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The Common Thread Between Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Jimmy Fallon And Jersey Shore

bye

by Steve Krakauer | 5:25 pm, November 19th, 2010

» 35 comments

In the 16 months since we launched Mediaite, there have been certain topics that we as a site (and me, in particular) have taken a major, sometimes obsessive, interest in.

As I head out today, I want to connect what I see as the common thread between some of my favorite topics to cover.

As we’ve written about the media, and millions have made their way to Mediaite, it has been great to know the media world is reading too.

Well…

Yeah, sure, Keith. Anyway, here are four media figures I believe have revolutionized aspects of the politics, media and pop culture world that Mediaite operates in.

• Glenn Beck: revolutionized the personal brand. This could have been chalked up to “cable news” but Beck goes far beyond that. There have been others who have revolutionized cable news before – Larry King, then Bill O’Reilly. To a lesser extent, Keith Olbermann and Anderson Cooper. But Beck’s power goes far beyond his hour on Fox News. It was October 1, 2009 when I called Beck the new “King of all Media,” and the past year-plus has only proven that. His August rally was unprecedented by a media figure (at the time, of course) and seeing his stage show displayed Beck in a whole new light.

Glynnis made the Oprah comparison, and it is certainly apt. But it isn’t just the books he talks about that go gold – it’s the ones he writes too. And he has staying power (I mean, he’s got a 100-year plan).

I get asked a lot about what feeds our obsession with Glenn Beck here, and it boils down to two distinct factors. Politics aside, Beck puts out an entertaining and surprising product in an industry that desperately longs for such things. And while he tears up and makes some outlandish statements sometimes, there is a raw, self-awareness that encompasses Beck – if you take him seriously when he’s being serious, he can laugh with you when you laugh at some of the ridiculousness. As easy as that sounds, it is unbelievably rare in the world of celebrity.

• Sarah Palin: revolutionized politics. No matter what happens in the political world over the next two years, Sarah Palin will go down as a media genius. The former Alaskan Governor was the subject of our very first top story here at Mediaite, just days after she left the office. Even then, we knew: “We’re curious what’s up, Gov. Palin, and nobody is interested in you going away. If you went away, who would the media have to kick around?”

In the subsequent 16 months, no other topic has been written about more, with countless stories about Palin on Mediaite (well, not exactly countless – more than 1,000 stories have mentioned her). She has become the true standard for how to successfully use a Facebook page, and her Twitter feed continues to have influence as well. When she releases a YouTube video, the media salivates with potential angles of excitement.

It’s not because they don’t like her either – I believe that we here at Mediaite see her as a phenomenon. Palin is a success anomaly. She has an unmatched ability to use every mistake she makes to its biggest possible advantage. Who else can misspell a word on Twitter and have it become word of the year? Or get caught writing notes on her hand, only to incorporate it into future political speeches? Or turn embarrassing interview answers into tag lines for her own reality show? Whether Sarah Palin is ever elected President or not, she has transformed the way politicians need to think about their careers – and very few can say that about their field.

• Jimmy Fallon: revolutionized late night TV. It was nearly a year ago that I said Jimmy Fallon was the future of broadcast TV, but you could make the same case for late night television specifically. After speaking with Fallon and his producers Mike Shoemaker and Gavin Purcell, it was clear the show simply had a different DNA than others like it. The Late Night offering marries the important TV product with a vibrant and unique web presence, that involves the site but also social media. There are moments that occur on the air – a duet with Bruce Springsteen singing “Whip My Hair” or a highly-produced Glee parody – that play to Fallon’s strength but also exist in another, important way online.

When Conan O’Brien made his return two weeks ago, it came after an enormous and successful social media campaign. But so far, the show itself hasn’t converged with the digital property in the same way Fallon has managed to incorporate the two. In some cases, Fallon quite literally did both – he watched the show at 12:35amET with staff for a week, with a webcam in the room and broadcast to his site, interacting with viewers. There will come a time when all shows have to be as web savvy as Fallon’s Late Night – in fact, Jay Leno‘s Tonight Show 2.0 has started to engage much more actively. But Fallon is still leading the revolution.

• Jersey Shore: revolutionized reality TV. Alright, alright. I admit, I’m probably the lone voice on Mediaite who has driven the Jersey Shore train since the very beginning. After the first episode almost a year ago, I said it was “the worst best show of all time“. After two full seasons, I still believe it.

