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Stories tagged with “Glenn Beck”

Alyssa

Is Glenn Beck the Future of Stand-Alone TV Channels?

By Alyssa Rosenberg on Mar 16, 2012 at 2:52 pm

I may find Glenn Beck’s schtick repellent, based as it is on demonization of Beck’s perceived enemies and conspiracy theories. But six months after his Glenn Beck TV launched, it’s relatively clear that Beck’s efforts to build a stand-alone television channel have been successful: 300,000 people are paying either $9.95 per month or $99.95 per year for access to the network, which they can access on their computers, iPads and iPhones, and on their televisions through streaming players like Roku. Between subscriptions and advertising, GBTV is going to make $40 million in its first year.

It would be fascinating to know how many of these subscribers are signing up only so they can get access to content that stars Beck. Obviously, he’s the big draw for the network, but he isn’t alone—GBTV offers documentaries, a survivalist reality show, news analysis, even something called “Liberty Treehouse,” which is described as “a destination for the after school crowd that explores the whys and wherefores of the day’s news through the prism of the next generation.” In other words, it’s presenting itself as a fairly complete alternative for the small but monetizable audience—about 13 percent of those who tuned in to see Beck on Fox when he was broadcasting there—who want all of their programming through Beck’s worldview.

And I think that’ll probably be the model for stand-alone, web-based channels that get off the ground in the future. As much as folks like the idea of saving imperiled but deeply beloved shows like Community through Kickstarter-like campaigns or a subscription model, I actually wonder if a plan like that would be more likely to succeed if you packaged a show you were trying to save with some other programming. I’d pay for a standalone network that included, I don’t know, Community, The Guild, Husbands, and a couple of other shows, web-based or otherwise. Networks like Beck’s will be part of a move away from bundled cable as we know it now. But whatever we get to in the end, whether it’s a choose-your-own package kind of deal or the ability to pick from curated blocks of programming, I don’t think we’ll devolve as far as buying a single show at a time.

Media

Glenn Beck Profits Off Hate, Doubles Revenue Since Leaving Fox News

By Guest Blogger on Mar 16, 2012 at 1:30 pm

In April 2011, conservative talker Glenn Beck was removed from the Fox News lineup, almost certainly due to his inflammatory and hateful rhetoric. Beck is still talking, however, and, apparently, still making a lot of money doing it.

In the 18 months since Beck left Fox News, his company, Mercury Radio Arts, has seen its revenue double from $40 million to $80 million. Admittedly, this is an impressive growth rate, built on Beck’s business model of bilking his audience by selling them his gift of gab:

Viewers pay a monthly subscription fee of up to $9.95 for access to programming that includes Beck’s two-hour daily broadcast, a children’s show and a reality show. More than 300,000 subscribers have already signed up, a number that, as WSJ notes, already exceeds the average audience of many cable channels, including CNBC and Fox Business Network.

However, GBTV’s rate of growth has moderated considerably from its torrid pace of last summer. From June to September 2012, Beck’s subscriber total nearly tripled, going from 80,000 (the number who subscribed to Insider Extreme, GBTV’s predecessor) to 230,000. That it’s added “only” another 70,000 new subscribers since then suggests that the audience of Beck diehards willing to pay for video content not covered by their cable subscriptions isn’t infinite.

Beck’s no stranger to business scams. Last month, ThinkProgress reported that Goldline, a company that was aggressively touted by Beck and other conservative talkers, had agreed to repay $4.5 million to customers it defrauded. As Yuri Beckelman told ThinkProgress, “It’s unrealistic to think Glenn Beck and other Goldline spokespeople had no clue what was going on. They have a responsibility to their listeners when endorsing products, especially in tough economic times; now it’s up to their fans to hold them accountable.”

The man who once said “we have been sold a lie” that “the poor in America” are suffering and claimed Obama is “intentionally” dismantling the middle class appears content to rake in cash from people who are probably not as well-off as him.

