Monday, July 5, 2010

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics

Glenn Beck - Current Events & Politics

Glenn Beck: Spies among us?

Audio Available:

June 29, 2010 - 13:57 ET


Foreign Influence, by Brad Thor

GLENN: Let me bring in Brad Thor because I haven't read this yet but you read this already, Brad?

THOR: I did, this morning.

GLENN: Okay. Brad Thor has a brand new book out called Foreign Influence. And before we get to what this, what the book is about, tell me about this, this article and this spy that we just nabbed.

THOR: Well, apparently, Glenn, one of the spies, one of the Russian spies was doing op ed pieces, you know, right out of the leftist's progressive handbook, all of the talking points were there, about how evil the United States is, she talked about our Nazi like, Nazi like legislation, how we were imprisoning all these people wrongfully and our political agenda and what we're doing and blah, blah blah, blah blah. It's all there, and it's — it's stunning.

GLENN: America, I mean, we are being set up. We're being set up. Brad, I don't remember the conversation we had over a year ago?

THOR: It's about the time that things were going on in Iran with that kind of Democratic revolution that was happening and Obama was stepping up for the dictator down in South America saying it's terrible they kicked him out, but there was no support of pro democracy demonstrators in Iran. I believe it was about that time.

GLENN: Okay. And I called you and I said we have foreign operatives here in America, I know this because I know enough special ops people that during the Cold War they went into the former Soviet Union and they went into Poland and they pushed. They saw the end was near and they helped push. They helped sow the seeds of discontent, and we did it in the labor unions and everything else.

THOR: Yep.

GLENN: They are here. That's what I said to you.

THOR: Well, you said we've done this, we know we've put operatives into foreign countries to take advantage of turmoil to push things in the direction we want them to go. And you said, Brad, they're here doing, doing it here, aren't they? There are nations doing it to us. And I said, you bet they are.

GLENN: And you started doing research.

THOR: Started doing research. I said, this is what my new thriller's going to be about and that's what I based Foreign Influence on, with them being here.

GLENN: Can you tell the story? Because I know there's part of this that you can't tell.


Insider Extreme members can catch the rest of the interview in hour 3 and Brad's appearance on today's 4th Hour on demand. Learn more...

THOR: Because I don't want to give away.

GLENN: I understand, and you don't want to give away the, kind of the shocking thing. But it's true. You started doing research and what did you find?

THOR: Absolutely. What I found was that one nation that was hostile to the United States actually had two of its colonels who published kind of a white paper on how the United States could be taken down, and it doesn't involve meeting us on the conventional battlefield. They realize that's a losing proposition. So they talk about all of the different ways they can go after us, whether it's co-opting Al Qaeda — and this was before 2001. And they talked about how they could use Al Qaeda to carry off a major terrorist attack in the United States and what that would do and how that would begin shaving down our civil liberties, how if you could push things with enough turmoil just from terrorist attacks, you could start getting the government to close in for quote/unquote the benefit of the people.

GLENN: I have to tell you, Brad, this is what the Overton Window shows in the boardroom meetings and the villain of co-opting people and using all of these things and just tying them all into one and putting people together. The coalition that the left now has built in reality, not fiction but in reality, communists, leftists, just run of the mill, you know, nut job Panther people. Just, some of the worst of the worst. ACORN. All of these organizations that are, that are shady at one end and downright calling for a violent overthrow of the United States of America, and they've cobbled them all together and pushed them into the Barack Obama and the DNC camp. This is what's happening. It is — it really is about just building coalitions, isn't it?

THOR: Absolutely. That's exact. It's community organizing on a scale that's terrifying. And what the end goal is, is for them to completely flip it to the model that they want.

GLENN: Can you in the book — and I'm sorry, Brad. I've just been so busy, I haven't — believe it or not, I'm four chapters behind in our next book and so I haven't had a chance to read yours yet, and I will. You are one of the only authors that I get a book on my desk and I will read it not because you are a friend of mine but because I know it's good from start to finish. But in your book can you easily translate it to — because this is a foreign enemy that does it, right?

