Paranoia Always has a Home
By Wink
Glenn Beck is leaving FOX. You would expect me to be celebratory about this. I am not. Frankly, I don’t care one way or another.
I was always mystified how such a loopy character could command the $20+ million that FOX was always willing to pay him. He did have an enormous audience for the longest time. His audience is shrinking, but is still huge.
His blend of bizarre paranoia and crocodile-tear filled ‘concern’ for the future of our country obviously struck a chord with those who weren’t bothered by his tenuous grasp of the facts surrounding the founding of America, and equally shaky understanding of everything that has happened since..
According to Glenn, everything, everything is a conspiracy. The only non-conspirators, in the whole history of the country, were the founding fathers. They were, in his eyes, flawless… (The ‘flawless founders’ idea, all by itself, begs for closer examination, but not if examination would interfere with yet another conspiracy theory)
But hey, it’s a free market economy. If people buy it, Beck will sell it… and people bought it huge. Good for him.
One thing I know for sure, Glenn will always have a radio show, and will continue to make insane amounts of money in that venue.
Crazy-talk radio is as hot as ever. Radio gave up on mass-marketing long ago, and now almost all radio talk shows are niche-marketed.
In any big town, if you can lock up 12% of the radio listeners, you will be on that station forever. It matters not WHAT you talk about, the stations will fight over you.
There is a sports niche. There is a Spanish-language niche. There is a conspiracy niche.
The conspiracy niche is bigger than 12% of the population. How else can you explain the (much larger) percent of people who STILL don’t believe President Obama was born in Hawaii? Sure, a certain percent are just racists who cannot stand the idea of a black president, but a separate, non-racist percent, are simply so stupid they can’t/won’t accept obvious evidence that proves them wrong.
Beck knows this, and plays to this audience.
Glenn, do me a favor. Please go on your show and tell people that the Winkest Link blog is a part of the conspiracy. I really don’t care WHICH conspiracy. Your fans will believe it, whatever it is…..
