I agree, being rid of Beck is a major victory. His entire purpose on Fox seemed to be to test the waters for the nuttier conspiracy theories. You almost always heard the craziest shit on Beck first, then if there wasn’t enough debunking it would spread to other parts of Fox. Usually by claiming “Some people are saying….”. They rarely mentioned it was only Beck that was saying it and Beck was crazier than a shithouse rat.

I’ll throw out one more positive of him going off the air. He was a major source of anti-Semitic dog whistles, all while claiming to just love the Jews. Eight of his nine worst people ever or most dangerous people ever or whatever were Jewish. The stuff on Soros. It wasn’t good. Anti-Semitism has declined in this country to a remarkable extent, and I’d like to keep it that way. With the economy the way it is, people are really primed to blame out-groups (“New York bankers,” anyone?) for their problems, and he was stoking the flames in a way that made me really nervous.

I agree, and he also incited violence.  He is incredibly dangerous and that he is no longer going to have a nightly television show is a good thing.

I suspect that the slipping quality of advertisements was hurting ratings, too.

Progressive activists can take some credit for this as well. Many of them were writing letters to companies that advertised during Beck’s show, with specific hateful quotes. Many of those companies pulled their ads as a result. I’m sure that had Fox worried.

nah. the way I’m going to piss on the parade is to point out the following:

Fox News Channel anchor Glenn Beck will end his daily show later this year to develop and produce a variety of television projects to air on the channel, according to a release Wednesday.

The new agreement between FNC and Mercury Radio Arts will ensure Beck appears on the television network and through other “digital properties.”

sounds like he’s going <strike>Galt</strike>O’Keefe.

I shall refrain from pissing on the man while he’s down.

I’m sorry - did I say “down”  I meant “on fire”.

Yeah, Beck was one of those people who not just reflected the crazy but also pushed it that much farther.  The country’s better off without him in a position of prominence.

If Beck getting the plug pulled on him is indicative of his brand of delusional paranoia falling out of fashion, high-fives all around.

In his role as the “out there” conservative, he managed to make people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly look less nutty. 

I’ve always thought this is the Fred Phelps role. I hate how professional homophobes get to look nice and moderate because he’s around.

mantis #8:

I doubt it. Although I’m pretty sure he hates Beck’s guts, Alex Jones is not a minor figure these days and probably the two have fanbases that overlap a lot. Crank magnetism and all, you know.

I’m curious to see who they replace him with. I’m guessing the ratchet effect that we saw so much of in the Bush years will come into play i.e. when one bad thing ends, it can only be replaced with something worse.

This isn’t to piss on a victory - no guarantee the worse thing will be as damaging as what it replaces, because it may be such a stinker that it never gets any traction (and this is what I expect of a double-down replacement for Beck.)

I am minded of the task of killing the hydra.  Unfortunately, now that he’s gone, there’s at least half a dozen equally vicious folks ready to step in, and Fox still has that stage.  Of course, that means that I got to have a little fun with my speculations about who’s next: http://walkingupstream.blogspot.com/2011/04/bye-bye-glenn-beck.html

Yes, Amanda, I think *we* did this.  We got one down, and are working on a nest up in Wisconsin, but dang it, they breed like bunnies.  I feel like my entire on-line life is one giant game of Whack-a-Wingnut. 

(just to be clear, I am not endorsing that anyone take an actual mallet and whack an actual wingnut—it’s much more fun to take away their microphones and chalkboards and send them off to the dunce corner)

<blockquote>But I think we should enjoy this moment.  Beck was, in all his nuttiness, a real problem.  He pulled the discourse to the right. . . .  He was also a major factor in the increased speed with which conservatives have run away from empirical reality and towards conspiracy-mongering. <blockquote>
Agree completely.  I have a relative who recycles Beck’s crap so I’m hoping his being off a regular time slot will confuse my dumb relative enough not to be able to find Beck’s new productions.

My two drops of urine:  The know-nothing whackadoos like Michelle Bachman and her speechwriters may have to resort to saner conservatives for their memes and may therefore sound a little saner themselves.

...people are really primed to blame out-groups (“New York bankers,” anyone?) for their problems…

But New York bankers ARE to blame for most of our problems. Just not because because they’re Jewish.

Good riddance.  @StopBeck on Twitter, who’s been a real hero about rallying the campaign there, must be popping the cork on a well-deserved bottle tonight.

I don’t buy into the idea that Beck is crazy (sociopathic, maybe, but that’s as far as I’ll go).  He knew what his job was.  Hell, he titled his crap novel The Overton Window.

