Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Sen. John McCain’s, has blasted Glenn Beck.
First, on Fox:
And then on CNN, former Dick Cheney advisor Mary Matalin responds (claiming Beck is actually nonpartisan) to Graham’s comments — as does her husband, Democratic strategist warhorse James Carville (who does not mince words):
Beck is now one of the hottest political personalities on Fox News, getting huge ratings, but still losing advertisers. Although some predict Fox News’ owner Rupert Murdoch may eventually feel he has to pull the plug on Beck, it’s pretty unlikely at this point: his ratings are huge and growing so other parts of Fox News will likely benefit in terms of advertising since the ratings numbers are there. One problem for Beck is: in the unlikely event that he is canceled, just where would he go? He already has done CNN; MSNBC is unlikely to hire him and in the syndication market he could face boycotts akin to what Dr. Laura faced some years ago. Don’t hold your breath expecting Murdoch to give Beck the boot since he’s losing advertisers; he’s also picking up huge batches of viewers that boost the network’s overall ratings.
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Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.