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Is Glenn Beck Losing His Audience? (Or Merely His Mojo)

by Glynnis MacNicol | 1:59 pm, April 29th, 2010

» 60 comments

Still, at the risk of reading too much into this ratings story, let’s get back to the larger issue: The heretofore underrepresented masses — what we now know as the Tea Partiers (and/or a large part of Beck’s audience) — who have borne the heaviest burden of this economy, and perhaps find the most comfort in the idea the government is out to get them, are arguably now over-represented. They no longer need to be given a voice or convinced they are not alone: It’s not as if you need to turn on Glenn Beck to hear about the secret evils of socialists (and others!) anymore. In fact it’s a bit like the country is in the process of out-Becking Beck, one result being his is a less original and/or necessary, and/or entertaining voice. It’s now just another one.

I asked Mike Madden of Salon, who has covered Beck in the past, what he thought. “The question, says Madden, “as Republicans move out of “rally the crazies!” mode and into “don’t scare the moderates!” mode is whether they’ll keep picking up talking points that first get wide circulation on Beck’s show. We had a story on Salon last year that traced a handful of his conspiracy theories right into the political mainstream. That doesn’t seem to be happening quite as much these days. Then again, that could be because Beck spends half his time now obsessing over the Progressive Era and the nefarious things Woodrow Wilson did. If he is losing some of his edge and his relevance, that might be a lesson — it’s hard to do daily political TV shows that focus mostly on the news from 90 years ago.”

Could be! It’s also hard to demonize a president day-after-day that in the end appears to be getting things done. I also started wondering this week, whether the aftermath of the Arizona bill is signifying some sort of sea change. The across the board opposition to it has been striking — so much so it has apparently managed to put Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, and Barack Obama on the same side of an argument. Even Fox News seems strangely skeptical about the whole thing. You get the sense that people are far more comfortable yelling extreme rhetoric than seeing some of their ideas put into an actual law. And I wonder if one of the results will be a craving for cooler (and/or electable) heads. Neither category of which is much use to the talents of Glenn Beck. Unless he decides to have a come to Liberal moment on live TV, which would undoubtedly keep a whole lot of people tuned in for many months to come (politics aside, the man is a showbiz genius).

Regardless, there seems to be a sense of what’s next. Time’s James Poniewozik, whose piece on Beck has been nominated for a Mirror Award, thinks the challenge is a common one:

“I’d guess that Beck’s challenge is that old one in broadcasting, which is topping his own act. He’s an entertainer among other things, and to a certain extent his show is driven by surprise, by invention, by unpredictability. That’s why, as much as I might mock his ideas, his show works so well for me as TV: that there’s a real sense of playing with the medium and not knowing what might come next. If you start feeling that, well, you *do* know what’s coming next, then maybe it feels less urgent to watch every day.”

Like I said, Liberal conversion! Probably don’t hold your breath. Meanwhile, maybe it’s best not to get ahead of ourselves. Beck’s radio show numbers are up 13% over last year. And as Madden points out he’s still bringing in a whole other set of numbers.

“If Beck doesn’t draw the 14 gazillion people that attended the 9/12 march last year (okay, fine, 70,000 people, for all you reality-based elitists) a few months before an election, right when the tea should be flowing freely, maybe he’s jumped the shark, after all. But considering the reports he made $32 million in 2009, it’s hard to argue he didn’t make the most of the time he had.”

It is indeed.

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Arizona immigration law, Eric Boehlert, eric massa, Glenn Beck, James Poniewozik, Mike Madden, Salon, Tea Partiers, Time, Your Moment of Glenn

Olby Sucks

No and no.
Big_F-ing_Deal

I think Beck has peaked but I still think he will kill in the ratings for a long time.

