Lord Voldemort's "Minister for Magic" arrested? Scotland Yard posts bobbies outside 221B Baker Street? President Obama considers pardoning Hugh Grant? Faux News denies the existence of England?
Parliament's criticism of Murdoch may spell the end of his UK business, but in his News Corp stronghold he remains secure
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Fifty years from now, historians may reflect back on this period of American media history and compare Rupert Murdoch to William Randolph Hearst and Glenn Beck with Father Charles Coughlin.
Beyond the whole Media Matters campaign targeting Beck's advertisers (READ MORE), I believe there's another reason for the show's dramatic drop in viewership.
Recently, I sat down and watched a Beck rerun on Faux News. Instead of focusing on the show's conservative political flavor, I stepped backed & evaluated how the various manufactured visual elements were formulated to tell a story. Honestly, the show itself resembled a poorly constructed, G-rated version of "Swimming to Cambodia" (i.e. without all the juicy sex, drugs & rock-n-roll). Monologues, as a dramatic element, should contain some deeper level of "self-discovery". What I witnessed was an extended verbal diatribe of rhetorical self-aggrandizing behavior. In a word: BORING. Yes, despite his rather radical political views, at the end of the day, P.T. Beck lost his SOAP BOX because the show itself was (dramatic pause) BORING.
Swimming To Cambodia DVD
“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
~ Sinclair Lewis
(Nobel Prize in Literature 1930)
It Can't Happen Here (Paperback)
