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Media

Glenn Beck Wants To Make Cable Subscribers Pay For His Conspiracy Theory Channel

By Aviva Shen on Feb 25, 2013 at 11:40 am

Since Glenn Beck left Fox News in 2011 and founded his own web channel, TheBlaze, the former right-wing sensation has been less prevalent in the mainstream political conversation. Still, Beck has cultivated a substantial audience for his subscription-only programming, and is now using that following to pressure cable networks into carrying his channel.

Beck started promoting GetTheBlaze.com on Monday, asking fans to demonstrate to their television provider that there is wider demand for the libertarian channel. If his channel does get picked up by cable television providers, anyone who pays for cable will subsidize Beck’s channel, regardless of whether or not they watch it. As The New York Times explains, TV channels get small per-subscriber fees, whether or not the subscribers ever watch.

Beck argues that carrying TheBlaze would be no different from supposedly ideological cable channels like MSNBC and Al Jazeera America. But since leaving Fox, Beck’s radical libertarianism has gone even further fringe. In the past few months, Beck has promoted multiple conspiracy theories via the channel he is now trying to push on cable subscribers:

1. Cop killer Chris Dorner was supported by liberals. As Los Angeles was turned upside down in the manhunt for Chris Dorner in February, the former police officer who killed 4 people, Beck claimed “the American left” was supporting Chris Dorner. His evidence was a Facebook page with “thousands of likes.”

2. Obama secretly tried to release the “blind sheikh” bomber. Relying on a single anonymous source “close to the Obama administration,” TheBlaze accused President Obama of plotting to secretly release a 1993 World Trade Center bomber. The conspiracy theory quickly took hold in Tea Party circles, even prompting top House Republicans to parrot the false theory.

3. The Muslim Brotherhood infiltrated the US government. Beck hosted Rep. Michele Backmann (R-MN) to defend her widely denounced anti-Muslim witch hunt. On Beck’s show, Bachmann once again accused Hillary Clinton’s top aide, Huma Abedin, of being a Muslim Brotherhood spy, a ludicrous charge vehemently condemned by House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Scott Brown (R-MA).

4. The Petraeus scandal was orchestrated by the White House. Like most of the right-wing blogosphere, Beck was obsessed with a purported cover-up of the Benghazi consulate attack. When CIA Director David Petraeus was caught in an affair with his biographer, Beck claimed the White House deliberately orchestrated the scandal in order to discredit the military and distract from the Benghazi attacks. In Beck’s mind, the White House was also behind last year’s Secret Service prostitution scandal, another supposed attempt to undermine trust in law enforcement.

Beck also announced last month that he hopes to one day create his own town to bring together his various projects. “Independence, USA” is Beck’s libertarian fortress fantasy that would be protected from the rest of the US’ drift away from “the values of freedom, responsibility and truth.” The town would be a Disneyland-esque utopia, based around Beck’s “Media Center” where he would film movies, TV and documentaries.

Alyssa

Glenn Beck And The Price Of Independence

By Sharmin Kent, Guest Blogger on Jan 16, 2013 at 9:02 am

It’s kinda hard to knock Glenn Beck’s hustle. Since leaving Fox News in June of 2011, Beck has kept himself busy with projects like starting a jeans label and relaunching The Blaze as a libertarian online network. His continued presence as a right-wing personality has shaped him into an odd species of self-help guru, urging his audience to live their best lives by embracing his personal blend of faith and politics. But now Beck has his sights set on a loftier prize: Building an American oasis for free-market values.

Last week Beck’s website announced his concept for Independence, USA, a shelter from the rest of the United States, which he believes is “going away from the values of freedom, responsibility and truth.” Beck’s vision for Independence would include a residential area where families could “bring their children to be inspired,” a marketplace dedicated to fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship, and a multi-denominational mission center modeled after the Alamo. The site also mentions that Independence was inspired by Walt Disney’s initial vision for Disneyland, a place where people could find “happiness, courage and hope.”

But because capitalism is the cornerstone of Independence, Beck’s brand of freedom surely won’t come for free. After all, if Beck’s dream becomes reality, his revenue-making production company would be the heart and soul of the new settlement:

There would also be an [sic] Media Center, where Glenn’s production company would film television, movies, documentaries, and more. Glenn hoped to include scripted television that would challenge viewers without resorting to a loss of human decency. He also said it would be a place where aspiring journalists would learn how to be great reporters.

An environment built primarily on capitalism—and Beck’s brand of news and entertainment—will have to turn a profit. And from the proposed theme park to the ranch where visitors can learn to “work the land,” Independence, USA is a vehicle for Glenn Beck to cultivate, build and benefit from his audience’s attention as well as their wallets. At its core, the concept of Independence—like the fantasy playland Walt Disney created nearly 60 years ago—sells nothing more than the make-believe world Beck has spent years building on Fox News, and later with his own media company.

In the event that Independence, USA becomes reality, it might be both interesting and instructive to watch how this young society–based on, among other things, a funhouse reflection of American ideals–handles its growing pains.