Yes, while it’s good to celebrate any break in the “Chalk Full of Nuts” insanity, the dude is not gone, he will be back and maybe even crazier.  He still has his radio show.

Oh, like he’s gonna go away…

Don’t bother to wonder, no matter the Beck spin puffery, this is a victory, and Beck was forced out.

“The folks at Color of Change and Angelo Carusone of @stopbeck (now directing the DropFox program at Media Matters) did all the heavy lifting in this work.”

Got the advertisers off the air, and that was followed by Spocko taking it to the shareholders, the financial press, and Murdoch himself, publicly:

“I met with the Color of Change folks after their initial successful campaign to convince advertisers to leave. 81 advertisers left Beck’s TV show. I suggested contacting shareholders to point out to them that Beck isn’t making as much money as his ratings would indicate. I then contacted top NewsCorp and media financial analysts as well as the major NewsCorp institutional investors and pointed out the loses and suggested they question Murdoch about how long he will subsidize Beck…

Next I contacted the advertising trade press and business press and pointed out that Beck wasn’t making the kind of money he should be even with good ratings and maybe they could ask Murdoch about it…

Finally, during a financial conference call last May I asked Murdoch myself.

‘I know that you don’t break out revenue numbers for Fox News beyond the top line, but with 81 advertisers leaving the Glenn Beck show following the Color of Change action, the show now seems limited to in house ads and gold ads. Do you have a time frame for how long Fox will subsidize the show until it to starts to generate revenue in line with its ratings?.”

http://my.firedoglake.com/spocko/2011/04/06/beck-out-at-fox-what-it-means/

Seems like a great template for getting rid of the next Foxite—begin collecting the racist, crazy-ass qoutes and clips of O’Reilly and then contact sponsors, and then…

Remember the rise and rapid fall of Michael Savage? A guy that upped the crazy so fast and so high that it pretty much consumed his career in an astonishingly brief span of time?

Glenn Beck is just the Michael Savage of the 2010s, and he’ll be about as relevant in one or two years.

BTW, the stuff about doing specials for Fox wreaks of face-saving. They wanted him gone.

I knew this was coming when he started saying stuff like how the Bush family was part of the conspiracy to restore the Caliphate (!!) and that Grover Norquist*  (!!!) couldn’t be trusted because he said it was crazy to oppose the Lower Manhattan mosque. He was starting to turn on the country club GOP, and they just put the smackdown on him.

*He’s married to a Palestinian woman, believe it or not.

Agh, made a mistake. She is a Kuwaiti, not Palestinian.

Yay for good folks who worked hard, and got results.  Every once in awhile that hard work pays off:)

I have an off-topic favor to ask.  I’m looking for writing that points out the connection between anti-abortion sentiment and anti-contraception sentiment.  Was talking to a friend tonight who was making the assumption that there is a large percentage of the voting public who are pro-contraception and anti-abortion, and I don’t think she’s correct.  Seems like I’ve read Amanda talking about this, but 20 minutes of web-searching couldn’t find me a link.  Can anyone refer me to a piece that debunks this idea?  Or am I on crack, and there actually is a large group of Americans who are pro-contraception but anti-abortion?

Thanks,

Alec

Alec, Googling “birth control” site:pandagon.net gets you lots of posts! It doesn’t refute the claim about “the voting public,” but it establishes beyond a doubt that the people in charge, and the voices that get airtime, among the pro-lifers are anti-contraception.

It’s possible to be anti-abortion without being anti-choice. I’d say THAT is probably where most of the voting public falls.

Also a good Nelson laugh at Prosser and the Wisc. GOP.

Amen to that. The Koch Bros. outspent Democrats 2-1, and that still didn’t save their ass.

Amen to that. The Koch Bros. outspent Democrats 2-1, and that still didn’t save their ass.

Why didn’t they just buy a judge or an election official like the other autocrats?

Beck is still on the radio. Rush Limbaugh used to have a TV show too, once upon a time. His influence remains—even though he’s on the air at a time when employed people are working.

I don’t know if we can reverse the trend, but this is a good first step.

It is a huge victory for sanity, and I have no doubt that he was ultimately fired because he was costing Rupert too many advertisers. His ratings were actually still really high, but they don’t mean squat when the guy on TV scares the shit out of ad buyers. I had heard that they had Andrew Napolitano (another “libertarian” kook, albeit a little less out there than Beck) filling in on the show a week or so ago and the ratings didn’t drop, and at that point the writing was on the wall.

