A Fire Line for The Blaze?

Last week, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze and Mercury Radio Arts announced a 20% cut in staff. Many critics take schadenfreude at this cost cutting moving for the six year old trans-media company.  Beck felt compelled to can his longtime friend Mike Opelka (a.k.a. “Stuntbrain”) who had been hosting during the weekday 12pm-3PM and Saturday morning slot.  Despite the venom spewing from MAGA critics and liberal cynics, this does not spell the end of Beck’s alterative media venture, but is certainly a setback.  As Beck’s platforms undergo an agonizing reappraisal, it is worthwhile to make a Blaze-ing (sic) retrospective of the ventures.

For full discloser, this writer has been a subscriber to GBTV/The Blaze since its inception. While one ought to respect the integrity of Glenn Beck and appreciate his contributions to the media and political landscape, it does not preclude taking a critical eye or thinking for onself on issues.

Glenn Beck started a syndicated national radio program for Premiere Networks (the same group which syndicates Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity).  Beck started with a rodeo clown shock jock reputation. But after the terror attacks on 9/11, he took an increasingly serious interest in current events, albeit with a wry and emotional sensibility.

Beck got into television via a show on Headline News Network (a CNN channel) from January, 2006 to October, 2008.  As President Obama was being inaugurated in 2009, Glenn Beck Program premiered at 5 pm on Fox News.  It was there Beck achieved phenomenal ratings for his non-prime time slot as well as considerable controversy. Beck left Fox News in July, 2009 to start up his streaming television venture GBTV through Mercury Radio Arts which later morphed into “The Blaze TV”.

"Waffle Face" John Kerry

Glenn Beck has not shied away from taking political stands which ruffle feathers and are not in lock step with his supposed side.  Despite prominently promoting “W”’s re-election in 2004 (the John Kerry Waffle Head bit was memorable), Beck seemed to become dissuaded with President Bush after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the confirmation of Beck’s libertarian sensibilities. After President Obama assumed office in 2009, Beck posited that Obama had racist tendencies as displayed by his reactions Henry Louis Gates arrest. During the run up to the wide open Republican Presidential Primaries in the 2016 election, Beck was charry about candidate Donald Trump and the articulation of nationalist politics. This evolved into becoming an anti/never-Trumper which persisted through the General Election. Of course, the stunt in which  Beck and his posse doing Cheetos facials further stoked the ire of many MAGA loyalists.



 One of the major motivation of establishing alternative media platforms was to ensure that an unadulterated message could reach an audience.  While Beck maintains that he left Fox News on good terms (and continued to appear for years on The O’Reilly Factor, Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson Tonight), Beck was steered away from focusing on some subjects and encouraged to tone things down on his own show.  Beck worries about the potential of government censorship (e.g. a re-application of “The Fairness Doctrine”) as well as corporate steering of topics.

Orson Welles’ meteoric multi-media career in the 1930s served as an inspiration for Glenn Beck’s multi-valiant media ventures through Mercury Radio Arts, including “GBTV/The Blaze”, “Blaze Radio”, “The Blaze” website, Mercury publishing, stage appearances, films, music and charity.  The streaming television part of the media empire started in 2011 with an eponymous name and anchored by a simulcast of the three hour radio program along with an extended Glenn Beck TV program.  Beck sought to de-emphasize his imprint by assuming the moniker “The Blaze” (a reference to how fire burns to the truth).  A year later, The Blaze Radio began, which featured different radio hosts (beginning with Doc Thompson and Jay Severin, later Buck Sexton, Mike Opelka and Chris Salcedo).  There are also several regular radio shows which are available for podcast.

The Blaze TV was one of the first successful paid streaming television ventures, using MLB Advanced Media technology for a great picture, whether on a mobile device or a large screen HDTV. While NewsMax and One America Network have made strides in cable carriage, arguably neither have made a major media impact.  Ventures like PJTV and SarahPalinChannel have withered and died, failing to monetize ideological video on the web.  But CRTV venture seems much stronger than PJTV, including the originator Mark Levin, Michelle Malkin and Stephen Crowder.

