NYT's Brian Stelter and Bill Carter on why Glenn Beck's an instant ratings wonderboy: Barely two months into his job at Fox, his program is a phenomenon: It typically draws about 2.2 million viewers, more than any other cable news host except Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity, despite being on at 5 p.m., a slow shift for cable news.Keith Olbermann - the liberal Glenn Beck - has been at it nearly six years and will never achieve Glenn's phenomenal ratings overnight success.
MSNBC czar Phil Griffin slyly compares Beck's behavior to Olbermann: "That's good, dramatic television," said Phil Griffin, the president of a Fox competitor, MSNBC. "That's who Glenn Beck is."
Why hasn't the NYT referred to Olbermann as "mad" as in the Stelter/Carter (what does Stelter's top billing over veteran TV critic Carter infer?) headline: "Fox News's Mad, Apocalyptic, Tearful Rising Star"???? Or a screamer?
That photo the Times used of Beck makes me think of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."
I am such a nerd.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw a picture of Glen's four point five million dollar home, I sort of fell out of love.
He is so good at making us feel that he is just like us!
Hannity has one, too. On long island. Same price range.
I don't begrudge them these wounderful houses.
They have earned them.
But learning these things has just pulled the curtain back a bit.
(Better them than Olbernut.)
Could it be that he's giving voice to what a lot of people are feeling?
ReplyDeleteCara, I haven't seen his house... Hannity's is $10 mil. Olbermann's NYC condo is $4 mil. Limbaugh's is north of $30 mil in Palm Beach county on Ocean Dr.
ReplyDeleteBeck's more of us than Obama and Co.
Marty,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info.
I have such a limited sense of perspective and proportionality.
We'll host a telethon for Glenn. Make him eligible for, well, not foot stamps. Maybe BMW stamps.
ReplyDeletefood stamps, I mean
ReplyDeleteI noticed they replaced his candy with grapes...so Fox News thinks they can control the sugar rush? When the levee breaks....
ReplyDeleteGlenn is popular because everyone knows someone like him at work, at their favorite bar, in their family. The typical ADD person who forgets to take their meds.
ReplyDeleteThat's not true, Cara. I get what you're saying. You don't have a limited perspective. You see the hypocrisy of a raving populist and his multimillion dollar pad. But I think we gotta cut them some slack.
ReplyDeleteLaree: I would've thought Glenn would've been over the alcoholic sugar thing by now.
I noticed they replaced his candy with grapes...so Fox News thinks they can control the sugar rush? When the levee breaks....
ReplyDelete