Sooner Blue

.. the only fear is what replaces you....

Fox News finally came to its senses and said goodbye to Glenn Beck .. some are saying not for his politics, but because of his excesses. But, if you just look at the facts, in the end it came down to money .. his advertisers started running away when his ratings plummeted .. they weren't getting as much bark for their buck .. then, there were all those pesky boycotts ...

Darn he was fun to watch .. he started his Fox show the day before Barack Obama’s inauguration as president in January 2009. He tapped into the fears of a tanking economy, and the outrage of an older racist audience who couldn't believe that a Black Man was in the White House.

He warned them of dark things going wrong in the world .. sometimes crying "for his country" as he served up complex conspiracy theories with their supper .. using his blackboard to show how the Apocalypse is coming .. how a socialist/fascist/communist President Obama was going to destroy the world .. and somehow Woodrow Wilson figured into it.

At his peak last year, Beck’s ratings soared to 2.9 million viewers each day. He got so full of himself that he went on Fox's morning show and said President Obama had a "deep-seated hatred for white people."

That's when his advertisers ~really~ head-jerked .. soon more than 400 told Fox they didn’t want their commercials seen on his show.

It always struck me as funny that Beck cried and barked (yes, literally) about the End of Humanity, while at the same time hawking retirement planning, investment advice, and even insurance. If Armageddon is tomorrow .. why?

So, his popularity faded .. although he still led his time slot .. those poor old scared white people still clung to him, hoarding gold, ammo and turnip seeds in their underground bunkers.

Beck is an emotionally and mentally unstable person who just made stuff up and was allowed to present his fantasies as fact. I'll never forget a video clip of him saying, "If it wasn't true, they wouldn't let me say it on TV."

It is to our national credit that most Americans tired of Lonesome Rhodes Beck as he slipped ever deeper into a state of egotistical semi-madness. It gives me a glimmer of hope that maybe we have a limited appetite for completely insane crap.

Hopefully, his leaving Fox marks his first steps toward oblivion .. although his parting words were ominous - "You will pray for the time when I was only on the air for one hour a day."

Me? He never scared me .. I figured him as a grifter, same as Palin, revvin' up the rubes so they'd buy more CD's, DVD's, books, and what all .. don't forget those high dollar speaking fees.

At least Beck once admitted he is a "rodeo clown" .. scenes from "A Face in the Crowd" always played in my head when I saw him.

I leave you with this: "Media Matters for America recalls the 50 worst things Beck has said on Fox."

Or, this video of Beck highlights from the past 2.5 years is faster .. it was put together by MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell.

A verrrry interesting report in NY Magazine about how Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes is trying with all his rightie might to find a candidate who can beat President Obama in 2012. That's right - the head of a 'news organization' sticking his fingers in political pies ...

"The Elephant in the Green Room"

"The circus Roger Ailes created at Fox News made his network $900 million last year. But it may have lost him something more important: the next election. ... it must have been disturbing to Ailes when the wheels started to come off Fox’s presidential-circus caravan .. this happened more or less when Donald Trump jumped on ... The problem wasn’t that ratings had been slipping ... It was that, with an actual presidential election on the horizon, the Fox candidates’ poll numbers remain dismally low. ...[..]"

This is a must read for anyone curious about the inner-workings of Fox News and how badly Roger Ailes wants to be a kingmaker.

How strange that a man this politically active is allowed to be a News Director. Would it be tolerated anywhere else in the industry?

I especially enjoyed the article's behind the scenes stuff. Like how Bill O’Reilly "can’t stand" Sean Hannity .. and how Glenn Beck’s rise in popularity and ratings shattered the fragile EGO-system of the prime-time hosts ...

There's the relationship between Beck and Ailes .. it took Roger a while to ease Beck out. It was difficult having to balance a potential Beck meltdown with not wanting liberals to think they'd won .. he came close to firing him when he felt that Beck’s "advisers" were jerking him around."

Also - Roger apparently thinks Sarah Palin is an ‘idiot’ .. only his spokesman is now saying that's not true, that Roger thinks Sarah is "smart."

Anyway, word is he soured on Palin over the way she responded to the tragic killings and the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson. Seems that Sarah had asked Roger's advice on the best way to react .. then completely ignored him and made it all about herself .. inflaming political rhetoric for weeks.

But the thing that got me is how powerful Roger Ailes really is .. I mean, we Democrats complain about how Fox News knowingly broadcasts obvious lies and absurdities about Barack Obama and the Democratic party -- like death panels, Socialism, socialized medicine, Kenya, secret Muslims, birther crap, Obama is a racist, terrorist fist jabs, czars, etc. .. all the Obama Crazy starts with Fox News.

