Of course, since so few American TV/print reporters, editors or producers actually read and speak passable Arabic, or are the least bit knowledgeable about the Mid-East, they can't very well write about Libya intelligently, now can they.
Which is why beyond the actual news value of what happened to and with him last week, there were so many stories and columns in the American press about Charlie Sheen, because you don't have to know anything to write or talk about him...
Everybody's an expert.
Before you read the following three stories/columns, here's something to keep in mind, since facts actually matter.
The Glenn Beck Show on Fox News Channel is drawing 300,000 more total viewers than ALL cable news competitors in the time period COMBINED.
Just saying...
If I was the news director at a local TV station in a major market in the United States and my eyeball numbers were more than the total of ALL the other local TV stations COMBINED, plus, I was also leading in the 25-54 demo to boot, and my adversaries were saying that I was in a slump, I'd take that kind of losing streak and laugh all the way to the bank.
And so would my family!
CNN would take that kind of losing streak right now at 5 p.m. Eastern in a heartbeat.
And so would MSNBC and CNBC.
But they can only dream of a such an upside-down news world now, since at 5 p.m., they're merely ants at the picnic, not the guest of honor.
They're barely noticeable unless one of them crawls on your arm or leg -and completely harmless and useless- so you just flick them away with your finger and they go buh-bye. Just saying...
Apropos of these stories, coming soon, I may soon have a blog post here on some real actor/celebrities who actually HAVE lost their hold on film audiences at the box-office, but you rarely if ever see the sort of joyful negative stories on them in the American press like the stories below on because... well, they really, really don't like Glenn Beck -or his audience.
Just ask them, they'll tell you.
Hmm-m... note to self: Their film grosses fizzling and reviews not-so-positive, have Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Anniston, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt lost their juice?
More after the links.
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TheWrap
Media | Books
His Ratings Fizzling, Has Glenn Beck Lost His Mojo?
March1, 2011 @ 6:59 pm
http://www.thewrap.com/media/
The New Republic
Politics
The Decline of Glenn Beck What caused it?
James Downie, Reporter-Researcher
March 3, 2011, 10:59 pm
http://www.tnr.com/article/
New York Times
The Media Equation
The Fading Power of Beck’s Alarms
By David Carr
March 6, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/business/media/07carr.html
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None of these pieces have mentioned the most obvious and most likely reason for the lower numbers.
Beck's TV show, which I watch everyday, usually, the 2 a.m. repeat, has been pre-empted more often than usual due to what was going on in Egypt, often for pointless -often nine-hour old- coverage of Tahrir Square in Cairo when NOTHING was happening.
Reminder: Just because you point a TV news camera at something doesn't mean it's news.
Because of those pre-emptions on the repeat show at 2 a.m., before RED EYE, I actually saw some Fox News weekend panel program I'd never seen before, which itself was a few days old and was clearly intended to run-out-the clock until 3 a.m. came around.
Additionally, there have been many more repeats since January than at about any time since Beck joined Fox News Channel.
Seems like I even recall him being sick and having surgery, though I can't recall the exact details.
Sometimes, there's no conspiracy, it's just that there's either no program to see, or the one that airs is one you've already seen twice before -I don't need to see it a third time.
I love pizza, but sometimes when I was out with friends in the D.C. area, after a movie or ballgame or whatever, sometimes when asked what I was in the mood for, I'd choose Vietnamese, unless I knew that we were near a great pizza place. If it isn't what you want the way you like it, TV, like pizza, isn't the same.
Similarly, with all the news about Tunesia, Egypt and Libya on Beck's show, why would loyal viewers who really don't care about foreign policy compared to domestic or economic issues watch something they really don't have any interest in, something that isn't their cup of tea?
I love well-played basketball, esp. top-tier college basketball, not surprisingly, considering I only went to college at a school like IU where basketball is much more than tradition but a culture.
Still, I haven't watched the NBA All-Star Game since about 1990, and haven't watched more than 20 minutes of the NBA this entire season.
It's not interesting to me since nothing matters until May.
Or, maybe those fans see a repeat or a pre-emption and finally get around to watching one of those prime-time shows they've been continually taping for weeks and STILL NOT started watching yet, so they think, today is the day I start watching 'em, otherwise I'm deleting them all.
Just saying... sometimes, lower ratings are not so mysterious.
And when you STILL have MANY more viewers than all your time-slot competitors combined, it's really absurd to talk about a SLUMP.
When the Yankees of the 1920's amd '30's actually lost a game or two in the World Series instead of sweeping their opponent in four games, were they in a slump, too?
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