Glenn Beck has proven to have a good eye in spotting and developing media talent. The Blaze TV’s first hire was Amy Holmes. Beck developed Buck Sexton into an accomplished radio host and television commentator (though Sexton’s TV simulcast was short lived).  A Dana Loesch producer Lawrence Jones was lifted to the media spotlight and given his own radio show, along with commentator appearances on other networks. And The Blaze TV gave then 23 year old Tomi Lerhen her own show, in which she catapulted into the conservative commentator stratosphere, until she was terminated for being inconsistent about her so called conservative views favoring abortion.

The Blaze TV has mainly relied upon a subscription internet model, although it is also available as a premium channel on Dish TV satellite and Verizon’s FIOS cable.  Mercury Radio Arts made serious enquiries about buying Current TV (Al Gore’s channel)  in 2013 and was rumored to buy its successor Al Jazeera America, the latter which Glenn Beck vehemently denied.

The Blaze TV was based in Dallas, Texas but the Real News roundtable and later Buck Sexton’s radio/TV show was produced in Manhattan. The Blaze also had an office in Washington, DC.

As a media venture The Blaze TV is challenged by limited conventional carriage issues. During the kerfluffle on fairness in presenting the 2016 Republican debates, The Blaze TV made a strong pitch to host a GOP debate . Obviously, the move was intended to attract attention and prospectively earn wider cable carriage. But this did not happen, which may have in part been due to the never-Trump reputation of Glenn Beck and the networks.

As for “The Blaze Radio”, the programming mainly has been distributed as live streaming as well as via podcasts (e.g. I-Tunes, Stitcher et ali) and I-Heart Radio (Clear Channel). There was a still born endeavor, which The Blaze Radio would have channels with regional news/traffic focus (e.g. Philadelphia), but that was a short term one off. As Buck Sexton went off to his own syndicated show, The Blaze Radio adapted and started to carry his early evening show live.

 For four years, The Blaze Radio had its own channel on Sirius/XM, which was eventually demoted to a streaming sub channel before it was terminated in 2017).  For several years, The Blaze Radio provided top of the hour news updates for a couple of Sirius/XM talk channels.  The Blaze website was intended to be a center for up to date news, which would feature positive takes on faith and some feel good stories. The website has not been as successful as Breitbart and developed a poor reputation of appearing cluttered and simply “click bait”.

Although Beck has strived not to make his media ventures, his shadow looms large on the various ventures.  The original concept for his TV show was to eventually involve viewer interactivity, in which a viewer could pause a program to search prior shows about unfamiliar concepts before returning.  Alas that is an idea which Beck is again slightly ahead of the curve. Starting out, GBTV/The Blaze was intended to be a streaming TV netlet with a strong news emphasis (such as the nightly one hour Real News), investigative journalism (For the Record), wholesome afternoon kids show (Liberty Treehouse), simulcast of Beck’s radio program and his extended TV program along with original entertainment shows (Independence USA).

Obviously, some media concepts fall flat, such as a survivalist reality TV show.  Other programs like afternoon educational kids programming reveal there is a small market.  And then there’s the gorilla in the room, the costly nature of producing quality news programs.  That being said, a fair portion of upheaval in programming comes from shifts in The Blaze driving force’s priorities.

Beck knew that it was costly to produce quality news, but wanted to be recognized as a legitimate news network. When the nightly news round table folded, The Blaze TV went to great lengths to produce investigative journalism.  But those shows seemed to have abruptly ended.

Another impetus of The Blaze has been to educate the audience.  While on Fox News, Founder’s Friday proved to be wildly popular.  Beck sought to replicate that last season with a twice weekly “The Vault” (showing history artifacts while telling the story) and “HIStory” (an extended historical bio show). In addition, Beck produced cross platform serial segments on history. But that programming seemed abandoned mid season.

