Hard Times For Beck And Palin

Things are not going too well for wannabe-political leader and second-rate TV personality Glenn Beck these days. There has recently been a move to put pressure on Fox News advertisers to refuse to advertise on Beck's TV show, and it's looking like the move is being pretty successful.

Currently over 103 companies have withdrawn their advertising from the show, and the list grows longer with each passing day. Among the latest companies to join the advertising boycott are Anheuser-Busch, Allstate Insurance, Idaho Potato Commission, Marriott International, Western Union and Volkswagen.

Jeff Flaherty, spokesman for Marriott International said, "We do not intend to have any additional ad placements during the program. I'd like to point out that diversity and inclusion are core values at Marriott and an essential component of our success." None of these companies want their good corporate name tarred by Beck's racist and fringe views.

Things are even worse for Beck in Great Britain, where his show also airs. While the show that preceeds his and the show that follows his both seem to have no trouble selling and airing commercials, Beck's show can't seem to sell even a single commercial. For the last six days in a row the show has been aired without any commercials. They have been cutting to news spots to fill the commercial slots.

I know Rupert Murdoch loves his right wing politics, but I have to wonder how much longer he's going to stick with Beck who has to be messing with the bottom line profits of Fox News. Shows that can't sell any commercials don't just not make any money -- they actually cost the company money (from salaries and other production costs).

If things keep getting worse for Beck (and that's a distinct possibility), I'll bet Murdoch will find another right-winger for Beck's time slot -- one that's a lot less offensive.

Meanwhile, things aren't going all that great for Sarah Palin either. I've discussed on this blog how the latest polls show Palin's popularity is still dropping, and currently rests around 37%. It looks like the more people see of Palin, the more her greed and very shaky qualifications come shining through.

At her latest speaking stop, in the very conservative state of Arkansas, it was expected she would have a sellout crowd. But that was not to be. In the Verizon Arena, which has 18,000 seats (not a lot as arenas go), the lower tier of seating was only about half full and the upper tier had no one at all (it was closed off with curtains).

That has to be a huge disappointment for Palin, who thinks she's a superstar!