– Zachary Bernstein

Justice

Goldline Hit With Injunction, Agrees To Repay Defrauded Customers $4.5 Million

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Feb 24, 2012 at 10:30 am

Conservative talker-endorsed precious metal retailer Goldline International agreed to a court order this week to repay defrauded customers $4.5 million and overhaul its business practices. The injunction, handed down by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, was obtained by the City Attorney of Santa Monica, California — where the company is based — who had filed 19 criminal counts of fraud and theft against the company last year. Those charges have now been dismissed.

Goldline’s entire business model was essentially a scam, the city attorney found. It was a bait-and-switch: Consumers wanted to buy gold bullion, but salespeople preyed on their fears — including falsely claiming that the government could seize bullion — and misled them into buying vastly overpriced gold coins instead. Consumers typically paid more than 55 percent above the actual value of the coins, which are much harder to sell down the road, instantly wiping out a large portion of their savings.

At the time, Goldline called the charges “preposterous” and vowed to fight them. But in addition to the $4.5 million, the court order requires Goldline to put $800,000 into a fund for future claims, and submit to a court-appointed monitor who will have full access to company’s operations, at Goldline’s expense. In addition, it will have to disclose its actual markups and stop misleading customers.

The company is best known for its ties to conservative talk radio hosts like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, who were central to the company’s marketing model. Two former GOP presidential candidates — Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson — have even endorsed the gold retailer.

Yuri Beckelman, who conducted a separate investigation into Goldline when he served as former congressman Anthony Weiner’s Legislative Director, told ThinkProgress the endorses should have known better. “It’s unrealistic to think Glenn Beck and other Goldline spokespeople had no clue what was going on. They have a responsibility to their listeners when endorsing products, especially in tough economic times, now it’s up to their fans to hold them accountable.”

“Goldline can try to spin it any way they want,” Beckelman added. “But when you agree to change your business model and then pay a court ordered attorney to monitor your progress for the next five years, you’re admitting that what you were doing was wrong.”

NEWS FLASH

Glenn Beck Thinks He Has The Same Position On Same-Sex Marriage As President Obama | Today Glenn Beck today railed against “bigots” who oppose the point of view of people who oppose marriage rights for same-sex couples. Defending Rick Santorum’s comparisons between same-sex marriage and polygamy, Beck claimed that he has the same position on same-sex marriage as President Obama. He went on to compare the “moral certitude” of LGBT rights activists to Adolf Hitler’s “moral certitude” about the Holocaust. He also suggested that bisexuals all want polygamy. Watch it:

Politics

Glenn Beck Suggests Tea Party Is Racist

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Dec 12, 2011 at 1:00 pm

In a startling admission from a major Tea Party champion, former Fox News host Glenn Beck said Friday that race may be a motivating factor in the Tea Party’s opposition to President Obama. In an interview with Fox Business host Andrew Napolitano, Beck said Obama and GOP front-runner Newt Gingrich are both “big government progressive[s],” so he doesn’t understand why Tea Party members are supporting Gingrich. “If you’re against [Obama] but you’re for [Gingrich], it must be about race,” Beck said:

BECK: And I issued a challenge to Tea Party members. … [Gingrich] is a progressive. … If you have a big government progressive, or a big government progressive in Obama, one in Newt Gingrich, one in Obama, ask yourself this, Tea Party: is it about Obama’s race? Because that’s what it appears to be to me. If you’re against him but you’re for this guy, it must be about race.

Watch it:

The comment is striking coming from Beck, who organized major Tea Party events and strongly defended the movement against charges of racism. “The NAACP adopted a resolution condemning the racist elements of the Tea Party. Well, I’d do that, too, if I knew where they were,” Beck said in July 2010. Now, it seems he finally knows there are. And he’s being disowned by conservative blogs for expressing this. Conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart responded by calling Beck a “coward,” a liar, and a “huckster,” saying the race comments “jumped the gun, and in essence jumped the shark.”

