Why This Buffoon Commands A BriWi Paycheck

Silicon Alley Insider:

Glenn Beck hosts a little-watched, scarcely-promoted show on CNN's Headline News, but he just signed a radio deal worth $50 million over five years. Which means he's getting paid the same as NBC's Brian Williams, who is watched by more than 8 million people a night. Radio is supposed to be a dying medium, so what gives?

Well, unlike music listeners, talk radio audiences tend to be loyal -- and much less likely to bolt for iPods, videogames, or Facebook. Beck, 43, reaches about 5 million a week on the radio, and has a younger audience than Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, the two biggest stars of the genre. And while most folks on the coasts hadn't heard of Beck before he got a show on Headline News, TV is just his latest brand extension, like live events and his web site.

Read the whole story: Silicon Alley Insider

Comments

[supergranny]

07:44 PM on 11/07/2007

another boozehound pillpopper found jesus. he is america. made up, make believe, abreviated, abridged, effortless con artist. slut and media whore laughing all the way to the bank. throw your tv away.

[Carolinagreens]

03:09 PM on 11/07/2007

Glenn can be really funny. I guess he's my Rosie O'Donnell

[OckhamsElectricRazor]

09:36 AM on 11/07/2007

Scoundrels like Beck, Imus, Coulter, O'Reilly, etc. will predictably spew their venom in whatever forum provided. They have always existed in America media throughout our history. They have gained prominence by the deliberate abandonment of any civic duty or responsibility to inform the public on the part of the media bosses. The news and public affairs media is now run by businessmen who will say or do anything to increase market share. These people probably dont even remember the time when stewardship of the public airways was considered a sacred priveledge; and standards of fair play and good taste actually existed.

It is time to highlight the enablers--those companies and people who sponsor such reprehensible muck mongers. Imus and the rest of the muck mongers are creations of and for the media. They spew their venom, not out of conviction or to further any particular cause, but to make money for himself and to increase market share for media programs. Their success is manufatured in the same way as with Britney and Paris.

Shock has its temporary fascination. However, just as airing the corpse of a dog in the road may compel a certain type of viewer to tune in, eventually the facination turns to disgust. It would be wrong to mistake Beck's prostituting his glibness for serious social commentary.

[BeamMeUpScotty]

09:20 AM on 11/07/2007

Hate groups like the KKK and neo Nazis will always have their audience - Glenn Beck has his. CNN will rue the day they courted zealots like Nancy Grace and Glenn Beck.

[ljsfolly]

09:11 AM on 11/07/2007

Well Mr Beck must have a golden pitoot as I have only attempted once to watch him and he was a nut job and screamer when I tried. He has Billo and Sean written all over him so why the big bucks? Must have a golden pitooot.

[frappe]

08:23 AM on 11/07/2007

This is just another example of a conservative-owned media choosing to populate that same media with idiotic, conservative spokespeople. Glenn Beck doesn't deserve $5,000 per year, never mind $50,000,000. It's just one more reason why I don't listen to talk radio at all. The air waves are polluted with right wing nutcases who arrogantly think that they have all of the answers.

[Countess]

08:20 AM on 11/07/2007

Beck is no more idiotic than the president and his cabinet and please never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

[mcearlgrey]

08:09 AM on 11/07/2007

Glenn Beck is a low-rent idiot, for sure, but it seems that HuffPost, by putting "buffoon" and "BriWi" in a headline, is racing him to the bottom.

[wars4profit]

09:41 PM on 11/06/2007

Hate 9/11 truth?

If so, you’ll love Glenn Beck!

Watch him call his guest, researcher David Von Kleist, producer of “9/11 in Plane Sight, "nutjob."

Watch him pantomime exaggerated disbelief, wiggle his whole body, assume a falsetto while leaning into the camera, smile contemptuously, shrug his shoulders and wave his hands around:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGsIKiuBExI

Here are two reviews:

“Wow, Glenn Beck is a fucking idiot. I seriously felt like giving him a whack across the face. What a narrow-minded asshole.”

“What a horrid man Beck is and how incredibly rude and totally impolite—how the guest continued, I don’t know. I think I would have refused to be in the company of an idiot with a list of foolish comments and insulting questions.”
.

[loki]

08:59 PM on 11/06/2007

I think its kind of the same reason we have an idiot for a president. The power brokers of the Capitalistic Neo Cons want a person who is butt stupid so they can use them to promote their agenda without appearing to be doing it themselves. So , you get the dumbest person you can find who has some radio experience, and pat him on the back , constantly tell him how wonderful he is, and what a great job he is doing while at the same time your paying top advertising dollars to make his little show look like its a huge success. Build him to a national status, pay him huge money, make him believe its all his work, and you love and adore his work. Slip suggestions into his tiny pee brain and let him run with it.
It worked with Rush, why not with Glenn. I mean, Glenn is even dumber than Rush, and obviously much more gullible too. If he was in politics Im sure he would be one of the republican candidates for president. He is a perfect example of a human sock puppet.

[gala1]

07:23 PM on 11/06/2007

I used to default religiously to CNN for news.
But since it has become besotted with shrewish tabloidization and agendized xenophobia it's become the pundit equivalent of fixed wrestling.

Gaudy, crooked and very boring, except for Anderson Cooper and Jack Cafferty. I'd imagine both of them spend part of each day contemplating where to jump ship to from the scow they've found themselves scuttled on.

Now I've even changed my homepage which had been CNN from the day I first owned a computer, nearly ten years.

It's a pity that we've watched the rise and freefall of CNN, but over is over and MSNBC is the place to tune in these days.
What i don't understand is the point in promoting cretins like Beck and Grace. To gain a sliver of simplistic trailer dwellers, CNN has alienated a huge number of viewers who are ever in search of real news--- not the latest on dead blondes and ranting buffoons.

The truth probably is that we need another cable news channel. The one that CNN started out being would do just fine.
All news, all the time and opinion-free analysis.

But I guess that is what the web is for these days. It just means I watch the news at my desk instead of the couch.
The good thing is news 0n-line is newspaper news, so cable's decline is actually the resurgence of print.
Plus ca channel, plus ca change.

gala

[leftLibertarian]

06:50 PM on 11/06/2007

Glenda Beck. Just another Chicken Hawk who loves war.

[JScott]

06:48 PM on 11/06/2007

I NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY PEOPLE GET PAID MEGA $ TO BE SO STUPID (not just him but these recently golden parachuted CEO's who were crappy, crotch showing celebs etc.) I'm not extremely smart but have way more sense than these folks, where's my money?

[mae692]

04:58 PM on 11/06/2007

GB tells his supporters what they want to hear. You can't go wrong doing that!

Liberals need to watch (or listen) and learn. I mean the technique, not the actual show because it's brain-numbing. But, if you have a job where radio is your only entertainment option, GB and RL have 8 hours of day to repeat the same, simple message over, and over, and over, and over again.

[LeftVetPatriot]

04:53 PM on 11/06/2007

One punch. Just one. Please.