There are a lot of angry bitter crazies out there.
Johnny M

You bury it is in the middle, but isnt the more rational explanation that its April and ratings are down everywhere? Wouldnt that be the more fair, media explanation for why the ratings are what they are? I know its fun to come up with theories and quote Media Matters – but for a supposed media site, it seems you wouldnt fall for the trap to look at the Beck ratings in a vacuum and forget about the landscape all around.
MichelleF

Once again, the left wishing for Glenn’s demise. Glenn has us out working for him and so sometimes we miss the show. We are his little soldiers of truth!! Keep dreaming Glynnis.
MichelleF

Oh and Glynnis,
Instead of these kinds of “articles”, how about reporting on the substance of what he says.
MichelleF

I would say get rid of this tool, but I fear I will be called a racist.

Oh who cares::

GET RID OF THIS TOOL!!
MichelleF

k, thought i was posting on the michael steele story so disregard. HEHE!

I’m having trouble multi-tasking today!
PureFreedom

Interesting to see how far Obama approval ratings fell in the last year also.
I think Beck had something to do with that.
I say “keep informing the voter Beck”. the more informed people are the more the liberals hate it.
Olby Sucks

“Cable News Viewer Numbers Down Equally Across the Board” would be a boring headline. Accurate, but, boring. Turning it into a Beck hit piece falls in line with the authors agenda.
michaelhall66

I love your stories on Beck. Very little about the “CRAZY CONSPIRACIES” but a whole lot on how he is an entertainer. The reason his audience is large is that he has been right. I stopped listening in 2007 when he started this end of the world stuff with an interview on HLN about the housing bubble and he argued with a Wall Street guy about how it was going to come crashing down and he was right. I didn’t want to hear it at the time. I have seen the error in my ways. We should have been banging the drum louder with Bush.
The_Reasonable_Lib

@ MichelleF says:
April 29, 2010 at 2:27 pm:
Hitler had some of those too.
bamman

To be fair to Glynnis, this was one of her more thoughtful and well-written articles.
http://www.anonymousfinch.com AnonymousFinch

Glynnis:

You write:

_____
And just to put his numbers in fair context, year over year, everyone in cable is currently down. Some quite a lot. Just to give you a sense. Beck is down 4% from last April, Bill O’Reilly is down 3%, Keith Olbermann is down 28%, Campbell Brown is down 39%, Sean Hannity is down 17%, Rachel Maddow is down 8%. Also, it’s probably worth noting that viewer numbers traditionally drop in April. So there’s that.
_____

You look at those numbers and you think the relevant question to ask is whether GLENN BECK is losing his audience??????

I have to ask a serious question. And I mean this completely seriously. Are you insane? Is that seriously what you take away form those numbers? Do you really think that those numbers deserve a headline about Glenn beck losing his audience?

In all sincerity, I’d have a lot more respect for you if you just said: “I’m a liberal shill. I’m just writing a headline that will get lots of hits when my sycophantic liberal friends see it on twitter.” For your own sake, I hope you don’t actually believe your own bullshit.
The_Reasonable_Lib

Wow, a lot of hate here for Glynnis. So just so I get things straight; Conservatives hate the liberal bloggers but like the conservative ones. I would’ve never guessed that.
Nacho

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MichelleF says:
April 29, 2010 at 2:27 pm
“Glenn has us out working for him and so sometimes we miss the show. We are his little soldiers of truth!! ”

This is so precious. It’s something somebody would make up in an attempt to mock you but you actually said it. You are the cutest MichelleF.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I’d give credit for his radio numbers to his television success. After all, prior to his peak, I didn’t know that he was on the radio, but now I can’t go more than a few miles without seeing a sign touting him from the local talk radio station and I’ve seen both print and television ads.
The_Reasonable_Lib

Nacho says:
April 29, 2010 at 2:46 pm
As I already said to Michelle, Hitler and Stalin had soldiers of truth too, they’d come and knock on your door in the middle of the night, so we can all expect Michelle to be amongst Glenn’s brown shirts.
MichelleF

Wow RL and you call yourself reasonable? I know you lefites have trouble with the truth getting out and you think denegrading the messengers will shut them up, but unfortunately for you, it just isn’t working anymore.
bamman

Magister:

Beck, on radio, has been tied for #3 nationally for many years now. Most recent ratings are at http://talkers.com/online/?p=71 .
MichelleF

