Glenn Beck leaving Fox News

I didn't see any threads about this, but if one exists point me to it.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/04/06/entertainment-broadcasting-amp-entertainment-us-tv-fox-beck_8394945.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/glenn-beck-fox-news-fired-ratings-2011-4

So, will politics get any saner without mr "Barack Obama hates white people?"

When he was on HLN, he was an actually fairly reasonable man. The whole insanity came about when he started work at Fox.

There is a god!

Now Fox News will only be mostly insane instead of Soinsanethishastobeajokeohgoditsnotajokeohmygod insane!

I'm gonna miss this show. Not because it actually made any sense, only because I loved seeing what crazy thing he was going to connect to another crazy thing. One example the other day was connecting Jeremiah Wright to Islamic Extremists. He's just like Family Guy, unfunny and annoying to listen to, even more so when they are actually right (which is almost never).

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES

He went downhill after he left CNN.

So I suppose this is the time to bring up my theory about Glenn Beck:

Glenn Beck is actually a more normal conservative who deliberately voices insane positions to stretch the Overton Window, thus making his actual positions more mainstream.

I think Fox News could recover a lot of credibility if they jettisoned a few of their more controversial talking heads. The thing is, their actual news coverage never really seem any more or less biased than any other channel, but their pundits are so ubiquitous that it really undermines the whole "Fair and Balanced" ethos.

That said, I suppose that these folks are the reason why anyone watches in the first place. They're certainly entertaining whether you agree with them or not.

^^ I've been told that he used to be a Stealth Parody, but there are some indications that he eventually came to believe the things he was saying. It's hard to tell for sure.

Yeah, when they're not making up news to report. More than once, my family has sent me links from Fox News, and the story wasn't reported anywhere else. And it's not just "puppy got stuck in a well" stories, it's big stuff like people being denied housing assistance because of their religion. Stuff that should be big enough to get reported elsewhere.

Not to mention their little lawsuit that they won. Where the judge said that it wasn't their responsibility to report the news accurately.

I'm disappointed, I was hoping GB would drag the entire station down into a festering pit of inescapable lack of credibility. Of course, it's no surprise that they'd jettison him if he was hurting their profit margins.

You overestimate the sanity of the American right.

I liked Beck, didn't agree with all of the things he said, but his commentary style was unique. Too bad he's insane.

@DG, that lawsuit wasn't just "not their responsibility to report the news accurately"

It was also about "is it ok to squash a story that reflects on paying advertisers badly", or "is it ok to censor the news to appease advertisers"

Apparently, yes, it is.

Wasn't he fired, not because he was a nutcase (who got 'good' ratings), but because he lost so many advertisers it was having an adverse effect on the balance sheet? sad, isn't it. Having said that, Beck was comedy gold, reporting sludge

Well, there's always more loons out there.

Well, now what can Colbert do without the ultimate in comedic gold mines? Without Glenn spouting fundamentalist garbage, what will we do for laughs at how insane a person is?

There's always Rep. Bachmann...

edited 6th Apr '11 8:17:29 PM by EnglishIvy

This is both sad and happy for me, Glenn Beck is majorly responsible for my political transformation but I also went in the opposite direction as him, as I read and learned more the more I found him to be wrong for my ways of think and a bit of a major dumbass. So he is a bit of a Broken Pedestal for me.

And while I got smarter and learned more, I noticed him getting dumber , bolder, and more insane. It was to painful to watch. I'm glad to see him go but I wish it had happened earlier, before he became such a sad excuse for a man, but at the same time I also now know the road not to follow.

edited 6th Apr '11 8:53:03 PM by Vyctorian

@Pathfinder: Be kind, rewind: what? could you link this story to me?

C'mon, Ivy, our walls can only take so much abuse.

EDIT: (And, yes, I know that wasn't serious. That was just the first thing that popped into my hear when I read that and I REALLY wanted to say it)

edited 7th Apr '11 2:41:23 AM by Malph

Is that the Fence of Poe's Law that I hear crumbling?

" The thing is, their actual news coverage never really seem any more or less biased than any other channel, but their pundits are so ubiquitous that it really undermines the whole "Fair and Balanced" ethos."

Hahaha, oh mercy.

In a country reknowned for the low quality, and clear systematic problems with bias in your news media, they manage to just completely out do all the competition. The Usain Bolt of terriblness as it were.

Rumor has it the timeslot will be replaced with "The Judge Napolitano Show" - but apparently this was Beck's idea. XD

Apparently, Beck's boss thought the contradictory media coverage of this was a funny as I thought it was.

Where's that coming from? I don't deny that Fox and MSNBC have bias issues, but I think they're the exception rather than the rule. And is European news really much better? (I mean Europe proper; the BBC is very good.)

Depends, the german, swedish and other "nordic" countries are supposed to be good but Italy...much MUCH less so.

And in general European news broadcasters look ascance at America because of all the other reasons Europe doesn't see eye to eye with America. That and the constant ad breaks.

edited 7th Apr '11 9:22:01 AM by JosefBugman