Keith Olbermann challenges Beck in 2009
David Carr writing in The New York Times:
Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox — a greater percentage drop than other hosts at Fox. True, he fell from the great heights of the health care debate in January 2010, but there has been worrisome erosion — more than one million viewers — especially in the younger demographic.
He still has numbers that just about any cable news host would envy and, with about two million viewers a night, outdraws all his competition combined. But the erosion is significant enough that Fox News officials are willing to say — anonymously, of course; they don’t want to be identified as criticizing the talent — that they are looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck.
Beck's ratings fizzle has been unfolding over at the last year; we wrote about it last April at least twice. And as Carr aptly conveys, it's well-known that Beck's show has become a tiresome bore, an excruciating monotone of insane conspiracy theorizing, but the fact that Fox execs are finally taking notice and are looking for ways to get him off the air is a new and welcome sign.
The important thing here is not that this development says anything good about Fox; it's that it shows even Fox isn't immune to external pressure.
Beck isn't falling entirely of his own weight: he's falling because people across the political spectrum have spoken out against (and hilariously mocked) his toxic rants, and if and when he's off the air, those who have been battling him day in and day out ought to take a bow.