on Fox News. He will be somewhere. Fox News is easy. I don’t want to have to go hunting for him to see what pot he is stirring. And speculation?
Actually, Beck mentioned this weeks ago on his radio show. His contract ends in December.
Cargo, are you a closet Becker?
so is life in america. some go up, and some go down. don’t expect beck to cry and bewail his fate, or play the victim card. we all still live in the greatest country on god’s green earth. a lesson to us all
Others will do that for him. He has enough money to do whatever he wants to do.
Just think of all the followers he will take with him.
He just over extended with the conspiracy crap.
Dana Milbank: Why Glenn Beck lost it
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2011/04/06/AFNEgnqC_story.html
This is good news for Reagan Conservatives. When one person describes himself as “conservative” and proceeds to spout non-sensical conspiracy theories and some of the other rubbish Beck comes up with, it reflects on all of us. Beck does sometimes get things right and make statements I and other conservatives agree with, however. That makes the situation even more convoluted.
Glen Beck says that we must get government spending under control. Well, I agree. However, that does not mean that I am also stockpiling freeze-dried foods and investing all of my money in Krugerrands to stash under my bed.
Beck followers received some very bad financial advice also. If you invest like the world is going to collapse before the end of Obama’s four-year presidency (mainstream Republican optimism here), that doesn’t happen, and we elect a fiscally responsible president in 2012, you are going to be in very bad shape. There is light at the end of the Obama tunnel.
The gold hawkers will have to find a new venue. People pile into gold investments out of fear, for the most part. Moreover, buying gold coins, etc. from those companies that advertise on Beck’s show is about the worst way possible to invest in gold, if that is what you want to do.
Moon, thanks for the link to Milbank editorial. I think that he makes some good points; especially that Beck’s popularity was driven by angst in the midst of a terrible recession. With the economy improving, people are feeling a little better about themselves, the economy and our future. That’s not the sentiment Beck preaches to.
President Obama should take heed. His victory in 2008 was driven by fear also, and voters wanting to reject all aspects of being in two wars along with that economic calamity. 2012 will be very different. The economy will be much better, and we’re now in three wars. Didn’t candidate Obama promise to reduce, not increase, the number of wars we’re in? Maybe, after the 2012 election, Beck and Obama can team up and do some sort of road show!
The end of Beck nutiness and Obama liberalism? What more could Reagan Conservatives want!
@NTK, I would disagree about the Obama win being driven by fear. I would say it was driven by wanting and needing change. I am not sure the people had processed the economy fully when Obama was elected.
All presidents come in with a bold plan that probably cannot be achieved. I believe Bush came in wanting to be a uniter not a divider.
I remember when the right continued to call Clinton liberal. Is the right doing that now?
NTK-you’ve got mail!
@Lafayette
I saw it. Interesting questions. I’m getting ready for a meeting this morning and will respond after lunch.
@Need to Know
Sounds good. I look forward to your answers.
Obama is no liberal, sorry to tell you. Kennedy was a real liberal, Johnson was a real liberal. Wanting to deal with skyrocketing budget busting health care costs is not a liberal agenda, it’s fiscal sanity.
If anything, Obama has betrayed, in the minds of many, the liberal progressive agenda by not holding wall street accountable, by extending the tax cuts, by not pushing for a single payer insurance system, and not closing guantanamo. If anything, Obama’s willingness to play nice has been quite frustrating. Moderate is his middle name, no real liberal, not by any stretch!
Oh, and Libya is NO Iraq or Afganastan, not by any stretch!
@Moon-howler
What closet? I’ve been a fan since the beginning. Can’t you tell from what I’ve written? He’s on the radio now. Where else will I be told my daily ord….um, thought…um, opin….
get my dose of political humor?
No, I really didn’t know. I am sooooo sorry, Cargo. There must be a cure.
Yes. Clinton is a liberal. So is Obama.