The main thing that differentiated Snooki and The Situation from the hundreds of reality show contestants before was their ability to be compelling while remaining delightfully unaware. They were who they were – and we loved them for it. It’s what got Sen. John McCain to form an odd friendship (over Twitter) with Snooki. It led the diminutive over-tanned sex-leprechaun to be profiled by the New York Times and get some Sunday current affairs shows shout-outs. As season two began, I worried about The Self-Awareness Dilemma – had fame caused them to see what we saw all along? By the finale of this season, I believe we had our unfortunate answer. While dozens of networks try to duplicate the guido success, none have been able to do it correctly, because everyone knows now. Network executives who wants a ground-breaking reality show need to re-revolutionize the industry, by finding another group to entertain us, with complete and utter non-acting.

—–
And with that, I’m out. It’s been a pleasure covering the business at this exciting time, here with all of you, and the opportunity has been tremendous. Follow me on Twitter here, and I hope to see you all in some capacity very soon. At least I’ll keep my fingers crossed that Mediaite – this compelling, widely read site – writes about the new show I’ll be working on.

Glenn Beck, Jimmy Fallon, Sarah Palin

JenJen

Best of luck, Steve! You’ll be missed, very much. Will look for you over at Piers Morgan’s show!
jess5691

Good luck Steve. You’re a great, fair writer. You will be missed.
Latin2

Good Luck Steve, remember Fox is right about most things.
juan

Thanks for your OBJECTIVE reporting, Steve. That’s a RARE Feat these days!

We’ll miss ya much and God Speed!
Latin2

Steve you know what we Conservatives are writing is true.

The majority of “journalists” are Liberal and have a Liberal bent…yet the majority of the country is Conservative.
cjd ohio 1

good luck steve
Harry Flashman

Salutes, Krakauer, and good luck. Strength and honor.
Puter Boi

“Sarah Palin: revolutionized politics.”

ummmmm…..no…Abraham Lincoln did that a few years ago.

“Jimmy Fallon: revolutionized late night TV”

Wrong again…Johnny Carson did that in 1962. The people who followed only wish they could be as good…..just ask them.

Steve Krak revolutionized the use of the word revolution…..no argument here…..

Best of luck, Krak!
tws258

Best of Luck Steve !

Who now will let us know when ” Maddow Tops Olbermann ” ?
Puter Boi

tws258 said:
Who now will let us know when ” Maddow Tops Olbermann ” ?

ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……
tws258

Puter Boi said:
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww……

What ? What’d I say ?
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Good luck, Steve.
TfT

Good luck steve. I’ve enjoued your work here and at tvnewser prior

Cnn is one more stepping stone to the best network
On cable.

Best wishes
timzank

Best wishes Krak!
MediaWhore

The common thread is they’re all idiots.
pansycritter

Blue background?
pansycritter

MediaWhore said:
The common thread is they’re all idiots.

sucks to be you. You look like chris matthews.
MediaWhore

pansycritter said:
sucks to be you. You look like chris matthews.

Clearly you haven’t been around the Mediaite comments section very long. I’ll let you figure it out on your own. The hint is gordonbloyerswig.
Kird

MediaWhore said:
Clearly you haven’t been around the Mediaite comments section very long. I’ll let you figure it out on your own. The hint is gordonbloyerswig.

Mocking Gordon is like banging the ugliest sentient being in universe in front of all your friends while giving bragged running commentary.
WilsonTheHeretic

Wow. Mediaite loses one of it’s most balanced and unbiased contributors and I lose one major reason to keep reading.
Kird

WilsonTheHeretic said:
Wow. Mediaite loses one of it’s most balanced and unbiased contributors and I lose one major reason to keep reading.

After December 7, I will a gone pecan fo’ sho.
nrgetick

JFK==INSIDE JOB
sarainitaly

Where’s Steve going?! He’s leaving? Bummer! He’s the best writer here. We’ll miss you steve!

In the subsequent 16 months, no other topic has been written about more, with countless stories about Palin on Mediaite (well, not exactly countless – more than 1,000 stories have mentioned her). She has become the true standard for how to successfully use a Facebook page, and her Twitter feed continues to have influence as well. When she releases a YouTube video, the media salivates with potential angles of excitement.

It’s not because they don’t like her either – I believe that we here at Mediaite see her as a phenomenon. Palin is a success anomaly. She has an unmatched ability to use every mistake she makes to its biggest possible advantage.

While I agree with things Steve wrote here about Palin (except that writers like her – I don’t believe they do), I believe the bigger reason the media writes about Palin is simple distraction. They are obsessed with a woman (who has no elected or official position – at all) because it is FAR easier to write about and trash her and her children than to have to focus on the inexperienced flop they carried all the way to the White House.

