Wednesday, August 09, 2006
HLN's Beck is "Crazy Like a Fox"
Looks like the pr machine is working getting HLN's Glenn Beck's name out there. Toni Fitzgerald with Media Life Magazine has written an article about the radio host turn "cable news host". Below is a portion of that article:
At present, Beck is getting stomped by Smith, who dominates the hour with 1.37 million total viewers, more than CNN, MSNBC and Headline News combined.
But if Beck continues to grow at this pace, it’s not hard to imagine him moving past Matthews to challenge CNN and perhaps Fox News in the coming months or years.
There is, of course, some irony in that. Beck was hired only after Headline News made a conscious decision to move away from the CNN model emphasizing storytelling and breaking news and toward the personality-driven approach at Fox News.
“Glenn Beck” is more yapathon than news program. Beck delivers summaries of stories while adding his opinions, which are always strong.
His refined demagoguery, which draws extreme reactions from liberals and conservatives alike, certainly would seem to attract the same type of viewer as Fox News. There are web sites dedicated to both trashing and praising him, with headlines like, “Glenn Beck: Moron, menace or both?”
Beck himself has a colorful past. A former top 40 radio host, he has battled alcoholism and drug addiction. After getting clean six years ago and becoming a Mormon, he returned to the radio as a talk host. His daily radio show, syndicated on more than 200 stations by Premiere Radio Networks, claims to be the third-most-listened to national talk show behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."
At present, Beck is getting stomped by Smith, who dominates the hour with 1.37 million total viewers, more than CNN, MSNBC and Headline News combined.
But if Beck continues to grow at this pace, it’s not hard to imagine him moving past Matthews to challenge CNN and perhaps Fox News in the coming months or years.
There is, of course, some irony in that. Beck was hired only after Headline News made a conscious decision to move away from the CNN model emphasizing storytelling and breaking news and toward the personality-driven approach at Fox News.
“Glenn Beck” is more yapathon than news program. Beck delivers summaries of stories while adding his opinions, which are always strong.
His refined demagoguery, which draws extreme reactions from liberals and conservatives alike, certainly would seem to attract the same type of viewer as Fox News. There are web sites dedicated to both trashing and praising him, with headlines like, “Glenn Beck: Moron, menace or both?”
Beck himself has a colorful past. A former top 40 radio host, he has battled alcoholism and drug addiction. After getting clean six years ago and becoming a Mormon, he returned to the radio as a talk host. His daily radio show, syndicated on more than 200 stations by Premiere Radio Networks, claims to be the third-most-listened to national talk show behind Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity."
# posted by ATN @ 12:33 PM 
