{"id":4068,"date":"2011-03-16T10:43:22","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T17:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4068"},"modified":"2011-03-16T10:43:22","modified_gmt":"2011-03-16T17:43:22","slug":"why-does-fox-news-keep-glenn-beck-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4068","title":{"rendered":"Why Does Fox News Keep Glenn Beck Around?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a discussion on the fairness and balance of Fox News, the network’s CEO Roger Ailes famously told Barbara Walters<\/a> that, “I’m not in politics. I’m in ratings. We’re winning.”<\/em><\/p>\n

If we are to take Ailes at his word, then we have to wonder why he keeps Glenn Beck on the schedule. The program has been shedding viewers<\/a> like a mongrel with a scalp condition for months. His year-to-year numbers dropped 40% in January and another 32% in February. He is sinking faster than any other program on cable news. A couple of weeks ago Rachel Maddow drew more viewers than Beck for the the first time ever. Over 300 companies have declined to advertise on his program due to offensive content like his anti-Semitic rants against George Soros and his bloodthirsty allusions to having to “shoot them [radicals] in the head.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Last week Beck was on vacation and Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano filled in for him. The result was the ratings barely budged. And on Tuesday Rachel again drew more viewers than Beck’s program with its guest host. This is fairly conclusive evidence that the audience for that time period is constant regardless of who is on the air. Consequently, Fox could replace Beck at any time (as some speculation<\/a> suggests is under consideration) without suffering any ill effects in the ratings.<\/p>\n

So why don’t they? They could certainly fill that hour with another conservative mouthpiece that would cost them far less to employ. They could make much more money by recovering the A-List advertisers who have previously abandoned the program. And they would not have to endure the embarrassment of being associated with Beck’s delusional conspiracy theories that are lately drawing criticism<\/a> from even the most stalwart advocates<\/a> of conservatism.<\/p>\n

The only reason that a so-called “news”<\/em> network would continue to employ someone whose analyses and assertions are so distant from any sane definition of journalism, and so reviled by more rational observers, is because the network approves of, and agrees with, his inane proclamations of doom and his determination to transform political discourse into a feast of demonization and personal destruction.<\/p>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

The lesson from Beck’s absence last week is profound. If after learning that their ratings would remain constant in a post-Beck world, Fox News elects to keep him in the lineup anyway, we must conclude that Ailes and his boss Rupert Murdoch, are on board Beck’s crazy train<\/a>. That’s the answer to the question in the headline. Ailes and Murdoch cannot disassociate themselves from the Beck Doctrine. They obviously regard Beck’s contribution to their mission as more important than either money or respect. So the next question is: What the hell is their mission?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a discussion on the fairness and balance of Fox News, the network’s CEO Roger Ailes famously told Barbara Walters that, “I’m not in politics. I’m in ratings. We’re winning.” If we are to take Ailes at his word, then we have to wonder why he keeps Glenn Beck on the schedule. The program has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[33,44,143,30],"class_list":["post-4068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-ratings","tag-fox-news","tag-glenn-beck","tag-roger-ailes","tag-rupert-murdoch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-13C","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1663,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1663","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":0},"title":"Glenn Beck Thanks God For Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"5\/27\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":9326,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9326","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":1},"title":"Roger Ailes Kept Glenn Beck On The Air To Irritate MoveOn And Media Matters","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/21\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The new biography of Roger Ailes by his hand-picked fluffer, Zev Chafets, is getting some exposure in the press via reviews and excerpts. News Corpse recently reported that Ailes agreed to cooperate with Chafets in order to make a preemptive strike against a more critical look at his career by\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":1591,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1591","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":2},"title":"Howard Kurtz Stumbles Into The Obvious On Glenn Beck","author":"Mark NC","date":"3\/15\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Nobody is going to mistake Howard Kurtz (CNN\/Washington Post) for an insightful media analyst. His sycophantic and highly conflicted reporting barely qualifies as news on most days. And his latest column for the Post is no exception. However, it does hit on a couple of obvious truths that only Kurtz\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":3358,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3358","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":3},"title":"Glenn Beck’s Ratings Sink into Irrelevancy","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/2\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If there is one thing for which Glenn Beck deserves some measure of credit, it is his ability to promote himself and inflate his influence on the media, and in society, outside of all proportion to reality. The way he is portrayed in the press would give a neutral observer\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":1615,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=1615","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":4},"title":"Fox News: We’re Only In It For The Money","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/10\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"The string of confessions coming out of Fox News is shaping into a pattern of greed and deceit that ought to attract some attention from their viewers. You know, the people who regard Fox as a beacon of truth in a mediasphere contaminated by alleged liberal propaganda. What should those\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":3803,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3803","url_meta":{"origin":4068,"position":5},"title":"Glenn Beck’s Sanity Questioned By (Almost) Everyone","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/3\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are thinking about getting a net and a straight-jacket and trying to capture Glenn Beck so that he can be admitted to an asylum.....get in line. For years Beck has been alienating even those who would be regarded as ideological allies. 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