One of the writers at Pam’s House Blend suggests that Glenn Beck’s show on Fox News Channel has dwindled to just 4:30 of revenue-producing ads per hour, compared to an industry standard of 22 minutes per hour. If that were true, cancellation would seem imminent.
For those who wish to see Beck’s paranoid rants exiled to local public-access channels, the revenue-ad claim may prove to be overly optimistic.
A look at the cable TV shows for sale on iTunes suggests that many hour-long cable TV shows run 42-47 minutes with ads omitted — leaving just 13-18 minutes for a mix of revenue-producing ads and free plugs for the network’s own programming. Here are some examples:
- Bravo’s shows such as Top Chef tend to run 44 minutes. Much of the remaining 16 minutes consists of relentless Bravo ads for other network shows, mostly the obnoxious Housewives.
- Battlestar Galactica’s episodes on SyFy tended to run 43:30 in the final season. The remaining 16:30 included numerous ads for other network movies and shows such as Stargate.
- Mad Men on AMC runs 47:30 without commercials.
- Project Runway on Lifetime — available via torrents or the network’s web site — runs 42:40 with the remaining 17:20 occupied in part by ads for Lifetime’s admittedly frightful roster of shows.
So I suspect that industry standards vary — partly due to recession, and partly due to different standards on the different networks as well as the popularity of each show.
Glenn Beck may be crazy, but his show probably is not in imminent danger.
Not since Joe McCarthy shuffled off this mortal coil in 1957 has anyone made a career by accusing people of being communists. Glenn Beck has resurrected the practice. Not only has he found a cabal of secret communists, he has uncovered an entire communist corporation chock full of commies. The name of this company, you may ask?
THE NATIONAL BROADCASTING COMPANY!
You heard me right, boys and girls. The network that gave us Uncle Miltie and Ma Perkins has apparently been secretly sending subliminal messages endorsing Marxist doctrine since it was formed in 1926. This would make perfect sense to me. Every time I watched the Rockford Files I had an unexplainable desire to read Das Kapital. But seriously, folks. Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, red baiting not only seems silly, it’s also kind of nuts. It’s not-at-all surprising that an organization would give this idiot a forum (after all, he’s on FOX Noise). What’s really stunning is the fact that his ratings are relatively high and that so many Americans take his word as gospel.
All kidding aside, half-witted ideologues are a dime a dozen. What separates Glenn Beck from his peers is the fact that he is doing some serious damage to the country he professes to love so much. For all of the comparisons to the Nazis he likes to make with respect to Liberals, Beck’s program has much in common with Adolf Hitler’s 1923 screed, Mein Kampf. Eighty-six years ago, Hitler attempted to arouse the anger of his fellow Germans by spouting half truths and utter nonsense – exactly what Glenn Beck is doing in 2009. So much of the insane dialogue that has been spewed forth at these Town Hall meetings across the country in recent weeks might have been lifted straight from a transcript of Beck’s program.
Beck and his strange ilk have done the impossible. They have deflected the blame for America’s current economic distress from where it should be aimed toward a man who is trying to clean up the mess that was created – in large part – by people like Glenn Beck. They have also let loose with a vengeance the very worst angels of the American nature. Opening Pandora’s box was relatively easy. Closing it might prove to be a bit of a problem.
http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com
Tom Degan
Goshen, NY