by admin on March 22, 2011
Fox News Senior Vice President Joel Cheatwood is reportedly set to leave the network to join Glenn Beck’s media company, but a source close to the situation says that the executive has been reduced to little more than Beck’s “babysitter.”
Mediaite reported Monday that Cheatwood was set to join Beck’s Mercury Radio Arts in a move that suggests Beck may have “much bigger and more innovative plans [around his TV future] than anyone had previously thought.” The report comes as Beck’s future with Fox News remains in doubt, and is one major indication that he and the network may part ways.
But despite Mediaite’s characterization of Cheatwood as a “Fox News bigwig,” a source close to the situation claims that Cheatwood has been marginalized at Fox News, saying that he already spends most of his time at Mercury and is only seen at Fox News HQ when Beck’s show is taping. The source also told the Huffington Post that Cheatwood’s contract with Fox News expires in the next few weeks, and that the network was not planning to renew it.
Cheatwood has been a close associate of Beck’s since the two were both at HLN, CNN’s sister station, where Cheatwood helped create Beck’s first, pre-Fox News show. He has also become one of Fox News’ primary spokesmen for Beck in the media.
The source also speculated that the report came originally from Chris Balfe, the head of Mercury.
“Chris Balfe is playing a dangerous game with Roger Ailes,” the source said.
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by admin on March 21, 2011
Lawrence O’Donnell said that his recent criticisms of Glenn Beck are “driving [him] crazy.”
O’Donnell and Beck have been engaged in something of a war of words lately. On Thursday, O’Donnell played clips of Beck talking about the Book of Revelation, saying that it was written so “you would know…in these days, these things will happen.” Beck was discussing the crisis in Japan. Referring to the catastrophe there, he said, “I don’t know if it’s these days.”
This had seemed a tad doom-and-gloom for O’Donnell, and he mocked Beck for the comments. On Friday, Beck responded on his radio show. He played a clip of O’Donnell’s Thursday show.
“Gosh, he’s bad,” Beck said, saying that he agreed that the world was not coming to an end. “That’s not what the Book of Revelation talks about,” he said.
O’Donnell took great pleasure in Beck’s “agreement” with him, and played the clip three times.
“And there you have television history,” O’Donnell said. “It came in an area where Beck feels safest: his religious beliefs.” He said that Beck was falsely portraying himself as a Biblical literalist.
“The Bible, in its entirety…is not believed by any sane person,” O’Donnell said, going on to dissect parts of the book that he said Beck must not believe, and thus implying that Beck was not being serious in his discussion of the Book of Revelation.
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