On 8/30/2010 2:11 PM, Dennis Claxton wrote:
> At 11:07 AM 8/30/2010, Alan Rudy wrote:
>
>
>> Seems pretty clear that, on top of declining viewership
>> and advertiser's, this thing's shot its wad... even if there are sure
>> to be
>> residual and uneven effects down the road.
>
>
> Even when Beck's viewership was up, fewer people were watching him
> than watch South Park, and far far fewer than watch Sponge Bob.
Sorry, but this really sounds obtuse. Glen Beck's show, if I understand correctly, is one where a man sits and discourses for an hour on politics, history, and the nefarious web connecting Woodrow Wilson to Bob Avakian (or whatever). This show gets 2 million viewers a day. Let me ask you, Dennis, how many viewers or listeners does your favorite far-left political broadcast get? This is the best you can come up with - that Beck has fewer viewers than South Park? Why not compare it unfavorably to the Twilight movies or the series finale of M.A.S.H.?
If the LBO-Talk People's Action Front got 100,000 to Washington for a rally whose theme was not some pressing single-issue but rather affirmation for a general left-wing ideology, I would say it was a really impressive achievement. That could only happen under conditions where American politics as a whole were shifting pretty sharply to the left. Beck's rally signifies a sharp shift to the right. I didn't buy Chip Berlet's hyperventilating about the TP, but I don't buy this whistle-past-the-graveyard line according to which it's always "pretty clear this thing's shot its wad."
SA