Beck has shilly shallied from being a conservative political activist to a libertarian contrarian and now seems despondent at the course of current events. In the 2016 election cycle, The Blaze Radio hosted commentary shows after many of the Presidential debates. As mentioned, Mercury Radio Arts wanted to fairly host a GOP debate in Dallas.  Judging from Beck’s current commentary, he seems to want to guide the network away from partisan bickering where you can find everywhere else in the media. That is wise, but apparently educational news that you can use or extended format history segments are not profitable for The Blaze.

The current layoffs were not the first significant downsizing with The Blaze ventures. In 2016, Mercury Radio Arts laid off 40 people and shuttered their New York City and DC offices. Beck rued the bloat in which he felt was becoming a money pit that was out of control. Beck also wanted to revamp The Blaze website, that he regrets had just become “click-bait”

Glenn Beck's Man on the Moon (2013)

While it is foolish to believe that everyone employed at The Blaze are Beck’s automatons, Beck does exert an extraordinary influence the direction of the venture. The Blaze seems to have backed off on small enterprise live spot advertising (aside from the self owned realty group). . Moreover, there has been a de-emphasis on 1791 clothing, music, publishing. And there has been a lack of live shows, whether they are comedy tours, artistic events (like Man on the Moon in 2013) and public affairs gatherings (e.g. Restoring Honor, Restoring Love). Perhaps these ventures took away from Mercury Radio Arts core competencies or were too difficult to do well, but these changes reflect Beck’s constantly shifting priorities.

The Blaze TV’s programming has seen several shifts: 1) full service streaming netlet 2) educational news you can use 3) supplementing personal conservatarian activism 4) current events source 5) less partisan programming featuring radio simulcasts. These constant shifts hurt network branding and positioning.

Some of the programming choices seem like friendly personal predilections, such as “The Wonderful World of Stu” and "Pat and Stu".  It will be interesting to see if Pat Gray can live up to his billing of being a crack radio host on his own during mid-day radio prime time.  In mid-September, Mercury Radio Arts is conducting an all-hands-on-deck meeting which, in the interests of opacity, will be released in a podcast, to flesh out the direction of the networks.

Glenn Beck is convinced that media is at a pivot point and that traditional networks are a dying breed of media dinosaurs. As predicted in 2011, The Blaze has been ahead of the media curve and was wise to employ a multi-media and trans media approach to find out what works. Despite alienating some Trump-eteers and mockery from the mainstream media, Beck has developed a loyal audience for his streaming network. The Blaze's mission statement is to "change the world for the better". But increasing those eyeballs requires integrity and a sustained vision. The latter quality may mark a fire line for The Blaze in setting the world on fire with truth in order to make the world better.

Media Maelstrom In DirecTV Suspending Weather Channel Carriage

DirecTV, the nation’s largest satellite television provider, has suspended carriage of NBC/Universal’s The Weather Channel over a contract dispute.   This DirecTV disruption takes away 18% of The Weather Channel’s normal viewer base.

The Weather Channel had been garnering 13 cents a subscriber per month and TWC was negotiating for a 1 cent increase whereas DirecTV wanted to cut the carriage cost by 75%, supposedly to make up for local carriage costs.

Rather than frame the carriage kerfluffle as a business to business dispute, The Weather Channel President David Clark  framed it as a public safety problem.  The Weather Channel urged customers to contact Congress to intervene in the dispute.  Hours after The Weather Channel was pulled from DirecTV, TWC announced a new initiative to bolster its status as a public utility, by promoting Twitter hashtags such as #gotfuel, #nofuel and #powerlinedown.  These public service internet announcements by TWC follow the direction of the White House, FEMA and the Department of Energy.

For its part, DirecTV added WeatherNation on channel 361 as a substitute weather station.  WeatherNation was created in 2010 after a prior carriage dispute with The Weather Channel.  DirecTV has promised to activate temporary emergency weather channel as warranted (e.g. for a major hurricane).  However, DirecTV points out that in an age of mobile telephony, many weather watchers get their updates via their cell phones and mobile devices.  Furthermore, The Weather Channel has added reality television programs which may increase viewership but seemingly distracts from their supposed public service and information mission.