RL, there is a difference between hating someone and calling them out on their rank hypocrisy.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

Media Matters is nothing but a criminal front group. What they say about Beck’s ratings or anything else for that matter is irrelevant.
Olby Sucks

“reasonable” lib, are you related to the “veritable buddhist?” ;)
michaelhall66

Yes the guy talking about smaller government and non violence is the one who will be knocking down your door in the middle of the night. Not the huge government who mobilizes the “racism police” on anyone or group that is against thier policies. Good to see “reasonable” people in here debating.
Johnny M

The_Reasonable_Lib says:
April 29, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Wow, a lot of hate here for Glynnis. So just so I get things straight; Conservatives hate the liberal bloggers but like the conservative ones. I would’ve never guessed that.

I dont hate Glynnis, I dont know Glynnis. But I think she is the worst (or best, I guess) and misrepresenting the situation to a liberal point of view in order to generate more polarizing opinions. I mean, she puts the facts in 1 small paragraph in the middle…then decides to ignore them and go on championing the Media Matters position that Beck is losing viewership for a reason other than 1) Its spring, 2) It happens every year, 3) Its happening to everybody. If this is truly a media site, you’d think she’d get that fact and not need to propagandize the Media Matters snark piece. It would have been better if she would have just ignored the facts and built her article on hyperbole and wild guesses alone.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@bamman: thanks. I did not know that, but then again, I only recognize a few of those names and other than Jim Bohannan (from when he used to fill-in for Larry King) those that I recognize, I basically know from television.

Still, I don’t know the overall audience trend and while I assume that conservative radio goes up during Democratic administrations, I’ll still guess that increased advertising and general fame has helped his radio numbers.
The Real Royal King

You know when you see a core of people of the Blower, INB, Jeff Merrill and Michelle mindset becoming slavish viewers and adoring devotees of Beck, that he is beginning to get him so in trouble. Fringists will never be satisfied. If Beck satisfied them, he wouldn’t be allowed to continue on the air. The vacuous, racially and ethnically-tinged hate-filled screeds they demand would never be acceptable to advertisers (as we well know) or to even a quasi-legitimate or striving for legitimacy network (for which, in FOX’s instance, the proof may still be in the pudding). Beck is faced with the choice of drifting into the extremist Michael Wiener style and being relegated to the same relative obscurity he enjoys, or saying, “Whoa, we need to turn back to the center!,” and suffer the inevitable ratings dings and bruises. I can say what ratings will ultimately show, but I do think Beck has lost much of his intensity. I suspect fully satisfying the lunatic fringists, which will never happen anyway, is simply something he can’t risk. And, in the end, with Beck, it’s never about ideology or principle, but always Beck himself.
The Real Royal King

By the way, Glynnis, an admirable job, now and always. You have raised a most interesting question here and one which warrants something beyond a knee-jerk response.
Olby Sucks

Critiquing something you’ve never watched….nice. Didya even get past the headline?
http://gordonbloyershow.com gordonbloyershow

The real funny part is that libs don’t really understand what Beck is talking about. Poor Glyn says Beck is talking about “secret” Maoists in the Obama administration. These people are not SECRET they are wide open Maoists, Becks point is that the MSM won’t report that they are there. The MSM, like Glyn, don’t think there is anything wrong with that.
They make fun of anyone that points out the left agenda. To them there is nothing wrong with a leftest or socialist agenda.
It is not a conspiracy it is a fact. Unlike 911 was an inside job.
The leftys like Glyn and the rest think it is funny to call their agenda evil, they are just trying to help.
They only lie and cover up for Obama because he is just trying to do good and the ignorant people of the country don’t understand.
Olby Sucks

a knee-jerk response.

—-

You mean like your 3:45? Pathetic.
Lurker

Everyone is down but this past month or so FNC has been down more then the rest.

One reason is probably the passing of Obamacare. Everyone’s burnt out but don’t be giddy too soon.

