{"id":1097,"date":"2008-10-17T10:54:12","date_gmt":"2008-10-17T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1097"},"modified":"2009-09-17T19:11:45","modified_gmt":"2009-09-18T02:11:45","slug":"glenn-beck-to-suck-on-fox-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1097","title":{"rendered":"Glenn Beck To Suck On Fox News"},"content":{"rendered":"

In what may seem like an obvious and long overdue match up, Glenn Beck will be leaving CNN<\/a> for Fox News early next year. This should be good news for CNN because Beck’s show has performed terribly<\/a> on the their Headline News Network (HLN). It is consistently in last place amongst its cable news competitors, and is the lowest rated program on HLN’s primetime schedule.<\/p>\n

Despite bragging about how Beck had improved the time period for HLN, Beck has actually lagged other programs on the network. Nancy Grace pulls in twice as many viewers as Beck. All news networks experienced growth this year due to the presidential election. However, while Grace increased her audience 100%, Beck managed a paltry by comparison 34% gain over his third quarter performance last year in the key 25-54 year old demographic.<\/p>\n

By it’s embrace of Beck, Fox News is providing more evidence (as if any were needed) of their intransigent partisanship. If they were smart, they would offer a show to Tanya Acker (who I love) or Bob Beckel (not so much) just to say they have one program from a left of center perspective.<\/p>\n

So what is Fox getting for their trouble? They are getting the most ignorant and obnoxious host on cable news. They are getting a perennial ratings loser. They are getting an unrepentant racist provocateur. They are getting an ego-centric ideologue that CNN originally described as someone “that could siphon viewers from Bill O’Reilly, Joe Scarborough and other conservative hosts.”<\/em> Now he won’t need to as he and O’Reilly will be able to promote each other. There is no question that Beck will feel more at home at Fox. In a comment responding to his new contract he even admitted that Fox News will be a better fit because…<\/p>\n

“I’m kind of an island over at Headline. It’s kind of difficult because I’ve got to bring my own audience over to Headline.”<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well he won’t have to do that for Fox, because it comes complete with its own congregation of rightist believers. That will serve as an advantage to Beck who will have access to a much larger and better trained audience than he had at HLN. Plus, he was about to lose his nightly repeat broadcast to a rerun of CNN’s Lou Dobbs. That undoubtedly had some impact on his decision to jump ship. However, his Fox show will air earlier in the day at a time that has lower HUT (homes using TV) levels, in a time period that has featured previous losers like John Gibson and Laura Ingraham – both now canceled.<\/p>\n

The open question now is, “What will CNN do with the vacant time slot?”<\/em> One option would be to return to their original mission of providing summaries of breaking news events. But since the ratings trends favor personality-driven talk, they will likely seek a new, opinionated host.<\/p>\n

This would be a good time to point out that CNN has never had a single program hosted by a liberal<\/strong>. Not one. But they have cycled through multiple conservative hosts. They may want to take note that MSNBC is the presently the fastest growing cable news network thanks to Keith Olbermann’s Countdown and the newest talk show sensation, Rachel Maddow. There are numerous progressive personalities available if CNN chose to demonstrate some market savvy as well as some content diversity. They could even reward their own Jack Cafferty with a promotion. He is wildly popular and, while he’s not exactly a liberal, he connects with everyone who is fed up with whatever status quo is at play.<\/p>\n

Will CNN do the right\/smart thing? Judging by their past I would not bet on it. But they have an opportunity and perhaps they may not squander it if they get some encouragement from viewers. CNN’s email: CNN<\/a> \/ Headline News<\/a><\/p>\n

Update<\/a>: CNN has announced that Jane Velez Mitchell, beginning tonight, will serve as the interim host for the time period Beck is vacating. It is notable that CNN is pulling Beck from the schedule the day after revealing his agreement with Fox News. Beck’s contract doesn’t expire until February. Perhaps CNN is upset at Beck’s departure (though they should be grateful). More likely they see no reason to permit a future competitor to continue to promote himself on their air.<\/p>\n

Velez-Mitchell is an unknown quantity so far as political commentary is concerned. She has done a lot of court reporting (i.e. Michael Jackson) and is a frequent substitute for Nancy Grace. She is also an out lesbian (hello Rachel), a vegan, and an opponent of animal cruelty, for what it’s worth. Last year she contributed<\/a> $800.00 to the presidential campaign of fellow vegan Dennis Kucinich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what may seem like an obvious and long overdue match up, Glenn Beck will be leaving CNN for Fox News early next year. This should be good news for CNN because Beck’s show has performed terribly on the their Headline News Network (HLN). It is consistently in last place amongst its cable news competitors, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[421,42,33,44,319,399,419,23,418,120,420],"class_list":["post-1097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-bob-beckel","tag-cnn","tag-fox-news","tag-glenn-beck","tag-headline-news","tag-jack-cafferty","tag-jane-velez-mitchell","tag-keith-olbermann","tag-nancy-grace","tag-rachel-maddow","tag-tanya-acker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-hH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2792,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2792","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":0},"title":"Uh Oh. CNN Takes A Sharp Turn Toward Hell","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/25\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember the old days when CNN was the dominant cable news network? Or the even older days when it was the only cable news network? I didn't think so. It was a long time ago. Viewers today don't appreciate how remarkable an achievement it was to launch a 24 hour\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Media"","block_context":{"text":"Big Media","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":514,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=514","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":1},"title":"Glenn Beck’s Weak On CNN","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/10\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Glenn Beck may not want you to know what a dismal failure he was when he ventured out from his perch on Headline News to replace Paula Zahn for a week on CNN. But here's the bad news for Beck: The bad news for the rest of us was that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20307,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20307","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":2},"title":"Holy F**k! CNN Explores Joint Venture With Paranoid, Racist, Lunatic Glenn Beck","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/23\/2014","format":false,"excerpt":"As if to prove that television news executives are lowest form of life on the planet, CNN recently held talks with Glenn Beck about forming a joint venture between the struggling network and Beck's lame video blog, The Blaze. According to a report in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"Glenn Beck CNN","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-cnn-talks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-cnn-talks.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/beck-cnn-talks.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5502,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=5502","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":3},"title":"The Foxification Of CNN: New Management Pushes The Network Into Crazy Territory","author":"Mark NC","date":"10\/14\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This article also appears on Alternet.org.In the fiercely competitive world of cable news, the players have been jockeying for position as they battle for viewers and advertisers. Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN, each with their own models of programming, seek to gain scale and influence. Fox News, we know, has\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=704","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":4},"title":"Glenn Beck’s Ratings: Headline Snooze","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/13\/2007","format":false,"excerpt":"When CNN announced the hiring of radio talk jock Glenn Beck almost two years ago, they used words like \"cordial,\" \"conversational\" and \"not confrontational\" to describe him. What they delivered was the polar opposite of that, as has been well documented by Media Matters. Despite CNN's laughable depiction of Beck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":196,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=196","url_meta":{"origin":1097,"position":5},"title":"Fox News Sinks Again","author":"Mark NC","date":"8\/1\/2006","format":false,"excerpt":"In the July ratings for the cable news networks, Fox continues its steady year-over-year decline. This July's book includes reporting on the Israel\/Lebanon conflict. Breaking news events like this spike ratings for news programs. So when comparing this year's July book with last year's, it is important to note that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}