The Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, once famously wrote, “Know thyself and thine enemy.” Even though Tzu lived in the late 6th Century B.C., his words offer good counsel to conservatives today in understanding the biased left-wing MSM.
Earlier this week, blogger David Carr was licking his chops at the prospect of a Beck ouster at Fox News Channel in the New York Times. Carr’s unruly salivary gland quickly set-off a violent chain reaction in the liberal hate-o-sphere with articles predicting Beck’s imminent demise with headlines such as:
“Is Fox News pushing Glenn Beck towards the exit?” – Entertainment Weekly
“Glenn Beck to Get the Boot?” – Seattle Post Intelligencer
“America is Bored with Glenn Beck” – Salon
“Glenn Beck on the Brink: Ad Boycott May Have Finally Burned his Bridges” – CBS
Regardless of their media push, Fox News senior vice president of development Joel Cheatwood, seems in no hurry to make or announce a decision about Beck. In fact, if Fox News’ history is any indication, it appears highly unlikely that the George Soros-backed left-wing media will have an impact on his decision-making process.
Most of the giddy hate-filled liberal rhetoric against Beck is nothing new. It is in the fine biased MSM tradition of remarks savaging the host this year:
Joy Behar calls Beck’s a “rodeo clown.” In psychology circles, this is called “projection.” (It’s the hair, Joy.)
Keith Olbermann (when he was actually on the air) called Beck an “idiot.” He had his writers script out funny names calling the Fox News Channel host the “Grand Poobah of Whackjobery.” He accused him of trying to recreate the Martin Luther King rally last fall at the National Mall. He gleefully, falsely, and recklessly blamed him (and every other conservative) for the shootings in Tucson. Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
Liberal reporter Cokie Roberts once proved her journalistic prowess with this deft analysis:
Beck is worse than a clown. He’s more like a terrorist who believes he has discovered the One True Faith, and condemns everyone else as a heretic. And that makes him something else as well — a traitor to the American values he professes so loudly to defend.
A terrorist and a traitor, eh? Perhaps Roberts could use a refresher course in journalistic ethics – that is – if she ever took the course in the first place.
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews continues to call Beck intelligent names like “delusional,” “looney tunes,” and “Captain Quigg.” He has questioned Beck’s emotional, mental, and psychological condition and mused on-air about why Roger Ailes even hired him. He has laughed at Beck’s ratings slide.
Yet even at his worst ratings, Beck still wins the 5 p.m. timeslot in a Matthews smackdown. Beck’s January numbers (his worst ratings) clocked 397,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic and 1.762 total viewers.
Talk about delusional. Talk about looney tunes. And it isn’t Beck I’m talking about. Come on, Chris, admit it: You’d just like to win that 5 p.m. timeslot for a change.
Racist. Terrorist. Traitor. Whackjob. Idiot. Clown. If you are a conservative success story, the name-calling and personal smears are all in a day’s work. However, in the scheme of things, the name calling does not count. It’s the numbers.
And it is this week’s numbers that paint the real picture. Fox News continues to mop the floor with CNN and MSNBC in every time slot – including Beck’s – by double or triple the viewership. Fox News Channel’s primetime viewership (in 000s) was more than double (2,440) its closest competitors MSNBC (1,066). Beck (1,697) bested Matthews (615) by more than double. O’Reilly (3,302) continues to be the real ratings star, trouncing nearest competitor MSNBC’s O’Donnell (1,006). Fox News’ success is no accident and it is clear management knows what it is doing.
If conservative activist James O’Keefe’s undercover video on NPR, and the resulting firestorm, is any indication, Fox News has had its work cut out for it filling in the wide oceanic gulfs of journalistic unfairness that have existed for years without a counterpoint. Fox News continues to give liberal media seizures for a reason: they are fair and balanced. Beck is part of that balance.
The liberal media have been quick to point out the 33% fall in Beck’s viewership since last August. However, there is an expected ebb and a flow to news cycles. Fox News’ ratings were breaking records when Obama forced through his stimulus program (the CBO’s latest estimates in February calculate the cost to American taxpayers at $821 billion over 10 years). Voters were outraged at the deceitful legal gymnastics used to ram through the socialized medicine that is Obamacare. That collective viewer and voter anger and frustration reached a fever pitch during the first two years of Obama’s Administration.
Back in the second quarter of 2009, Michael Calderone noted on Politico:
“Since Obama came into office, Fox has continued not only winning, but doing so at unprecedented levels.”
At that time, Fox showed a 33 percent rise in total viewers compared to the second quarter of 2008, and a 54 percent increase in younger viewers for its primetime weekday shows. Guess who the biggest gainer was? Glenn Beck.
“Beck, who takes aim at the administration repeatedly, is proving an even bigger draw since coming over from HLN: His 5 p.m. slot is up 110 percent from last year,” said Calderone.
Consequently, the current easing up of Beck’s numbers have more to do with the success of the GOP in the mid-term election news cycle than any unhinged theory proposed by media desperate to get their news monopoly back. If Fox News and Beck eventually do part company, it will not be because of ratings but a difference of vision and that is still a big “if.”
Yes, know thyself and thine enemy. Tzu, you hit the nail on the liberal head.