Here is the NYT piece on Beck

[wndycty]

The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms
By DAVID CARR
Published: March 6, 2011

Almost every time I flipped on television last week, there was a deeply angry guy on a running tirade about the conspiracies afoot, the enemies around all corners, and how he alone seemed to understand what was under way.
Readers' Comments

While it’s true that Charlie Sheen sucked up a lot of airtime last week, I’d been watching Glenn Beck, the Fox News host who invoked Hezbollah, socialists, the price of gas, Shariah law, George Soros, Planned Parenthood, and, yes, Charlie Sheen, as he predicted a coming apocalypse.

Mr. Beck, a conservative Jeremiah and talk-radio phenomenon, burst into television prominence in 2009 by taking the forsaken 5 p.m. slot on Fox News and turning it into a juggernaut. A conjurer of conspiracies who spotted sedition everywhere he looked, Mr. Beck struck a big chord and ended up on the cover of Time magazine and The New York Times Magazine, and held rallies all over the country that were mobbed with acolytes. He achieved unheard-of ratings, swamped the competition and at times seemed to threaten the dominion of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity at Fox.

But a funny thing happened on the way from the revolution. Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox — a greater percentage drop than other hosts at Fox. True, he fell from the great heights of the health care debate in January 2010, but there has been worrisome erosion — more than one million viewers — especially in the younger demographic.
-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07carr.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[CatWoman]

1. thanks

:hi:

[RandomThoughts]

2. Side note, nobody can know what something is about.

When everything viewed is also partly about the viewer.

So things mean different things to different people, why things can be about many things.

Making it impossible for anyone to know what something is about since it is different for different people, but fun to throw out other concepts of what things are about, when someone thinks they know what it is about.

[NillaWafers]

3. A a nut-job from beginning to end. n/t

[tekisui]

4. It's funny. Not until beck's ratings went down did 'moderate' conservatives

start to distance themselves. As long as he was getting the viewers, the repugs were happy to exploit those idiots. Now that he has gone off the deep end, ratings-wise, he is a liability. His days as someone we talk about are numbered. He will be exiting stage right, shortly.

[demtenjeep]

5. I think he has lost his damn mind

that is all

[opihimoimoi]

6. Search Units for his Missing Brain reporting mission unaccomplished...NO BRAINS FOUND

[Ikonoklast]

7. Well, it has been a long, tough winter and let's just say that Beck's

audience isn't exactly spry anymore...and if he doesn't replace those that went on to their great reward with new viewers, inside of five years his audience will disappear.

[hlthe2b]

8. It may still be in the future, but I don't think Beck's story will end well...

I remember watching the "slow chase of the white bronco" when all thought OJ was going to take his own life. I remember being horrified and hoping he would not, at the same time getting more than a little inkling that he might well be guilty of those murders.

I get the same sense about how Mr. Beck's story may end And though I know it says something really awful about me, I don't get that same overwhelming sense of dread--just that it seems destined and that I simply want to be able to look away. :shrug:

[underpants]

9. But a funny thing happened on the way from the revolution.

That is good writing....

this is not

Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally
- it was well under 100,000

... have made it difficult for Fox to hang onto its credibility as a news network.
-they have no credibility. The writer gives them a huge assumption there.

He’s often alone in the studio with his chalkboards and obscure factoids
-"factoids" is a made up word to give cover to the opinion base of the stated "facts"

The fact that the NY Times is reporting what Drudge is now reporting - that Beck may be done at Fox News - actually lends some credibility to the story (not that I am in anyway beholden to NY Times). I smell a Presidential run.

[RufusTFirefly]

10. I'm reminded of Morton Downey, Jr.

For a brief period, Downey was a hugely successful host of a "trash TV" show. But when his ratings began to falter, Downey seemed to go 'round the bend:

In 1989, as fascination with Downey's TV show began to wane, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey's account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence, led many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention. A few months later, the show was canceled.

Wikipedia

[tblue37]

12. Yes,him and Joe Pyne--both precursors to Beck and his ilk. nt

[Major Hogwash]

11. Amiee Semple McPherson was the first nutjob on the radio, Beck is just another one.

With a huge following until one day, when the clouds parted, and all of sudden, the crowds were gone.

[applegrove]

13. Great article. Thanks for posting.

[Kurovski]

14. "Mr. Beck remains firm in his belief that something is going terribly wrong..."

At least he gets that part right.