I had no problems with Beck when he was CNN. I watched him almost every night.
Then he went to Fox News and appealed to their audience. There is a vast difference between CNN's audience (mostly moderates and independents) than Fox's audience (far righties), so Beck had to get weirder to appeal to the Fox News crowd. It took awhile but the weirder he got the less I watched him.
At CNN, with the restrictions CNN put on him, his ratings were in the toilet with everybody else. When he came to Fox, he was allowed to do the show he wanted to do, and his ratings eclipsed EVERYBODY else at CNN and MSNBC and HLN combined in his time slot and he beat everybody else at those networks in whatever time slots.
He didn't get 'wierd' to accommodate a Fox audience. A Fox audience doesn't tolerate 'wierd' very well nor does it tolerate cherry picked information from any ideology very well. They do appreciate good research and information you can't get anywhere ele. Fox provides that and Beck provided it in spades.
Beck never suggested anybody ought to believe anything just because he said it though. He points people to the same sources he used to develop his thesis for every program and encouraged them check it out themselves and draw their own conclusions.
He would not have been allowed to do that at CNN.
Fear not, Ravs, (start Terminator voice) he'll be back.
Good post Foxfyre. Beck's health ( "may go blind within a year" ) and stress levels may have contributed to the demise of his program as well. He will have much less stress in his upcoming spots on Fox, and I look forward to watching them. I think he is a great American who has brought us news and information relative to events before they happened and has shared much of his research with his colleagues which they have used. I think he wants to spend some time just enjoying his life and his family, that he treasures. He knows the true meaning of happiness, for himself. "Beware the barrenness of a busy life"