Having said all of that, I think it’s going to take more than Beck’s firing from Fox to close the Pandora’s box of crazy opened up by that jackass.

So, Hector B, start collecting the audio clips on the crazy ass and racist Beckism on the radio, and the list of his radio advertisers…

Beck is still on the radio. Rush Limbaugh used to have a TV show too, once upon a time. His influence remains—even though he’s on the air at a time when employed people are working.

Apples and oranges.

Limbaugh’s foray into television was much shorter and far less successful than Beck’s… Limbaugh was a very successful radio guy who was already wildly popular with his audience before his TV show, and the TV show did nothing to make him more popular. Beck had a decent-sized radio audience before he moved to Fox, but it was his Fox News program that made him a nationally-recognized media personality. Three years ago, very few people outside of his radio audience had even heard of Glenn Beck - the TV show is what has launched him into the upper eschalon of wingnut worship.

My point is this… Beck’s star shined brightest when he got picked up by Fox News. Soon he’ll no longer be on Fox News, and while he’ll continue with his radio gig and his silly website, his glory days are behind him. Limbaugh didn’t suffer after losing his TV show because Limbaugh was always a radio personality first and foremost, and his TV show was really just a blip on the radar in his career. Beck was small potatoes prior to Fox, and he’ll go back to being small potatoes post-Fox.

Think Mark Levin or G. Gordon Liddy, who are both currently employed as nationally syndicated radio hosts - that’s the amount of influence Beck will have going forward. Which is to say… not much.

Although I’m pretty sure he hates Beck’s guts, Alex Jones is not a minor figure these days and probably the two have fanbases that overlap a lot.

I think that’s relative.

Alex Jones is not a minor figure among people like us who are wonkish enough to read political blogs and listen to people like Rachel Maddow… which includes less than 5% of the country.

19 out of 20 people on the street would still say “Alex who?” if you asked them about their knowledge of the delusional crank.

I’m curious to see who they replace him with.

Libertarian quack “Judge” Andrew Napolitano.

Book it.

But New York bankers ARE to blame for most of our problems. Just not because because they’re Jewish.

I’d imagine the fact that most of them aren’t Jewish would have something to do with that.

Beck will continue to appeal to the types of fringe people who are the ones who go out and commit violent acts.  He’ll be another Alex Jones.  His followers will keep up with him.

Oh FFS, Libertarian, no one is “limiting” Beck’s free speech. He’s allowed to pop off with as much as he likes. No one is throwing him in jail, no one is saying he should be thrown out of the country. Because as close as he likes to dance on that “fire in a crowded theatre” exception to free speech, he hasn’t actually crossed that line. His *corporate masters* decided that it was no longer profitable to keep him from using their particular medium as an outlet for popping off his vile opinions. Same here with Pandagon—this is not a “public venue” and Amanda does not have the rule of law backing her up, fining people, and throwing people in jail if they say something she disagrees with. THAT’S FUCKING WHAT’S MEANT BY FREEDOM OF SPEECH, CHOAD,, not that you get to say whatever you want, wherever you want, with absolutely no consequences whatsoever. This is a private venue and Amanda is allowed to ban whomever she likes—it’s not a free speech issue by a long shot. 

Let’s put this in terms that you could understand: If you owned a company, let’s call it GaltCorp LLC, and one of your employees came in on Monday morning and started yelling and raving and maybe even making disparaging remarks about GaltCorp, would you really wring your hands about his rights to freedom of speech while you had him escorted from the premises? Of course you wouldn’t, because as the owner and proprietor of GaltCorp, you are responsible for the environment and people who work and visit are responsible to respect the environment you want to establish. And to stretch the analogy to include the OP topic, if you had an employee at GaltCorp who used to be a very good worker and would make quite a bit of money for GaltCorp, but recently his clients have been dropping like flies because his behavior has made them uncomfortable, again, would you sit there and agonize about his free speech rights when you shitcanned his ass? OF COURSE FUCKING NOT.

I think Libertarian is a wee bit touchy today—like maybe he just lost his best friend. :(

Libertarian, you doing okay? You’re a little less coherent than usual. Sometimes, the nonsense that people communicate deserves no other response than shut the fuck up. That was often true of Glenn Beck and his ‘See this leftwinger probably met this leftwinger and OMG’ conspiracies.