It’s been two years now, of non-stop Palin bashing. They are going to keep this up for at least another two….

Why would they want to focus on Obama and all of his broken promises, missteps and failures when they can discuss whether DWTS voting system is rigged, or that Palin misspelled a word.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

pansycritter said:
“sucks to be you. You look like chris matthews.”

MediaWhore says:
“Clearly you haven’t been around the Mediaite comments section very long. I’ll let you figure it out on your own. The hint is gordonbloyerswig.”

You may look like Gordon Bloyer with a wig, but you write like Gordon Bloyer with a heart.
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

“Gordon Bloyer with a heart.” That’s a phrase that I find astonishing to have authored. (Now watch him quote me out of context.)
http://sharethisurlaboutglennbeck.com/ GlennBeckReview

sarainitaly says:
“Why would they want to focus on Obama and all of his broken promises,….”

As tempted as I am to rewrite your comment name as sarainlalaland again, I do have to give you credit for not referring to Obama’s broken promises as “lies,” the way many on the lalaland right do.

That written, I have to point out that Obama has kept more promises than George Bush made in 2000. According to PolitiFact.com, Obama has kept 123 promises, compromised on 40 promises, has 234 promises in the works, got stalled on 84 promises and has broken “all of” 24 promises. Sara, less than 5% of Obama’s promises have been broken.

See: http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

Now that the American people have voted for stalemate in Washington (while complaining that they are not solving our problems), it’s unlikely that many of the promises “in the works” will not be kept. Then the right-wing media will deceptively blame Obama for not keeping them. Fact is, Sara, that the Senate Republicans are the main reason that there are so many Obama promises “in the works.”

I’ve suggested this before, Sara, you need to find an accurate news source, because whatever you’re getting your information from is making you out to be another uninformed clown when you repeat the nonsense that you’re hearing on propaganda channels. (Do you get Fox in Italy?)
http://mediaite.com Steve Krakauer

Thanks guys! I’m starting at CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight on Monday…

Mark Joyella takes over the TV beat here. Play nice!
BeesBuzz

Best of Luck, Steve.

We’ll miss you!
sarainitaly

“That written, I have to point out that Obama has kept more promises than George Bush”

Your point? I thought Obama was better than Bush, I thought Obama was CHANGE from Bush. He has broken promises he made that helped get him elected, including closing Gitmo within the first year, which politifact considers a stalled promise. Uh…it’s been over a year. I am well aware of this site, thanks.

“because whatever you’re getting your information from is making you out to be another uninformed clown when you repeat the nonsense that you’re hearing on propaganda channels.”

What did I say that was uniformed? He has broken promises. He has missteps and failures. Please, do tell where exactly I have been uniformed.
sarainitaly

Good luck Steve!
Reality_Check

Good luck, Steve! On getting over your self-absorbed attitude, arrogance, tedious elitism, and laughable self-perception. You will be right at home at CNN. You might want to take along a life-preserver to wear on that sinking ship. The S.S. Liberal of cable news a.k.a. “A ship of fools.”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Westover/1496648721 Tony Westover

But Jimmy Fallon isn’t funny.

And the current set of guidos on Jersey Shore are way played out and it’s pretty obvious they’re a buncha fakes now. They need to bring in a new batch for us to laugh at.
Jayson

sarainitaly said:
“That written, I have to point out that Obama has kept more promises than George Bush” Your point? I thought Obama was better than Bush, I thought Obama was CHANGE from Bush. He has broken promises he made that helped get him elected, including closing Gitmo within the first year, which politifact considers a stalled promise. Uh…it’s been over a year. I am well aware of this site, thanks. “because whatever you’re getting your information from is making you out to be another uninformed clown when you repeat the nonsense that you’re hearing on propaganda channels.” What did I say that was uniformed? He has broken promises. He has missteps and failures. Please, do tell where exactly I have been uniformed.

Oh good lord, do you ever stop? Do you work? Go to school? Do you actually have a life other than mediate? I’m guessing no you don’t, as you’re on here saying the same old, same old, every day. Its so stale.
sarainitaly

Jayson said:
sarainitaly says: Please, do tell where exactly I have been uniformed.

Oh good lord, do you ever stop? Do you work? Go to school? Do you actually have a life other than mediate? I’m guessing no you don’t, as you’re on here saying the same old, same old, every day. Its so stale.

that’s what I thought…
http://none pyrope

The only common thread I can see is they all apparently have a pulse.