As the carriage contract dispute continues, The Weather Channel CEO Danny Kenny stiltedly stated: "I am shocked they have put corporate profits ahead of keeping a trusted channel.. We are not looking for a large fee increase. I am hopeful DirecTV will come to their senses soon."  What a way to treat a broadcast partner–  demand a fee increase, muddy your opponent and then threaten to have Big Brother intervene.

The Weather Channel  also trashed WeatherNation as being "a cheap start-up that does weather forecasting on a three-hour taped loop, has no field coverage, no weather experts."  The Weather Channel is right to be worried about competition.  The same day that DirecTV dropped TWC, Accuweather announced its previously secret plan to launch its own weather channel in the third quarter of 2014.  And in October, 2014, Network Weather Channel, which bills itself as having legendary personalities, is set to premiere with easy to read maps 24/7 and no programming.  

Prior to the DirecTV dispute, the Weather Channel bragged at it was in 80% of American households.  But with the  an array of forthcoming competition,  The Weather Channel seems intent to protect its position by ingratiating itself with Uncle Sam to be considered like a public utility with an exclusive on weather.

While I do not dispute that The Weather Channel’s forecast as being as accurate as any other professional methodologist, the quality and necessity of The Weather Channel’s products is dubious.  I read a recent link for the “50 Worst Traffic Cities in the US” on weather.com.  Even though the weather nexus was questionable, it sparked enough curiosity to click through the  pictorial piece with 50 photos and brief log lines. 

It was astounding to see to see the  the questionable quality from a professional website as illustrated on the Worst Traffic Cities article.  In the brief descriptions of locations, there were some glaring misspelling, like Seattle driers (drivers), declaring Austin as the state capitol (that’s a building, not the seat of government) and “The Queen City” of Cincinatti (sic).  But some of the photos were wrong.  For instance, Washington, DC’s traffic jam depicted Rosslyn (Arlington) Virgina, which is across the river.  The traffic jams in Tampa was illustrated via the bridge over Tampa Bay.  My favorite photo flub was showing traffic snarls in Orlando by showing a people moving walkway at Universal Orlando (synchronicity for TWC cross-promoting another NBC/Universal entity).  

From weather.com 50 Worst Traffic Cities  (photo: Flickr/Kamoteus)

Of the ten most popular articles on weather.com, six of them had nothing to do with the weather.  The most egregious article was a Chinese theme park which built an attraction about the sinking of the Titanic. So much for quality control and public service.  

Then there is The Weather Channel’s programming.  Most of the shows had a tenuous connection to weather, such as:  Coast Guard Alaska, Prospectors and Highway Thru Hell.  While these shows might not prompt a dedicated viewer to self-inflict a lobotomy, it is a hard sell to promote TWC prime time as being a public service. 

While John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel, labeled global warning as the greatest scam in history, TWC has evolved since NBC/Universal purchased the channel in 2008.  NBC has a history of pushing green through broadcast. Recall Live Earth in 2007, when NBC networks gave 75 hours to proselytize the Gospel of Gore.  The Weather Channel sticks to politically correct conclusions that the so called “polar vortex” is connected to global warming.  It sounds like PC agenda journalism.

The Weather Channel’s public service play and campaign to coerce Congress into action stinks of crony capitalism and foreshadows the dangers of the government picking winners and losers in the marketplace.   It is unlikely that all four televised meteorological stations will broadcast for long together.  But the prospective competition may lead to a price war which lowers carriage rates.  Those channels offering the most appealing programming and with the most savvy business sense should flourish if there still is a free marketplace, that is if there is still a free marketplace. 




If DirecTV is doing a cost/value analysis, they might want to reconsider their carriage of supposed news networks.  While CNN’s foray into programming no longer makes it the place for news and MSNBC acts like the DNC, it might be time to have an agonizing reappraisal of Al Jazeera America.  What is the viewership?  How much control on content comes from Qatar?   Perhaps the satellite provider would be better served by carrying The Blaze TV and making many dedicated customers happy. 