The midtern elections is just around the corner plus Beck had 2.5 million on Monday and 2.3 million on Tuesday.

This is all liberal noise…
The Real Royal King

Tone it down, Blower. The next thing you know, some two bit state, let’s say Alabama, will pass an unConstitutional law prohibiting Maoists beliefs, and the police chief in Residue or Fungus Falls or Fester will start racially profiling, detaining and deporting Chinese Americans like Sheriff Joe will be doing in Phoenix.
The Real Royal King

So the 1/2 of 1% of Amerikans who worship Glen(n) are being silent? That’s a happy change.
MichelleF

As always, Kings pulls out the race card.
PureFreedom

WTF Royal King?

Who let this complete moron ” The Royal King” on this site?
He aways says the most stupid comment on everything and then tries to cover up his lack of intelligence by using big words. Stick with the story!
its so obvious!
TheStiffmeister

We will never leave Glenn as long as he continues to oust the usurper Obamessiah’s secret plans to take over this country and form one commie world regime under him and his ugly wife!!!!!!!!!1
.

I still haven’t watched Beck once since he moved to Fox News. I watched about a dozen times when he was on HLN and recognized then what an evil little man he is.
Bania

That killed STIFFkarl !!!!!!!2 Killled !!!!!!!2
NORBIT

Still waiting for the Obama-Media’s condemnation of the VICIOUS Pro-Illegal Immigration RIOTS in Az.!!!!

Compare that to the grandma’s and grandpa’s VICIOUSLY attacked as “dangerous” if their in a Tea Party!
.

Bania,
Do you monitor the comment section all day for this Karl person? Do you know how pathetic that makes you look?
germ

The only reason Glynnis came to this title is because Keith “Bathroom Boy” Olbermann used it as a Countdown number, who got it from Media Matters.

Progressives wounldn’t be anything if it weren’t for misinformation and lies.
MichelleF

says:
April 29, 2010 at 5:24 pm
Bania,
Do you monitor the comment section all day for this Karl person? Do you know how pathetic that makes you look?

You do realize they are the same person, right? Or perhaps that’s you karl. If so , you are sadder than i thought.
MichelleF

Glenn’s on a roll today. I can’t wait to see what Glynnis’ moment of glenn will be tomorrow. You can be sure, it won’t be about the substance of what he’s talking about. He’s trashing the media on how they refuse to report this stuff. It’s true, journalism as we know it is dead.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Rogiers/1426705964 Brian Rogiers

I like the knock off salespitch guy alot better than the lib trolls, his posts are coherent, you know what his agenda is, and hasn’t played the race card yet….

Go knock off sales pitch guy!!!!
tws258

@ Brian “I like the knock off salespitch guy alot better than the lib trolls, his posts are coherent, you know what his agenda is, and hasn’t played the race card yet….”

Go knock off sales pitch guy!!!!

That’s awsome !!
JamesA1102

For your own sake, I hope you don’t actually believe your own bullshit

Funny, I’ve often thought the same about you.

Media Matters is nothing but a criminal front group.

I love people who throw out accusations and verbal bombs without any factual support.
Ted

I’m afraid as long as there are suckers, various and sundry morons and tea-baggers, there will be a place for the Glenn Becks of the world. Tea-baggers like stupid, what can I say.
Olby Sucks

I love people who throw out accusations and verbal bombs without any factual support.

—–

You must totally be in love w/yourself then. How’s that workin out for ya?
TBDave

Beck has been the #1 show all week. Not just his time slot, the entire day. Yesterday he blew away everyone else, including the other FNC shows.

Did you even bother to look at the ratings. Or do you get all your news from Media Matters?
Olby Sucks

Latter.
JamesA1102

How’s that workin out for ya?