And it’s really true of most of the stuff you just typed here which lacks:
• An appreciation of the difference between being happy that a particular large corporation stopped supporting speech we don’t like and suppression of said speech.
• Support for the surprising claim that Amanda Marcotte thinks breast implants should be banned in an apparently analogous way to the way you(??) think abortion should be.
• An explanation of what abortion has to do with Glenn Beck being politely shitcanned
• Your opinion as to the appropriate response when people say something Nazi-like or bigoted.
• Reconciling your continued posting with the supposed iron hand of the Pandagon comment section

But New York bankers ARE to blame for most of our problems. Just not because because they’re Jewish.

Yeah, I noticed that, too. This country needs more people being whipped up against the financial industry, not less. I’m hopeful that antisemitism can be kept out of it.

“His show always looked cheap anyway, and the ads didn’t help.  I know that sounds shallow, but these things matter. “

Cognitive dissonance alarm.  The irony of this line on, on this blog is delicious.  Deny it all you will and have, but standards and ritual do influence us.  From the Brits insisting on afternoon teas and dressing British in Mumbai heat, to planting flowers and mowing the lawn even though one can’t afford to repair the badly leaking roof, to not wearing flip flops at formal events, to never succumbing to the comfort of going out in sweats (other than the gym,) or a Snugglie (even in one’s own home) - those “little things” do indeed matter.  Seemingly, Pandagon concurs.

Crank magnetism and all, you know.<<blockquote>blockquote>

Per Charles Pierce, let’s not honour Beck by including him in the fine tradition of American cranks. Beck panders directly to Idiot America, and knows it. He’s a charlatan.

<blockquote>But, always interesting to see Pandagonians celebrating the successful suppression of free speech, the killing off of avenues of other view points, the limiting of choices for television viewers, etc.

Awww, how cute—the moment one of his own is canned by Faux News strictly for economic reasons (low ratings, low-rent advertisers), Libertarian starts whingeing about free speech and forgets all about the ol’ Invisible Hand. It’s all libruls’ fault! Uncle Rupe and his equally infallible shareholders had nothing to do with it.

Of course, in Libertarian’s ideal world, only corporations have free speech. Consumers have no right to express concern to major companies that they’re sponsoring and enabling an anti-semite and inciter of violence.

So to sum up, we have a “Libertarian” who’s against reproductive choice, against a business making a decision based on market concerns, and who thinks that a ranting and sobbing drama queen somehow helps his cause of rational objective thought. Libertarian, I do not think that word means what you think it means.

And it’s not that FOX News isn’t gone, although I do think that their pull to a bit more center is a ploy for the upcoming elections, it is that Beck isn’t gone.  IIRRC, he has his own company and he’ll still be doing his radio show and moving to more online stuff - so the little weasel still has a mouth and a megaphone - and lots of little megaphones are harder to stamp out than one big one.

Libertarian is sounding a bit more incoherent than usual. Maybe he’s blubbering Beck-tears from behind his keyboard? In any case, most libertarians I know are guys shut a few haircuts and missed shaves away from sounding like a crazy guy out on the street. They just dress slightly better and keep respectable day jobs to cover it up. But everyone now and then they have a breakdown like Libertarian here, exposing who they really are.

I think Libertarian is a wee bit touchy today—like maybe he just lost his best friend.

I’ve been on Internet forums since the days of Usenet, and I’m still surprised how often it comes to the point where I read an out-of-character rant by a “voice of reason” right-wing troll and think “holy crap, it’s not even 10AM and this guy’s already 3 sheets to the wind.”

To which Libertarian will likely reply: “Yewww…yew wanna restrict my freedom to drink what I wants when I wants?! Librul fascist!”

I guess you’re a libertarian of convenience.  Free speech?  Nobody violated Beck’s right to free speech.  The market made rational decisions based on what it perceived to be its best interests.  It determined that it would not use Beck’s show as a platform for advertising because they became aware of how Beck was damaging their brands by association.  The government didn’t intervene in any of this.  Beck’s show became a financial liability to Fox and Fox dropped it.

For a libertarian, you sure don’t know much about libertarianism or the free market, do you?

Fox dropping Beck is a good example of the market working well and properly.  You’re just burned because it took YOUR crazy off the air.  If Maddow went off the air under similar circumstances, you’d celebrate.  In the end, though, that’s what your libertarianism buys you:  a boring middle.  If the market lives on the biggest sellers, the 70 or so percent in the middle of the bell curve, then the most extreme elements don’t survive, and they are usually the most interesting.  That’s just another reason I find libertarianism to be a dreary prospect.  The slogan of libertarianism ought to be “Cats (the hit musical) forever!”