THOR: Well, here's the deal, Glenn. As I went after this in the research, I realized I had bitten off more than I could chew in one book and I realized that this was going to be a couple of books. And the plan, as I started peeling back the layers of the onion and seeing these groups that have been put together to overthrow the United States, as I was doing this research, what I was able to find through talking to intelligence sources, people in the military, things like this, it is stunning how long, how patient these people have been inserting themselves throughout the country and putting themselves in different places and how they've been working to put this entire plan together.

GLENN: See, it's amazing. People always say, "That's a conspiracy."

THOR: No, it's not.

GLENN: I mean, look at the Russians that we just picked up. They've been here for years. These people who are against the United States, they know. You don't just take a country down like that. It takes time.

THOR: One spoonful of socialism at a time. It's not going to happen overnight. It's going to happen, one teacher at a time, one priest at a time as we're seeing now. They are trying to co-opt churches. I mean, it is amazing what these people will do.

GLENN: What was the one I read last night about a big meeting at a church. What are you referencing? There was something I read just last night or the night before and it's stunning what's happening in our churches.

THOR: It's not only the green movement, how they are trying to insinuate themselves into churches that way. There's also a big push by the Russians. They would love to see the seed of the Eastern orthodox church moved out of Istanbul and put in Moscow so Putin can control the message throughout Eastern Europe and they are doing that by trying to co-opt the bishops here in the United States in the Eastern Orthodox church. I mean, they are running rampant here.

GLENN: You've got to be kidding me.

THOR: Nope. Glenn, every time I turned around, I picked up the phone, another person was calling me for this thriller, I was stunned at the information I was getting.

GLENN: Brad, how much trouble do you think — how much time do you think we have of just being... before it really dawns on people, we're in the fight of our life?

THOR: Listen. When you look at Alinsky's Rules For Radicals and he talks about defeating capitalism, the next step people don't get much further than that. The next step is dictatorship, and that's how you move to utopia. You've got to have a dictatorship. The people that help overthrow the country then become the subject of a dictator. The left doesn't even get that.

GLENN: Yes, they do. They refuse to admit it. Brad Thor, Foreign Influence. Available now everywhere.

[NOTE: Transcript may have been edited to enhance readability - audio archive includes full segment as it was originally aired]

Monday, May 3, 2010

So who's still advertising on Beck ? April 29 edition... | Media Matters for America

So who's still advertising on Beck ? April 29 edition... | Media Matters for America

So who's still advertising on Beck? April 29 edition...

April 29, 2010 7:22 pm ET by Media Matters staff

At least 100 advertisers have reportedly dropped their ads from Glenn Beck's Fox News program since he called President Obama a "racist" who has a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Here are his April 29 sponsors, in the order they appeared:

  • www.theendseries.com (Edge of Apocalypse)
  • Rosland Capital
  • Quietus (QuietRelief.com)
  • FTD.com
  • NestlĂ© (Purina Cat Chow)
  • The Law Offices of Pulaski & Middleman
  • Weekly Standard
  • American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity
  • DISH Network
  • William Morrow (Reckless by Andrew Gross)
  • Goldline
  • Can-Am
  • ProFlowers.com
  • Lear Capital
  • www.theendseries.com (Edge of Apocalypse)
  • FTD
  • Merit Financial
  • IRSTaxAgreements.com
  • News Corp. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • Rosland Capital
  • DISH Network

Glenn Beck Audience Plunges 30%, Fox News Still Head of the Pack

Glenn Beck Audience Plunges 30%, Fox News Still Head of the Pack

Glenn Beck Audience Plunges 30%

Bloom is off the mouth, but Fox still sitting pretty

43Share

(Newser) – Glenn Beck's TV audience has plunged nearly 30% since the beginning of the year—but his Fox News home is still sitting comfortably on top of the ratings heap. Beck's continued viewership slippage was revealed in the latest audience figures on cable news operations. Fox News averaged some 1.9 million viewers in April, which beat the combined audiences of MSNBC, CNN and HLN. Fox has now led its rivals for 100 months running. And while Beck has lost some 800,000 viewers since the start of the year, he still boasts 2.1 million watchers and leads cable programs in his 5 pm slot.