Obama has just had to face the reality that the American populace, while voting for “hope and change” realized that THEIR change did not match Obama’s.
Obama is a corrupt, socialistic, corporatist whose agenda to “fundamentally transform America” is a drive to centralize more and more power within the federal government, usurp power from Congress (which, shamefully, they give away to avoid responsibilty), ignore court injunctions, and award polictically connected friends. In other words…he’s a Chicago Machine politician with a marxist/radical background. Is he a pure marxist? No. He’s closer to the Wilsonian ideal of a progressive.
Clinton is a blue dog Democrat. Obama isn’t a liberal either. He is left of center.
I guess I glow neon blue in the dark then, to someone like you. But then again, I didn’t know about the Beck thing. Do you grow hair on your palms when you first start getting taken in?
Never watched Beck so won’t miss him. To me he is like the proverbial tree falling in the forest when no one is around.
Many people just never turn on their bullshit detector and so they worship BS spreaders like Beck believing that honey and manna flow from his lips.
I say good riddance to bad rubbish.
George, that is powerful imagery.
ewwwwwwwwww
“Obama isn’t a liberal either. He is left of center.” Um…that would define “liberal” as it is used currently.
As for growing hair on my hands….that started back when I was 13………way before Beck.
George, for a guy that’s never watched Beck, you sure seem to know a lot about him….
As for him leaving Fox, hey…he’s just another entertainer. If he’s gone for good…oh well. I’ll miss his show, but, I miss watching it 9 times out of ten anyway…not a huge priority.
Now….when he starts his own channel and beats out everyone except Fox….. 🙂
@Cargo, you might have just hit the nail on the head re “liberal” as it is currently used. I guess I want to say the current use isn’t correct. Center is the new liberal? I don’t like that. So what is old liberal?
Beck isn’t going very far. 🙂
I have the Glenn Beck app on my iphone and ipad so I can get my daily dose of directions from him and the Koch brothers.
@marin, there is a cure. I used to think you all were kidding. Now I see I was wrong.
What I got there ain’t no cure for! DON’T TREAD ON ME!!!!!
I think he’s an interesting fellow. I don’t listen/watch him but I know people that are glued to thier tv’s at 5pm and take his word as gospel. I don’t fault ’em. They feel as though they Administration doesn’t listen and wants to lead us in the wrong direction.
I always enjoyed his blackboard exercises, with the photo’s of the “players” in whatever issue he was dissecting. Reminded me of a prosecuting attorney, drawing linkages to make a case against those pictured, to sway a jury…his audience.
I’ve always been more of a Bill O’reily/Hannity guy. I must admit though, I rarely watch any tv anymore. With 2 six year-olds and a four year old in the house, Nikelodeon or Cartoon network is about all that’s played at Casa del Thomas. So Beck’s departure, for whatever reason, will have little impact on my life.
Here’s one for you. As I have said before, TV is no longer a part of the Wolverine household. The last functioning set went into the dustbin in the basement after rejecting the idea of getting a “black box” to keep it working. Never have seen the Beck show except for some snippets here on Moonhowlings. This can sometimes be embarrassing, however. Mrs. W was sitting our grandkids not too long ago at my son’s house. The kids wanted to watch a favorite kiddie show. Mrs. W started to study that crazy remote thingie that goes with their TV. One of the kids whispered to the other: “Do you see that? Grandma doesn’t know how to turn on a TV!”
I love my Tv.
@Moon-howler
Left of center is not center. Left of center is liberal. Right of center is conservative. The problem is deciding where that durned center should sit. We’ve had this conversation.
Bush, to me, is a centrist. Obama, to me, is far left. I’m am right, if you consider some libertarianism to be “right.” Small “l” libertarian…..
To you, apparently, Obama is just left of center which you would consider centrist. Bush is probably far right.
To Pelosi and some others, YOU are the right winger and I’m a fascist. Of course, fascism was a socialist ideal……so they would be wrong. Again.