Great!
slickerwick

I’m confused. If Beck is down by 4% but Olbermann is down by 28%, why is the story about Beck’s slide?
Sunnyr

The Left Wing-Nuts can only HOPE Glenn Beck fizzles. lmao! It ain’t gonna happen so get over it! And stop comparing Apples to Oranges. Glenn is consistently Number 2 at Fox News but if he was on during Prime Time he would knock out every one, including Bill O. He is on at 2:00 in the afternoon on the West coast and the fact that he gets over 3 million viewers is incredible. He is doing just fine, thank you very much. Go Glenn!!
MichelleF

Sunnyr,
They know all that. It’s like Rush says, they tell you who they are scared of by how much they demonize a person. If they really thought he was a crazy as they say, they would just get out of the way and let him talk crazy. The problem they have, is he’s telling the truth and it’s driving them absolutely insane! It’s fun to watch!
Ted

Well MichelleF, el-rush-boob says a lot of shit; most of which makes no sense except to the tea-bagging mind. And you obviously fall into that category. You should be studied.

I just have one question for you and your fellow tea-baggers; actually two. 1) Have you purchased your survival seeds and 2) have you bought the latest Glenn Beck neck-tie? Get yours while they last for just $29.95.
Nacho

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MichelleF says:
April 30, 2010 at 9:51 am

“It’s like Rush says…”
http://none pyrope

Herein there is an apparent contradiction, but let me clear it up for you.

Above this story is an article informing us that Mr. Beck had his best week ever in market share–since Bill 0′Reilly is off this week.

Now, we have just read an article that Mr. Beck is “losing his audience.”

Those of you who have been fortunate enough to have read the words of Francisco d’Anconia know there is no such thing as a contradiction and, if you think you have found a contradiction, you should check your premises: one of them are wrong.

The reason why Mr. Becks numbers seem to be flagging is simple: It’s summertime! Folks are spending more time out of doors. I, in fact, rarely come inside until darkness has fallen.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Tony-Westover/1496648721 Tony Westover

Opportunistic polling of the ratings, that’s all that the pathetic progressives have to combat the powerful media force of Glenn Beck. Beck’s current ratings are no different than his average numbers before the January spike received from the Scott Brown special election and the Obamacare shenanigans.

The pathetic progressives can willfully delude themselves all they want, but Beck isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Even his “bad” numbers at 5PM are the envy of the primetime nobodies at MSNBC and CNN.
Big Dumb Ape

You know, in swinging by Mediaite, I’ve seen Glynnis MacNicol obviously showing her political leanings by way of her articles — certainly by the way she even constructs her headlines.

But this one TRULY ranks at the top of the WTF??? chart.

Let me get this straight. The point of the headline is to stress that Beck is losing his audience and mojo — in turn, to create the subliminal impression to ANYONE passing by (who might not even ‘t read the article) that Beck is faltering and failing.

And yet it isn’t till the middle of the article that MacNicol comes clean and admits ratings are down across the board for most people.

More to the point, I have a question for MacNicol, assuming she has the guts to answer: WHY isn’t the headline and focus of the article that Keith Obermann is down a whopping 28%? I mean, gee, if Beck is down 4%, I guess that makes Keith the really BIG loser given that his rating are down 7 TIMES more. Hell, Maddow’s ratings are down 8%, so her plummet and supposed mojo loss is TWICE as bad as Beck’s.

But, gee, guess it’s better to try and BURY those facts in the middle of an article, eh, Glynnis? Nice going. Just let the rest of us know when you sign up for that refresher course in Journalism 101 and learn how to actually compose a properly balanced article.
Big Dumb Ape

>> The Real Royal King: “The next thing you know, some two bit state, let’s say Alabama, will pass an unConstitutional law prohibiting Maoists beliefs, and the police chief in Residue or Fungus Falls or Fester will start racially profiling, detaining and deporting Chinese Americans like Sheriff Joe will be doing in Phoenix.”

Well, if they had entered the country ILLEGALLY, I’d certainly hope that Alabama law enforcement WOULD profile, detain, and deport the Maoists.

After all, just like the ILLEGALS in Arizona, they TOO would be GUILTY of breaking United States sovereign law. Oh wait — I’m sorry, Royal King. Are we supposed to NOT round up people who are breaking the law? Gee, I thought that was something pretty basic taught in Criminology 101.