Poor Larry King battles not only marriage woes, but disappointing ratings, reports the Los Angeles Times. The CNN veteran's viewership was down 41% over last April, and he's losing out not only to Fox News but to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, and is barely beating out HLN's Joy Behar. Maddow is helping MSNBC pull away from CNN in viewership and among the sought-after 25-54 age group. She now draws a bigger portion of that demographic than her colleague Keith Olbermann.

Ads by Google

Virginia Tea Party News
a new blog where you can keep up on the latest news about the tea party
vateapartynews.blogspot.com/

Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its TV audience since January | Media Matters for America

Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its TV audience since January | Media Matters for America

Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its TV audience since January

April 28, 2010 8:31 am ET by Eric Boehlert

Should we blame it on the Massa Moment?

Will that Hindenburg performance soon be seen as the turning point for Glenn Beck: the pivotal moment when the Fox News show began to permanently leak viewers?

Who can forget the March day that will live in cable news infamy, when Beck invited embattled Democratic Congressman Eric Massa onto his show, for an entire hour, to blow the whistle on Democratic Party corruption? Or so Beck thought. Instead, Massa went on and on about tickle fights, and Beck became a laughing stock -- the butt of endless Geraldo-opens-Al-Capone's-vault jokes.

Prior to the Massa Moment, Glenn Beck was averaging 2.6 million viewers each week, and the show was still flying high. And in the short term, the wildly hyped Massa episode produced ratings gold, generating 3.4 million viewers that night, thank you very much. Long-term though, the effects have proven to be disastrous.

As I noted two weeks ago, Glenn Beck's ratings are down this spring. Now it's clear those declines are accelerating and there are no signs of a rebound. So what does that mean for Beck, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement?

First, the latest Nielsen low: Glenn Beck just posted another ratings low for this year. The new mark was set last Thursday when the show attracted 1.82 million viewers. The host's previous, non-vacation low for 2010 had been 1.97 million viewers. That low-ebb mark was set on April 9.

Based on the Nielsen numbers, here's a look at Beck's average daily viewership over the last five weeks. (Any weekend re-broadcasts, as well as weekday shows when Beck was on vacation, are not included in the tabulation.)

(The temporary spike shown above represents the day after health care reform passed in the Congress.)

Let's put Beck's ratings into context. Yes, in the world of cable news, his numbers are impressive, and virtually any host would be happy to have them. But look how far Glenn Beck has fallen recently. In late January and into February, the program was averaging 3 million viewers each week. And late last year, the show spent month after month flirting with that figure. Today, the viewership is trending around 2 million (Last week it was exactly 2.01 million viewers.) -- which means that in a span of just three months, Glenn Beck has lost nearly one-third of its television audience.

My take? Those missing one million aren't coming back. Not permanently anyway. Meaning, this is not a temporary hiccup for Glenn Beck, and the host is not likely to see a V-shaped recovery in terms of the show's ratings. Beck mania seems to have peaked. At least on TV. Will the show enjoy occasional audience spikes? Sure. But I doubt they will be sustainable.

And that has to be sending up all kinds of red flags inside Fox News, which already struggles to find any big-name advertisers to fill out the commercials on the controversial show. Keep in mind, there are more than 200 companies that have gone on the record as saying they will not buy ad time on Glenn Beck's show. Applebee's? No. AT&T? No. Bank of America? No. Best Buy, Campbell Soup, CVS, Ditech, Farmers Insurance Group, GEICO, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Lowe's, Nutrisystem, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Sprint, State Farm Insurance, The UPS Store, Travelers Insurance, Verizon Wireless, Vonage, or Wal-Mart?

No.

Corporate America (aka the beloved free marketplace) wants nothing to do with Beck. (Sort of like the NFL wanted nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh last year.) Today, there are less than a handful of nationally recognized advertisers who appear willing to purchase air time on Glenn Beck. Think about the deep, deep discounts Fox News likely has to offer the remaining advertisers in order to get them to come aboard. (And the show is supposed to be a hit.) Now add to that equation the fact that Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its audience since January, and you can see where this is heading for Fox News.

How soft are Beck's current ratings? He's now posting the type of numbers that his show used to get when he was on vacation and somebody less famous stood in for him, like when he took a few days off in late March and his show averaged 1.9 million viewers. Beck's been back from his March vacation for weeks now, but his ratings are roughly the same as when he wasn't even there.