Turns out we were right .. Ailes actually does run the Republican party, "having employed five prospective presidential candidates and done perhaps more than anyone to alter the balance of power in the national media in favor of the Republicans. ... He knew there were a couple million conservatives who were a potential audience, and he built Fox to reach them."

Yes, Roger wants to choose the next US President .. last summer he invited NJ Gov. Chris Christie to dinner at his upstate compound (Rush Limbaugh was there), "and encouraged him to jump into the race. ... like much of the GOP Establishment, he fell hard for Christie, who nevertheless politely turned down Ailes's calls to run."

Well, I don’t know where to start .. this article confirms that Fox News is not a news network .. no decent journalism going on there. They are pure political propaganda and an embarrassment to genuine and legitimate news organizations.

Can you imagine the howls of outrage from Drudge and conservative pundits if the chairman of CNN, or MSNBC, was cajoling certain candidates to run?

The one bright spot in all of this is that Ailes seems to have tainted the very party he wants to promote. Yes, entertaining to watch .. until you consider the damage done to our two-party system and whether we can recover.

Can journalism recover from the corrupt, unethical, dishonest, cynical, immoral and self-serving mark of Roger Ailes?

Channel Offers Welcome Break from Reality, Psychologists Say

NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – With unprecedented crises engulfing the world, millions of television viewers are finding the news too stressful to watch – and are turning to the Fox News Channel instead.

"Things are so bad in the world right now, many people are afraid to watch the news," says psychologist Davis Logsdon, who studies the relationship between news consumption and stress at the University of Minnesota. "For them, Fox News represents a welcome break from reality."

Tracy Klugian, 37, a systems analyst from Lansing, Michigan, said that he was flipping the channels to find "anything but news" and found himself watching Fox for the first time.

"They had this guy on – something Beck I think his name was – and he was just going on and on, making stuff up," he said. "I was like, this is the kind of mindless junk I need right now."

Mr. Klugian says he now records the program and watches it every day when he gets home for work: "For one hour at least, I know that I can kick back and not hear anything that’s going on in the world."

He said that watching Fox had also introduced him to "my favorite new comedian – this hysterical woman named Michele Bachmann."

"She was doing this bit about how the American Revolution started in New Hampshire, not Massachusetts, and then she started mixing up where Lexington and Concord were," he said. "Okay, I know it sounds really stupid, but I almost peed myself."

Elsewhere, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said he is not worried how history will remember him "because if I have my way, there won’t be any history teachers."

From borowitzreport.com

.. they're using the horrible disaster in Japan to mock, attack and insult the Japanese. The Tea Party fans need a big dose of mean and crazy to keep them tuned in .. see how that works out.

Glenn Beck says the disaster is "a direct message from God" for sinful ways .. while Rush Limbaugh slams Japan for trying to be 'green,' suggesting "Gaia hit the Prius ... it's like they were in the crosshairs."

I wondered how long it would take rightwing religious zealots to ramble about End Times ...

Then here comes Glenn Beck on his radio show the other day with, "I just want to point out that today's show may be a little apocalyptic" .. and he went on to explain that, while he wasn't claiming the earthquake was a direct message from God .. well, it was.

Here's a recording of Beck from Media Matters:

"....Whether you call it Gaia, or whether you call it Jesus, there's a message being sent and that is, 'hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well.' Maybe we should stop doing some of it."

....what do you say we follow the big top ten. You can call them Moses' ten commandments, or ten rules of thumb. What do you say we start doing those things? Because the things we are doing really suck and they're not getting better. ..."

Next, we have the disgusting Limbaugh mocking the Japanese disaster by saying Japan was struck because the country was trying to be environmentally aware.

I swear, if a Democrat spewed this kind of crap, he/she wouldn't have to worry about Republican backlash .. because the Democratic Party would have such a fit that a resignation would be offered before it hit the 6 o'clock news.

Here's a recording of Limbaugh from Media Matters:

CALLER: I need some of your wisdom. I'm confused. At the top of the first hour, you played a clip. Diane Sawyer, I believe, about the recycling that is still going on in Japan.

LIMBAUGH: I did. You're right.

CALLER: If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation, recycling, why did mother earth, Gaia if you will, hit them with this disaster?

LIMBAUGH: Well, that's an interesting question.

The Japanese have done so much to save the planet. He's right. They've given us the Prius. Even now, refugees are still recycling their garbage, and yet Gaia levels them [laughs], just wipes them out. Wipes out their nuclear plants, all kinds of radiation. What kind of payback is this? That is an excellent question. They invented the Prius. In fact, where Gaia blew up is right where they make all these electric cars. That's where the tsunami hit.

