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Follow on Google News | Media Training Question # 58 – Why is Glenn Beck’s Career Crashing?Read my entire piece before you judge this work. I realize that some of my faithful readers love Glenn Beck and that’s your right. I also just want you to realize that this is an example of what happens when words are misused and manipulated
By: MediaTraining.me I’ll admit up front that I am no fan of race and hate baiting syndicated radio and Fox News host Glenn Beck. His non-stop hatred of President Obama and ANYTHNG that is not framed from a conservative political standpoint and his insistence on using opinion as fact and being very deliberate in his expressed and very personal attack of ANYTHING he does not personally believe in. Glenn Back has such deep and complete vitriol for anything that is not radically conservative and he had made millions of dollars scaring people into believing the sky is falling when it obviously is not. Word has spread quickly this week that the radical Beck’s media ascendency has not only hit a speed bump, but that the whole ball of wax is melting faster than a snowball in August. Glenn Beck’s home base is New York and when it was announced this week that his radio show was being pulled from the airwave from his home station and home market it certainly got the attention of the Blogosphere. Furthermore, reports surfaced that Beck will have his radio show pulled in Boston and other major media markets are also seriously considering yanking him off the air. The reason by the way has only to do with one thing and one thing only: ratings, or the lack thereof. I realize that some people love him and some people hate him. I get that part, but radio, as I know all too well because it was the world I lived in for many years. I was also hated and loved, too. When you do political talk radio, as I did, and you have a particular point of view, as I did as well, and people disagree with that point of view, well, yes it gets messy, but it doesn’t have to get hateful. I relied on facts to drive my message. I was extremely careful to be well read and over prepared. I went directly to sources and was completely and thoroughly educated on an issue before I uttered a single work on a topic on air. I believed, and still do, that if you are to bait an audience for a reaction that you do have a responsibility to truth first and foremost. That was actually the fun part for me. I knew that the percentage of my audience that hated me, and I mean despised me, were ready to pounce on just about anything that came out of my mouth, so I prepared. My classic line many times a day was a simple “prove me wrong”. NO one did because I only used facts. I’m afraid that Glenn Back cannot say such a thing. The man honestly is a liar, a proven liar and it looks like it is finally catching up with him. His radio ratings are significantly down over a year ago according to published reports and that equates to close to more than 400,000 less listeners this year over last. In his television world things are no better. His daily Fox News program once considered the fastest rising show on the Network with some even predicting that he would eclipse Bill O’Reilly as their number one host at Fox News were terribly wrong. Beck’s television ratings are on a quick decline and he is now experiencing an odd phenomenon, as the week progresses his audience shrinks considerably. The drop off in viewers is odd in that from Monday through Friday he loses over 33% of his audience and that’s a lot of people. So what’s happening? How could a man who has made millions of dollars through radio, television and book sales see such a rapid and severe career ending slide? Message, pure and simple. Every word really does matter and when you continue to pound a message that begs for attention and you are not just loose with facts but purposely misstate facts and manufacture information to insite the emotions of people who are confused and uninformed, well, it eventually will catch up with you and apparently for Glenn Beck that time is now. In an interesting turn of events in his career Beck decided early on last year to start invoking God often during his show realizing he would appeal to a faction of conservative of America who was terribly underrepresented on mainstream radio. Beck’s onslaught on the American people and their evil ways, especially Democrats, minorities, and President Obama, became his sole focus and as he was continuing to recite confusion and hatred, and working very hard at that, as one part of his audience grew quickly, a much larger slice of his audience became weary and impatient, and embarrassed and have walked away from both is radio and television show. Driving information as a television or radio show host is a responsibility. Using facts are critical and using emotions is completely OK. But, when you make the clear decision to use fear and lies to force a message and create paranoia and mistrust of everything that doesn’t completely agree with your beliefs are you providing a needed service or are you only feeding your personal ego and greed? It’s an important question. No one is a bigger supporter of the First Amendment as I am. Just as I have enjoyed the protection of the First Amendment so should Glenn Beck, but just as I was subject to fact checking and accountability, so should Glenn Beck, and it seems even his base audience has tired of his on going lies and his hateful ways. It’s one thing to disagree with a point of view but quite another to manufacture and distort truth for the expressed purpose of profit and to create fear and hatred. For those of you who will disagree with my assessment of Glenn Back I realize I will not persuade you otherwise, but I will admonish you to measure me against Glenn Beck by challenging you to prove me wrong but also to prove him right. You won’t be able to but I want to encourage you to try. What I have written today is based on facts and facts alone. My message here is simply about the power of words and the responsibility of those words, just as I had a responsibility to write this post today not based on my opinion but on facts as I understand them. Fact: Glenn Beck is losing large chucks of his radio and television audience, he is also losing stations that carry his radio show in major markets and that will impact the success of the show because listeners equal dollars and less listeners mean less dollars. Opinion: His message and the lies he tells are catching up with him and that is why he is losing listeners and viewers. Disagree with the opinion, but prove me wrong on the facts. At a time when we need solutions and cooperation, maybe the American radio and television audience are beginning to realize that hate speak accomplishes nothing creating a greater divide and pulling us further apart. Oh sure, some will continue to be blinded and want to ignore facts, that will always be true, but Glenn Beck is an example of what happens when we start paying attention to what’s being said and then examining what is said against what is true. When they don’t mach up the smart ones walk away. Congratulations! # # # As the host of his own nationally syndicated radio programs for 15 years, Tony has interviewed over 25,000 guests and appeared as a guest on over 800 radio and national television shows. He founded of his own public relations firm and he went on to author two books and became a “go to” authority on a myriad of issues from weight loss to self empowerment; End
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