Al Jazeera America Begins Broadcasting

Al Jazeera America (AJAM), a division of the Doha based global media empire owned by the royal family of Qatar began broadcasting in 48 million American cable and satellite households. In January 2013, Al Jazeera acquired the assets of Current TV for a reported $400 million (of which Al Gore is thought to have pocketed $100 million).  Current TV's most important asset was carriage on most cable and satellite services. Time Warner Cable, which has franchises in New York City and Los Angeles, immediately pulled the plug on Current TV upon the announcement of the sale to Al Jazeera. 

Al Jazeera America hopes to distinguish itself by unbiased news, compelling story telling, long-form journalism, American focused but leveraging Al Jazeera's world-wide resources. Al Jazeera America will have twelve American news bureaus, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington DC, Detroit (surprising that it's not Dearborn), Miami and Nashville.   And Al Jazeera will have fewer commercials, showing only six minutes per hour compared with 15 minutes with other cable channels. 

Some of Al Jazeera America's promotional propaganda requires parsing.  Al Jazeera America may cite the hunger of American audiences for unbiased news, but it is worth remembering that Al Jazeera was Usama bin Laden's favorite channel for releasing unfiltered messages. Language used when referring to news events may jaundice the aspiration to be unbiased.  For example, are Islamist suicide bombers referred to as martyrs? What about news that does not jibe with the Qatari Al Thami royal family's international interests?  Per Bloomberg, the Qatari emiate "lent" Egypt $8 billion after the Arab Spring overthrow of ex-Egyptian President Hosni Murbarak, but a score of Al Jazeera employees quit over what they characterized as the biased coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood.

New Al Jazeera anchor Ali Veshi insisted in a Maclean's interview that the new network will aspire to give unbiased news:

I think we have created a world in which extreme views push out moderate views... We are going to put the resources behind commercializing real news. We are going to track those people who are NPR listeners, who watch BBC America. They exist. And we're going after them with real resources. The reason that dumbed-down news has prevailed is because there's a lot of money in producing it. And it's ubiquitous.

Former journalists from Al Jazeera have expressed concerns that the Qatari government is exerting undue pressure upon Al Jazeera journalists to further its political interests.  Former Al Jazeera Berlin correspondent Aktham Suliman has said:

You notice with these cases that it involves governments who have fallen out of favor with Qatar's rulers. Libya, Syria and Yemen, for example. Other countries like Jordan and Bahrain are experiencing similar phenomena - rebellion and protest against their ruling classes. But there's far less reporting on them. You'll notice how that corresponds to the state of Qatar's foreign policy. This is a very serious issue, because we at Al Jazeera were always proud to say: We're financed by Qatar, but the state never interferes with our reporting. Now we suddenly find ourselves in a situation in which our reporting is precisely aligned with Qatari foreign policy.

A discerning news consumer knows that it is impossible to get unbiased news coverage, but one must account for their weltanschaaung and be aware of their bias. Some corporate interests like  G.E. (or Comcast)  powered NBC, or the Mouse House served ABC's interest influence coverage.  Even conservatives are chary of Fox News Channel because News Corps increased 18.5% interest in the Rotana  media entity owned by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. So it is incumbent for news consumers to account for being educated by an Emirate which has been hands on in tweaking the reportage. 

 Long-story reporting is a rarity among American news networks but if so called journalists serve as stenographers for their favored sources, it is simply propaganda.  For instance, during the Israeli incursions into Lebanon in 2006, Israel was initially condemned for bombing an ambulance.  But it was later shown that the incident was a hoax, but not before long-form reporting got out the propaganda.  Or consider the a heart wrenching candlelight march in Gaza.  But will Al Jazeera America appreciate that the Gaza government might have deliberately cut the power to dramatize the issue?

As Al Jazeera America began broadcasting, their headlines were: Turmoil in Egypt; School Shooting Outside Atlanta; Wildfires in the West; and the New Span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge.  But their website had other interesting deviations.  For example, the lead story was an accusation of widespread overuse of mind altering anti-malarial drugs at Guantanimo Bay  a feature about  U.S. soldier Staff Sgt. Bates who was convicted of a massacre in Afghanistan who is seeking a reduction of his life sentence and a headline that the CIA admitted involvement with the overthrow of the Iranian government in 1953.  Is that dogged reportage or catering to an Islamist audience?