Election

The 6 Best Overreactions To Obama’s Win

By Annie-Rose Strasser on Nov 8, 2012 at 10:36 am

Conservatives aren’t taking kindly to Mitt Romney’s loss. Indeed, the right wing freakout has been so extreme, and so hyperbolic, that Obama’s win has been heralded by many as the “death of America.”

Here are some of the best right-wing reactions to Romney’s defeat:

1. Neal Boortz compares Obama to a natural disaster. There’s no such thing as too soon for libertarian-leaning radio host Neal Boortz, who compared Obama’s win to Hurricane Sandy, a storm that killed 113 people in the US alone:

2. Victoria Jackson cries, says “America died.” The Saturday Night Live star who turned into an anti-gay right winger took Romney’s loss very, very seriously:

3. The Cincinnati Tea Party declares the death of America. Ohio was the state that pushed Obama over the 270 electoral vote threshold. For Tea Partiers in the state, that was hard to handle. One Cincinnati group’s website claimed America had committed suicide:

4. Rush Limbaugh blames women. Limbaugh, the conservative radio host who seems unable to stop himself from spewing misogny at every opportunity, blamed the gender gap for Obama’s victory, and women for falling into Obama’s trap: “He treats them like vaginas and they say he’s my man,” Limbaugh said on his show.

5. Donald Trump calls for revolution. Trump, whose role in the election has largely been scare-mongering on Twitter, tweeted out this call to arms, but deleted the tweet — and others — later. Perhaps he realized that Obama had in fact won the popular vote:

6. Glenn Beck tells people to buy guns. On his radio show, former Fox host Glenn Beck lamented the downgrade of the country, but promised “I won’t make a deal with the devil… I will tell you last week we purchased more farmland as a family. May I recommend if you have a chance to buy farmland, you buy farmland. If you live in the east may I recommend get the hell out of the east. Find a place where you are surrounded by like-minded people and the best way to find those people is, you should probably look at the maps on how counties voted… May I highly suggest you get grandfathered in to the second amendment today. Oh and don’t forget the ammunition.” Watch it:

Security

Muslim Brotherhood Leader: We ‘Can’t Even Penetrate The Egyptian Government’

By Zack Beauchamp on Jul 23, 2012 at 2:48 pm

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) baseless allegations that the Muslim Brotherhood has infiltrated the U.S. government — particularly via a top aid to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton — have been met with near-universal condemnation inside the United States. But no one has thought to ask the Muslim Brotherhood whether she’s telling the truth – until now, when GlobalPost reporter Erin Cunningham managed to solicit a public response. While some Egyptians have unfortunately been persuaded by Bachmann’s nonsense, the Muslim Brothers themselves are not among them. They issued a somewhat amusing blanket denial:

“I haven’t heard these rumors, but they strike me as ridiculous,” said Ahmed Al Nahhas, a long-time Brotherhood activist and leader in Egypt’s second-largest city, Alexandria. “Surely the United States government selects its employees very carefully.” …

[I]n Egypt, the birthplace of the Brotherhood, the organization’s leaders were either perplexed by the accusations or simply hadn’t heard them. Nor had they heard of Huma Abedin.

“The Muslim Brotherhood can’t even penetrate the Egyptian government,” said a Brotherhood leader in Egypt’s Daqheleya province, Ibrahim Ali Iraqi, in response to the accusations his group had infiltrated top US agencies.

Indeed, having assumed the presidency following a year of economic tumult and political upheaval, the Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi is grappling with severe domestic problems — not least of which is his battle with the ruling military for executive power.

“We are in a period of darkness because the country is still governed by the Supreme Council of Armed Forces — and they have a long history of support from the United States,” Iraqi said. “So it’s ridiculous that these accusations are leveled at us.”

It’s not just Muslim Brotherhood officials that are skeptical of Bachmann’s crusade, which has its roots in Islamophobic leader Frank Gaffney’s wild conspiracy theories. Top Republicans including John Boehner, Marco Rubio, Scott Brown, John McCain, Jim Sensenbrenner, and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee (on which Bachmann sits) Mike Rogers have all disavowed the Minnesota Congresswoman’s tilting at Muslim windmills. Further, Democrat Keith Ellison, one of two Muslims in Congress, has taken point on dismantling Bachmann’s Islamophobic inquisition. Bachmann’s allies, by contrast, include Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

NEWS FLASH

Glenn Beck Sells Tee Shirts Calling John Roberts A ‘Coward’ | After yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling upholding the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, conservative politicians turned on Chief Justice John Roberts for siding with liberal justices and ruling the mandate constitutionally sound. Critics of the decision even edited his Wikipeida page to call him a “chief traitor” and “coward,” and suggested his epilepsy medicine cause “cognitive problems.” Conservative commentator Glenn Beck got in on the action, labeling the chief justice the “Dread Pirate Roberts” and quickly setting up his online store to sell a tee shirt with Roberts’s face and the word “coward” below above it. Here’s a picture of the shirt, on sale for a mere $30:

By Ali Gharib on Jun 29, 2012 at 1:22 pm

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.”

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