....it's like Gaia hit the Prius in [inaudible]. It's like they were in the crosshairs, if we can use that word, it does. What is Gaia trying to tell us here? What is the mother of environmentalism trying to say with this hit? ...[..]"

First thing that occurred to me - "Chris" the caller sounds like one of those rightwing callers who are hired and paid to call into rightwing programs .. it was just too smooth and orchestrated, setting up Limbaugh perfectly.

Note to Japan - Limbaugh isn't just some crazy rightwing radio host .. he speaks for the Republican Party, and is supported by all the leaders of the Republican party. You're being attacked and ridiculed by a lead member of the Republican Party .. and don't hold your breath until another Republican screws up the courage to criticize Limbaugh for what he said.

Both Beck and Limbaugh are so unbelievably vile that I take every opportunity to expose them as the liars, hypocrites, charlatans and manipulative propagandists that they are.

There's a lot of buzz on the Intertubes about a recent piece in the New York Times reporting that, while Fox News host Glenn Beck continues to get good ratings, a continual drop in his viewership has Fox "looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck."

Hundreds of advertisers have pulled out as well. Rumors have Fox execs urging Beck to make the tone of his show more upbeat.

Read more here: "What had been a fast and loose assault on all things liberal has grown darker and less entertaining, especially with the growing revolution in the Middle East, a phenomenon Mr. Beck sees as something of a beginning to some kind of end... Mr. Beck remains firm in his belief that something is going terribly wrong and it may be time to stock up on canned goods and head to the basement. The problem with predicting doomsday is that if you're wrong, you have to figure out what to say the next day. And if you're right ... well, the ratings will be terrific, for what that's worth. [..]"

Beck's celebrity has slowly but surely pushed the self-described rodeo clown over the edge into the abyss of megalomania .. think Lonesome Rhodes .. and his theories get crazier and crazier. Soon he'll have to explain why Doomsday didn't come ...

Some people say that Glenn Beck is no more responsible for the harm he does than a pit-bull is for attacking a child .. the pit-bull's owner is at fault for unmuzzling him. Beck's master is Rupert Murdoch.

I'll bet Murdoch would only dump him because he's afraid Beck's outrageous rants will embarrass Republicans enough to screw up their chances to beat President Obama in 2012 .. otherwise, he probably loves the guy.

See, Beck was great in 2010 for motivating the fringe base .. but in 2012 he's sure to scare away the moderates .. so the groundwork is being laid for him to be 'laid off' by Fox.

Beck is only worshiped by the far-right fringe .. and he's made big bucks by tapping into their fears .. which he keeps well fueled.

Reasonable-minded people just don't buy his bunk.

And I'll bet he'll never put his money where his mouth is .. nope, you won't find Glenn Beck holed up underground with gold coins, cases of canned food, guns and ammo, waiting for End Times.

This time it's Fox News contributor Bill Kristol and Fox News crazy Glenn Beck.

Kristol wrote the truth about Beck's hysterical reaction to the Egyptian protests. Beck had been preaching that "the forces of evil were linking arms" .. I think liberals and the Muslim Brotherhood were two.

Anyway, Kristol wrote in his column that Beck was "marginalizing himself" through his "hysteria":

"Now, people are more than entitled to their own opinions of how best to accomplish that democratic end. And it's a sign of health that a political and intellectual movement does not respond to a complicated set of developments with one voice.

But hysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He's marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s. [The Weekly Standard, 2/14/11]

Whoa, pretty harsh for Kristol, who has his own corner in the crazy closet - remember, he was the one who touted Sarah Palin as John McCain's VP - but he nailed the John Birch Society reference.

Of course, Beck started whining and took to his radio show to mock Kristol .. said that Kristol's kind of thinking is what got us into the Egyptian mess in the first place .. that Kristol doesn't stand for anything anymore, that he only cares about power and keeping his "little fiefdom together" .. yada yada yada.

Read more here:

http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201102070023

Beck's fear-mongering may fool some - like frightened old people and shut-ins who haven't read a newspaper in 20 years - but his ratings are falling, and he recently lost two major radio stations.

So, maybe more people are catching on to his Chicken Little Scam .. which always segues from warnings about dollar devaluation into TV ads for converting your savings into gold coins through his sponsor Goldline (being investigated last I heard) .. and all kinds of survivalist crap available on his website.

Yes, survivalist crap .. see how important it is to Beck's bank account to keep fueling End Times paranoia .. soon even his most slack-jawed viewers are going to put 2 and 2 together ...