How Low (In The Ratings) Can Glenn Beck Go?

If CNN were a meritocracy, it would be right-wing showman Glenn Beck out looking for a job, not Paula Zahn. Instead, CNN appears to be sponsoring some sort of affirmative action program for an audience-challenged conservative who is allowed to drive his ratings into the ground without fear of being ousted.

And then there was Beck's embrace last week of the radical-right John Birch Society, right on CNN Headline News. Just how extreme was Beck's move? In the nearly 230,000 hours that CNN has broadcast since its inception 27 years ago, Beck's program was the first time any CNN anchor or reporter interviewed a spokesman from the John Birch Society and presented that person as an authority on anything.

Read the full Media Matters column here.