Glenn Beck Thanks God For Fox News

In the past year Glenn Beck has lost over a hundred advertisers. In the last four months he has lost about a third of his viewers. He is being boycotted by African Americans for calling President Obama a racist, Christians for calling social justice Marxism, and union members for incessantly insulting workers who seek to organize in order to defend themselves from the abuses of industrial barons.

As his show becomes less profitable, and reaches fewer viewers, Beck must surely be worrying about how committed his bosses are to keeping him on the air. After all, what motivation would there be to do so if he were bringing in neither cash nor ratings?

Beck’s response to these circumstances has thus far has been to dial the crazy up another couple of degrees. His ravings have become less tethered to reality than ever, and his paranoid layering of conspiracies aimed at him by innumerable covert enemies has escalated to Apocalyptic proportions.

He is palpably afraid, but not of progressives or Muslims or community organizers under the bed. He is afraid that his empire is at risk of collapsing on top of him. And so he has taken the next illogical step in his descent by clutching desperately to his sugardaddies at Fox.

On his radio program today he winced at the thought of Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, or News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, getting hit by a newspaper truck. He imagined that with them gone Fox News would would be a “scary” place. And then he commenced his holy benediction:

“Those two hold off the outside world. The beating that those guys take, the pressure that those guys are under, not just from me but almost every voice in Fox, is incredible. […] Fall to your knees and thank God for Fox News. Pray for Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch. Pray for them. Pray for strength and spine, and pray that everybody involved has chicken salad for lunch so it doesn’t clog anybody’s arteries. Keep them going.”

This outbreak of syncophantism has but one purpose for Beck: to plant a slobbering wet kiss on the mugs of the two people who hold his fate in their greedy hands. Beck knows that he is dead weight. After becoming anathema to advertisers, his saving grace was that he could deliver viewers to his leadout and jumpstart the primetime schedule. But now he is somewhat less than reliable in that role.

So what else is left for Beck? He is isolating himself from his colleagues who are often embarrassed by him. Former Fox contributor Jane Hall cited Beck as one of the reasons she left the network. Former Fox News anchor Eric Burns expressed gratitude that he doesn’t “have to face the ethical problem of sharing an employer with Glenn Beck.” He has also lost much of what remains of the sane conservative community. Right-wing blogger Charlses Johnson castigated Beck as “an alcoholic, weeping, ranting, creationist talk show host.” Respected conservatives David Brooks and David Frum have both been veering from the ideological excesses of Beck, with Frum lamenting the “reckless defamation” practiced by Beck.

For many of these conservative reprobates, Beck and Fox News have strayed so far into loony territory that they are harmful to the cause of conservatism. I composed a detailed analysis on that very subject almost a year ago: Fox News Is Killing The Republican Party. The question is, will Ailes and Murdoch come this realization, or will they succumb to Beck’s worshipful flattery?

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4 thoughts on “Glenn Beck Thanks God For Fox News

  1. Every day that goes by brings that rubber room and straightjacket a little closer. Shouldn’t be much longer! But can’t he see the obvious? I mean chicken, the chicken, you know, why the Italian Army had chicken feathers, yes, feather in their hats and, you know, well, don’t you know, that Italy was in the Axis (draw chalkline here) and that mean that the chicken salad…is Hitler! Let us pray it doesn’t go down the wrong pipe.

  2. What fascinates me is the Beck Goldline scandal which, IMHO, gets to the heart of his problem. In fact, I’ve done a 2nd video and blog post on it.

    Some of what you say here reminds me of what Media Matters is saying about Beck. He’s losing viewers and having a paranoid meltdown against his critics he feels are responsible. There’s a lot of truth there.

    However, to take the next step to suppose Beck’s in deep trouble at Fox News rating-wise is a reach. He’s still out-rating Bret Baier and Shep despite not having a prime time slot. He’s beating the pants off his competitors:

    http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/ratings/

    When I saw him show up on O’Reilly’s show to address the Goldline scandal I was shocked to see how powerful he’s grown. He used to be O’Reilly’s little puppy dog showing up for some promotional face time. Now he can sit there eating a hot dog making a mockery of O’Reilly’s pretense of being a journalist. At the end, he thinks he can challenge the name of their venture together, the “Bold Fresh Tour.” Even wrapped in his typical Morning Zoo jest, you can tell there’s a serious edge to his joke about it being named after O’Reilly’s book.

    Lewis Black’s viral video mocking Beck as having “Nazi Tourettes” is hilarious. However, no matter how articulate his opponents are in pointing out he’s a crackpot, nut, racist, etc. it will have little affect on his viewers. Beckerheads share his paranoia over affirmative action stealing their jobs, the government being ready to grab their guns, a general need to dig a bunker for the coming Apocalypse, etc.

    No, the key to getting the Beckerheads to turn off their sets is the same sorts of moral hypocrisies that led to the collapse of Jimmy Swaggart. Beck is a political televangelist. 2nd of his 9 principles is devotion to God. His cry-on-demand blubberings about principles is daily fare. Which is why Goldline is so damaging to Beck because it demonstrates his unspoken devotion to his overriding principle to maximize of his personal wealth. If it can be proved Beck is a moral hypocrite putting greed before God and the Beckerheads, his Church of Paranoia will collapse.

  3. I feel a bit sorry for the BeckerHeads. Especially the ones who are not rich. They’ve been so thoroughly deceived. Government is evil but they cannot be allowed to notice they are really being screwed by huge well-connected corporations. In On Democracy Now today, Noam Chompski quoted an Adam Smith “truism” that nations did and do not control foreign policy, but instead commercial entities do. These poor dolts are propagandized into supporting the antithesis of their own interests.

  4. On the loss of advertisers, he’s been running on Murdoch’s channel in the U.K. for months — three months, the last I saw, and that was some time ago — with no advertisers at all! The Europeans think his show is some kind of goofy American parody.

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