Indeed, just this weekend, a Tea Party group in Kansas drew condemnations from the local NAACP for depicting President Obama as a skunk. “It is half black, half white, and almost everything it does, stinks,” reads the website of the Patriot Freedom Alliance, a Tea Party of Hutchinson, under a picture suggesting “the skunk has replaced the eagle as the symbol for the president.” Darrell Pope, president of the Hutchinson NAACP, called it “a blatant statement of racism.”

Health

Glenn Beck Confronts Gingrich With His 2011 Quote Supporting The Individual Mandate

By Igor Volsky on Dec 6, 2011 at 10:54 am

Former Fox News host Glenn Beck invited Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich on his radio program this morning and then bludgeoned the former Speaker of the House with this quote from 2011, in which Gingrich proclaimed his support for a federal requirement for people to purchase health insurance coverage — a mandate that is similar to the one included in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act:

GLENN: All right. Well, and I think this is where we fundamentally differ is it seems to me ‑‑ and let me just play the audio here ‑‑ that you are for the individual mandate for healthcare and you have been for quite some time. Let’s play the audio.

GINGRICH: I am for people, individuals, exactly like automobile insurance, individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance, and I am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals on a sliding scale a government subsidy so it will ensure that everyone as individuals have health insurance.

GLENN: Okay. That’s 1993. Here is May 2011.

GINGRICH: All of a sudden responsibility to help pay for healthcare. And I think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. I’ve said consistently we ought to have some requirement to either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you are going to be held accountable.

VOICE: That is the individual mandate, is it not?

GINGRICH: It’s a variation on it.

Fellow GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the conservative Heritage Foundation have also advocated the idea that individuals who did not purchase coverage should be required to spend some pre-determined amount — $10,000 in Romney’s case — in the form of a bond that could be used to pay for hospital care down the road. Before Obama embraced the mandate, conservatives argued that this policy would ensure that funds are directed back into health care rather to government revenue. But charging a flat fee regardless of income means different things to different economic demographics and would significantly disadvantaged middle class families — who would have to set aside a huge amount of money for a rainy day. The mandate penalty in the Affordable Care Act takes some of these affordability concerns into account and requires those without coverage to pay a tax penalty of the greater of $695 per year or 2.5 percent of household income.

But these policy specifics aside, Gingrich has previously advocated for many of the provisions that are now part of Obama’s health care law and even praised the president for increasing Medicaid funding and investing in health information technology.

NEWS FLASH

Occupy Tallahassee Mic Checks Glenn Beck At Book Signing | The 99 Percent paid conspiracy profiteer Glenn Beck a visit recently during a book signing in Florida. As Beck stood signing books, protesters from Occupy Tallahassee began, “Mic Check! Glenn Beck, you are a vulgar propagandist!” Watch it:

By Zaid Jilani on Dec 5, 2011 at 4:05 pm

Security

Despite Glenn Beck’s Slanders Of Israelis, Netanyahu Says He Is ‘Fearless In Defending Israel Against Slanders’

By Ali Gharib on Nov 21, 2011 at 4:42 pm

Glenn Beck’s conspiracy theories have made the right-wing commentator the darling of the Israeli right, even garnering him an invitation from Israeli parliamentarian Danny Danon to speak before the Knesset. That love-fest between Beck and the Israeli right reached new heights last night when, at a gala for an American Zionist group, right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Beck for “defending” Israel.

Netanyahu delivered taped comments to the crowd at the Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) gala after Beck received the Miriam & Sheldon Adelson Defender of Israel Award from right-wing billionaire (and Netanyahu supporter) Sheldon Adelson. Netanyahu said:

I also want to congratulate Glenn Beck for winning the Miriam and Sheldon Adelson award, the Defender of Israel award. Glenn, you can be sure that if Sheldon and Miri Adelson put their name to something, it must stand for a lot. You stand for a lot. You’ve been fearless in defending Israel against the slanders that are hurled against it. You’ve done that with considerable personal cost but you’ve never backed off, you’ve never flinched, you’ve walked away. And I want to tell you how deeply we appreciate this stand of courage and integrity.