What's so amazing about the stampede away from Beck's show is that the political landscape has not changed during that time. In fact, according to press accounts, the Tea Party movement that Beck is so closely aligned with is supposedly in the midst of a surge in momentum and enthusiasm. So why is Glenn Beck losing viewers? It's odd because Beck's nemesis, President Barack Obama, is still in office and still doing his best, in the Beck worldview, to ruin America from within. Democrats are still in charge of Congress and still, in the Beck worldview, ripping up the Constitution. It's not like the evil Democratic threat is gone. Beck's bogeymen remain in place. It's just that one-third of his audience has lost interest and has checked out.

What's wrong with Glenn Beck? And why are viewers fleeing the show? Obviously, I'm not the target demo, but I will now admit that there were times last fall and in early winter when Beck's show did have a kind of demented, "Oh wow" factor to it, and I tuned in regularly just to see what he'd say and do next. The program did, at times, make for compelling television.

But today, making it through one of his insufferable, redundant shows feels like sitting through detention. The wow factor is long gone. Whatever originality the show once had has been replaced with a suffocating sense of sameness as Beck's expanding ego seems to have completely taken control of the operation.

Which brings us back to the Massa Moment, and the absurd broadcasting notion that Beck could generate interesting television for an entire hour while interviewing a congressman he barely even knew. i.e. recipe for disaster. And yes, Beck seems to know that the lecture-like shows he now produces, complete with unreadable chalkboards, don't make for good TV. Last week he jokingly conceded, "This is the worst television ever done. We're doing it every day, congratulations."

Beck appears to be trapped in something of a programming box. If he continues to just keep saying the same thing day after day, more viewers are likely to flee. If he goes long and risks his shows on ridiculous Massa-like interviews, more viewers are likely to be turned off.

But who knows, maybe it wasn't the Massa flame-out that drove viewers away. Instead, maybe it was Beck's hateful and irresponsible attack on Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, in which he urged parishioners to leave their church -- during the Easter season -- if their church mentioned "social justice," which Beck announced was akin to communism and Nazism. Maybe that's what opened the Fox News floodgates, as offended viewers forced their way out.

Or maybe it's been a combination of Beck's incessant whining, married with his delusional conspiracies and his hateful rhetoric that simply do not appeal to people outside of his most hardcore, fanatical, Obama-hating followers. And maybe in the end that group only numbers 1-1.5 million viewers.

Or maybe the sagging numbers represent the let-down that came after Beck's flock watched health care reform pass; the same reform that the GOP Noise Machine had pronounced dead all winter long and that had no chance of passing. (Oops!)

Oh, and did I mention Beck's runaway ego? As Media Matters' Ben Dimiero wrote last week:

Capping a week in which he attempted to explain the "plan" he "think[s]" God wants him to "articulate," Glenn Beck informed listeners of his radio show today that "an individual" at the Vatican purportedly told him that we are entering a "period of great darkness" and that Beck himself was "wildly important" to the upcoming struggle.

Okaaay.

Whatever the possible causes of the exodus, Nielsen numbers don't lie about the concrete effects.

Jed Lewison recently pointed out at DailyKos that Beck's April ratings this year are actually slightly lower than April 2009, when the whole Tea Party movement was just getting off the ground [emphasis original]:

From April 1 to April 14, 2009 (the two weeks immediately preceding tea party 2009) the Glenn Beck show averaged 2.23 million viewers.

Meanwhile, from April 1 to April 14, 2010 his show averaged 2.15 million viewers.

[...]

That's not a dramatic decline, and Beck clearly still has a loyal audience. But his audience is not growing.

That's right, year-to-date, Beck's audience is not growing. Despite all the media attention, the cover stories on Beck and the endless reporting of the Tea Party movement he supposedly leads, over the last 12 months, Beck has not grown his TV audience. Well, he grew it, and then lost it again, while managing to lose 200 advertisers as well.

In fact, if the precipitous Glenn Beck ratings trend continues, the show will soon be regularly attracting many, many fewer viewers than it did 12 months ago -- an astonishing turn of events for a signature show that's supposed to be at the forefront of a political revolution.

UPDATED: New April Nielsen numbers confirm Beck's rating decline.