It is amusing to dissect Al Jazeera America's brag that they are only broadcasting six minutes of commercials an hour.  Might this be because the fledgling network can't sell commercial time?  It's not a total commercial blackout as Gillette and Vonage has been in heavy rotation 

There are lots of promos for Al Jazeera America to fill the time.  But to be fair, this was not uncommon with cable news networks which have not gained the approbation of Madison Avenue.  Fox News Channel was still showing Miss Cleo ads in 2000.  Moreover, when opponents of Glenn Beck's old FNC 5 PM show, major advertisers pulled out so there were more Goldline ads.  

Al Jazeera America is seeking to have a distinctive visual aesthetic during their 14 hours a day of live programming.  In the Al Jazeera America's New York Studios, the camera shots offer a full body shot of the anchors standing before large 10 foot video screen when not sitting behind the brushed metal desk.  Alas, the picture does not look as stunning through DirectTV as it is only a standard definition picture which looks somewhat fuzzy on a large screen television.  Another quirk of Al Jazeera America's news ticker is the time shown.  The network premiered at 4 PM ET, but the Al Jazeera ticker indicated 23.00 ET, which might be right for Doha  but not GMT which is often an international standard.

Al Jazeera America has tried to buy credibility by attracting some well known names in broadcast journalism.  Soledad O'Brien  was lured from NBC to do special reports for Al Jazeera America.  The flagship show, America Tonight, will be hosted by long-time CNN alumna Joie Chen.  Al Jazeera America's financial show Real Money will be hosted by former CNN chief business correspondent Ali Veshi. A weeknight talk show Consider This will be hosted by former ABC News correspondent Antonio Mora. And don't forget about former CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and Current TV anchor David Shuster, who will now host a show on Al Jazeera America.  

 To a conservative news junkie's ears in the District of Calamity (sic), these names sound like C List reporters, some of whom give a nodding name recognition but seemingly not remarkable reporters.  It's too bad that ESPN re-hired Keith Olbermann, as Al Jazeera America sounds like a refuge for misfit reporters. But Olbermann's sports reincarnation has just begun. But could the former King of Countdown take having his opinion influenced by the Qatari powers that be lest Olbermann himself become "The Worst Person in the World."?

Al Jazeera America also gained some prime studio space in the nation's capital at the Newseum.  When ABC's This Week moved back to the ABC DC Bureau for its once a month show with Martha Radditz, Al Jazeera America moved into the Newseum.  It is unknown how much  Al Jazeera America pays for the privilege of being at the Newseum, but when a network is backed by an oil rich emirate, ordinary economics of news gathering are inapplicable. 

Al Jazeera America is not the only new news network which is vying for space on the digital TV dial.  Glenn Beck's The Blaze TV has been seeking to get carriage on more cable and satellite services along with the subscription streaming internet medium.  Glenn Beck welcome Al Jazeera America as the voice of [Sunni] Terrorists. The Blaze Network used the occasion of Al Jazeera America's premiere as a day of action to promote more carriage. 

One America News  launched on July 4th 2013.  One America News is a joint project between San Diego based Herring Broadcasting and the Washington Times. One America News seeks to fill the libertarian, independent and conservative views on the news.  It is struggling with carriage issues but One America News can be watched via livestream.

As for Al Jazeera America, their aspiration to be unbiased journalists will be tested with their coverage of the so called Million American March (a.k.a. the Million Muslim March) on Washington set for September 11th, 2013 as well as how Al Jazeera America treats coverage with the turmoil in Egypt and the Syrian Civil War.  In the early going, Al Jazeera America seemed like a somnolent Sunni version of CNN.  Such an impression might not boost ratings, but ratings (or advertising dollars) may not be the ultimate goal of Al Jazeera America.