Watch the video:

All Israelis might not view Beck the way Netanyahu does. This summer, when Israel saw its largest protests ever in the name of social justice, Beck denounced the gathering. Despite 88 percent approval for the protests among Israelis, Beck, in a typically conspiracy-laced tirade, derided the prostesters a leftist-Islamist-Nazi plot to bring Israel down.

Beck also launched an attack last year on liberal billionaire George Soros. Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast called the episode of Beck’s now-defunct Fox News Show “a symphony of anti-Semitic dog-whistles.” The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chided Beck’s remarks as “horrific.” Later, the ADL also criticized Beck for comparing Reform Judaism to radical Islam, this time eliciting an apology from the radio host.

The Los Angeles Times also rounded up some of Beck’s contrversial statements about Jews:

He has several times had to fend off allegations of anti-Semitism. Last year he appeared to endorse the notion that Jews killed Jesus Christ; his list of the world’s nine most “dangerous” people includes eight Jews…

An official from the liberal Israeli organization Peace Now told the paper: “If this is the only kind of friend Israel’s government can find around the world, that’s a very poor sign.”

NEWS FLASH

Mitt Romney Goes Glenn Beck: ‘I Exhale Carbon Dioxide’ | Two years ago, the Tea Party shock jock Glenn Beck mocked the idea of carbon dioxide pollution, exhaling and pronouncing, “Look at how much pollution I just put out.” Last Friday, former Massachusetts governor and Republican frontrunner Mitt Romney joined Beck’s anti-science crusade, confusing the burning of fossil fuels with human respiration. “Now I know there is also a movement to say that carbon dioxide should be guided or should be managed by the Environmental Protection Agency. I disagree with that,” he said at a Manchester, New Hampshire event, furthering his descent into denial. “I exhale carbon dioxide,” he continued. “I don’t want those guys following me around with a meter to see if I’m breathing too hard.”

Related Posts

By Brad Johnson on Nov 21, 2011 at 10:00 am

Economy

Glenn Beck-Approved Goldline Charged With 19 Criminal Counts Of Fraud And Theft

By Alex Seitz-Wald on Nov 2, 2011 at 10:30 am

Goldline International, the precious metal retailer that has capitalized on conservatives’ anxiety about the economy by forging synergistic relationships with right wing TV and radio hosts, is facing a new series of legal challenges after authorities filed criminal charges against the company and its executives yesterday. Several major conservative talkers — including two former GOP presidential candidates — have endorsed and recommended Goldine, which critics have long contended is little more than a scam.

After more than a year of investigating, the city attorney in Santa Monica, California, where the company is based, has filed 19 criminal charges of fraud and theft against the company, in addition to charges against top executives and salesmen, ABC News reports:

The complaint alleges that Goldline “runs a bait and switch operation in which customers, seeking to invest in gold bullion, are switched to highly overpriced coins by using false and misleading claims,” according to a statement released by the consumer affairs division of the Santa Monica City Attorney’s office.

The company has been charged in the court filing with misdemeanors that include theft by false pretenses, false advertising, and conspiracy, the City Attorney’s office said. In addition to the charges against the company, the complaint accuses former CEO Mark Albarian, executives Robert Fazio and Luis Beeli, and salespeople Charles Boratgis and Stephanie Howard of defrauding customers. Current CEO Scott Carter is accused of making false or misleading statements.

Each of the charges carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and maximum fines of between $1,000 and $10,000 per offense.

While former Fox News conspiracy-theorist Glenn Beck is most closely associated with Goldline, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Mark Levin, former GOP presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson, and several Fox News hosts, among others, have all endorsed the company.

Indeed, conservative talk radio is central to the company’s success, as Goldline employs a business model based not on mere advertising, but full integration with the content of conservative talk show hosts’ messages. The company’s website prominently features these endorsers, suggesting the talkers’ backing gives Goldline “credibility.” The company has said it will vigorously contest the charges.

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