(Not cats, the critters, which I happen to love a lot.)

Libertarian’s mask of Galtarian reason slips a little more, exposing the jack-booted fascist that hides from the light of reality.

Yeah, sure, it says right there in the Constitution that Glenn Beck has the unencumbered right to have a TV show on Faux.  It doesn’t say that I have that right, or Amanda has that right, or Libertarian has that right, but Glenn ‘Vicks makes me cry almost genuine tears’ Beck has that right.

More evidence that the “libertarian” philosophy is an adolescent and incoherent excuse for some people to justify their own destructive and selfish desires at the expense of everyone else.

One thing’s for sure:  Ayn Rand would probably like what you said.  And if that doesn’t stun you into reassessing your whole life and your values then I don’t think there’s any hope for you…

When discussing the issue of the Fairness Doctrine, conservatives ALWAYS say that the reason there is a dearth of liberal talk is the free market—no one watches or listens to it, and it dies.  Basic supply and demand.  But when a conservative talking head’s show dies due to a lack of viewers, that is suppression of free speech.  Got it.

Don’t gloat too much about this.  The death of Patient Zero doesn’t actually mark the end of a plague.  Crazy reactionary stupidity is no exception.

I know this would happen.  The almighty invisible hand of the free market slapped a conservative in the face, it stung, and now conservatives are whining about censorship.  I guess their idol let them down, so they have to make words mean the opposite of what they actually mean, rather than admitting that almighty free hand doesn’t always cater to their personal preferences.  I mean, this is a perfect example of what a Libertarian should like enough to fap to.  You have the public voting with their wallets to get rid of a product that isn’t making money for its advertiser.  It would be a Libertarian wet dream if it happened to a liberal.  But whenever it doesn’t work out for a conservative, then somehow it’s magically censorship, despite no government intervention, and despite Beck’s ability to spew his garbage using any other platform.

Awww, how cute—the moment one of his own is canned by Faux News strictly for economic reasons (low ratings, low-rent advertisers

To be fair, while Beck’s ratings dropped substantially over the past year, his show still holds the #3 Nielsen ratings position among cable news shows. Klannity and Billo are the only two cable news hosts with higher ratings than Beck.

Having said that, his show is a rare example of ratings not always being directly proportional to the financial value of a show. He’s still averaging roughly 1.9 Million viewers everyday, but his completely unhinged rants have nullified the value of those numbers. It doesn’t really matter if you have the third highest rated cable news show when advertisers are absolutely terrified of being associated with your program. If I had to guess, I bet Maddow probably generates more ad revenue for MSNBC currently than Beck does for Fox News, even though Maddow’s audience is only about half as big as Beck’s.

Nepalitano isn’t nearly as bad as Beck. Except for (and this IS a big “except”) reproductive rights he’s actually decent on civil liberties and militarism, but yes his economic views are nuts. He really thinks you can still operate the country like we did in Jefferson’s time. You may as well try to take an 18th Century carriage to the moon.

To be fair, while Beck’s ratings dropped substantially over the past year, his show still holds the #3 Nielsen ratings position among cable news shows.

You’re right. I should have said “plummeting ratings.” Combined with the bargain-basement sponsors Beck’s left with now that reputable brands have fled, things must be pretty bad if they dumped him before his contract is up in December.

Of course, things like ratings and advertising rates and brand management mean nothing to a Colossus of the business world like Libertarian.

Slightly off-topic, P.J. O’Rourke has been put in the awkward position of panning the new Atlas Shrugged cinematic epic while still trying to claim that Ayn Rand was, y’know, kind-sorta if-you-look-at-it-from-just-the-right-angle correct.

“Beck’s star shined brightest when he got picked up by Fox News.”

True, but CNN needs to take their medicine in the form of a few rhetorical Pesci-esque smackarounds for their part in polishing the Beck turd / mainstreaming the Beck brand of extremeism.

Don’t gloat too much about this.  The death of Patient Zero doesn’t actually mark the end of a plague.  Crazy reactionary stupidity is no exception.

It’s quite a shame that reactionary stupidity isn’t more like vampirism in that aspect.

But, always interesting to see Pandagonians celebrating the successful suppression of free speech, the killing off of avenues of other view points, the limiting of choices for television viewers, etc. 
Comment #36: Libertarian

Add economics and comprehension of the US Constitution to the things that Libertarian knows nothing about.

Man it’s funny when conservatives realize that their beloved free market works both ways.